كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية.

It is an idiomatic Egyptian Arabic expression for I wanted to, I wished to, or I felt like.

A rough breakdown is:

• كان = was
• نفسي = my self / my soul / my desire

But you should not translate it word-for-word. As a whole, كان نفسي + verb is a very common colloquial way to talk about a desire in the past.

So:

• كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية = I wanted to browse/leaf through the novel

Depending on context, it can also sound a little wistful, like I had wanted to or I wish I could have.

Usually, yes: كان puts the desire in the past.

So كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية often suggests:

• I wanted to browse the novel
• I had wanted to browse the novel
• sometimes I wish I could have browsed the novel

Very often, this structure carries a slight sense that the desire was not fulfilled, or at least that we are looking back on it. But that is not guaranteed purely by grammar; context decides.

Compare:

• نفسي اتصفح الرواية = I want / feel like browsing the novel
• كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية = I wanted / had wanted to browse the novel

There is no separate I because Arabic often leaves the subject pronoun out when it is already clear.

Here, first person is shown in two ways:

• نفسي = my self/desire
• اتصفح = first person singular verb form in colloquial spelling

So the sentence already clearly means I wanted to browse the novel.

You could add أنا for emphasis:

• أنا كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية

But it is not necessary.

Because Egyptian Arabic does not need an English-style infinitive here.

In English, you say:

• I wanted to browse

In Egyptian Arabic, after كان نفسي, you typically just use the verb directly:

• كان نفسي اتصفح

So اتصفح is doing the job that to browse does in English.

In more formal Arabic, you may see أن before the verb:

• كنت أود أن أتصفّح الرواية

But in everyday Egyptian, leaving that out is normal.

In casual Egyptian writing, the hamza on أ is often omitted.

So:

• اتصفح = informal everyday spelling
• أتصفّح = more careful spelling

They represent the same verb here.

This is very common in colloquial Arabic writing online, in texts, and in informal notes. The pronunciation still begins with an a sound, something like:

• atṣaffaḥ / atsaffaḥ

اتصفح means something like:

• browse through
• leaf through
• flip through
• skim through

It usually suggests looking through something quickly or casually, not reading every word carefully.

So it is different from:

• أقرا الرواية = read the novel

If you say:

• كان نفسي أقرا الرواية
  that means I wanted to read the novel

But:

• كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية
  suggests I wanted to look through it / flip through it / browse it

Yes. It comes from the verb تصفّح, which means to leaf through / browse.

In more formal grammar terms, this is a derived verb pattern, and in the first person singular it becomes:

• أتصفّح = I browse / I am browsing

In Egyptian colloquial spelling, that often appears as:

• اتصفح

You do not need to fully master the pattern to use the sentence, but it is useful to recognize that this is a normal verb, not a fixed expression.

Because الرواية means the novel, a specific novel that is known from the context.

• رواية = a novel
• الرواية = the novel

So the sentence is referring to a particular novel, not just any novel.

Also, اتصفح takes a direct object here, so no extra preposition is needed:

• اتصفح الرواية = browse the novel

Although it is written الرواية, it is pronounced with the l of الـ assimilated because ر is a sun letter.

So you will hear something like:

• er-rewāya
• or ir-riwāya

The exact vowels vary a bit by speaker and transcription style.

A helpful rough pronunciation for the whole sentence is:

• kān nafsi atsaffaḥ er-rewāya

The final ة in الرواية is pronounced like -a in normal Egyptian speech.

This is colloquial Egyptian.

Clues include:

• كان نفسي as an everyday spoken expression
• اتصفح written in informal colloquial style without the hamza
• the overall sentence structure, which sounds natural in speech

A more formal Modern Standard Arabic version would be something like:

• كنت أريد أن أتصفّح الرواية
• كنت أودّ أن أتصفّح الرواية

Those are more formal and less conversational than the Egyptian sentence.

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• نفسي اتصفح الرواية = I want / feel like browsing the novel
• كنت عايز اتصفح الرواية = I wanted to browse the novel
  
  • said by a male speaker
• كنت عايزة اتصفح الرواية = I wanted to browse the novel
  
  • said by a female speaker
• كان نفسي أبص في الرواية = I wanted to look through the novel

Each one has a slightly different tone:

• كان نفسي can sound a bit more emotional or wistful
• كنت عايز/عايزة is very common and straightforward
• أبص في is more like take a look through

So كان نفسي اتصفح الرواية is natural, idiomatic, and slightly expressive.