Very slow when selecting objects

Question

I have a problem with illustrator CS5. Whenever I select an object on the canvas by clicking on said object Illustrator freezes for a few seconds (showing me the spinner). This happens whether there is 1 object or 50 on the canvas so it certainly has nothing to do with the number of objects. Oddly, if I click on the canvas and drag-and-select objects this does not happen; they are selected immediately. Of course most of the times I forget this and have to wait constantly because I accidently selected an object directly, which is extremely annoying and almost to the point of unworkable.
Anybody got any ideas about how to solve this?
Sys specs:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X 10.6.7
2.66Ghz Intel Core i7
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Answer 1

Many reasons, to help narrow it down create a new document draw one lement and let us know if you have a slowdown.
Reset your preferences.
Cmd-Opt-Ctrl-Shift when restarting AI on a Mac or Alt-Crtl-Shift on a PC to reset to the defaults.
Flush Cache (Good for slowdown)
delete users\(username)\library\preferences\com.adobe.mediabrowser.plist
FONTS
Fo you have alot of fonts loaded. You may have a corrupt font. Close any you do nto use often
Permissions
Run applications >> utilities >> disk utility and repair permissions.
Ram
Run applications >> utilities >> system profiler and check the status of your ram and hard drive
HUH Error
If the test you did in the beginining returned your computer to a speedy apce, search the forums for HUH error.
OnyX
Download onyx from apples site for your OS version and do the cleaning tab.