Comment by varispeed

That's not exactly correct. You can totally read whole sentences or paragraphs at once without having to piece individual words together.

I can give you an analogy that should hopefully help. If you look at a house, you don't look at the doors, windows, facade, roof individually, then ponder how they are related together to come to a conclusion that it is a house. You immediately know. This is similar with reading. It might require practice though (and a lot of reading!).