Become a faster reader?

Dave!

Hey folks,

I have a serious problem: I'm a slow reader

Okay it's not a terribly serious problem!

But I really do struggle to get through books, it takes me a long long time.

I'm mainly interested in non-fiction books, for example I'm reading Steven Pinker's book 'The Blank Slate' at the moment. It's arguing against the idea that we're born 'blank', and it's mainly our environment that shapes us (but rather, he argues, our genes).

So when I'm reading, I'm trying to absorb the information, and hopefully learn something! Which is different (at least for me...) to reading fiction, where I just want to enjoy the story.

I also have to read books for college, and I rarely do because it takes so much time for me.

Has anyone got any tips for improving my reading speed? Anybody had this problem and overcome it? Or not?

Cheers.

Proxy

I tend to have this problem too. I used to have it a lot worse. When I was a kid I used to read a lot, and quite quickly, then with school/college/internet I tended to read less books and more magazines, sites and journals. I found when I read sites and magazines I scanned more and took in more information than if I read every word. However with journals and books, I found myself reading halfway down a page and realising I hadn't picked up the last two pages, and have to go back again.

Hence I blame reading sites and magazines for this "scanning" behaviour. So by concentrating more when reading books - like you, I prefer non-fiction - and taking in all the information, gradually your concentration level will go up and you'll find yourself back to your (I say, natural) form.

Part of it comes from maybe multitasking all the time too, the brain works faster and finds it harder to focus on one thing at one time. But, like I said, with reuse you can retrain yourself. Thats my story anyway, and i'm still working on it - trying to clear my "book inbox" right now

BossArky

I reckon part of the solution is just to read more. Don't conciously try to go through pages faster. Think more about the images in your head and suck up the words to paint more.

ojewriej

Dave! wrote: »

Has anyone got any tips for improving my reading speed? Anybody had this problem and overcome it? Or not?

There is a lot of exccersises that can improve your reading speed. Have a look at this article for a quick overview, and maybe some keywords that might help you with further research. They can be very effective actually, have a look at this video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/312079/worlds_fastest_reader/

But to be honest, I'd be carefull. These techniques tend to lower your understanding of the text - you can overcome it later too, but it's more work.

Plus reading really fast can be a pain in the ass as well. It's great in college for example, but when you read for pleasure, you tend to run out of books very quickly, which can be annoying when you are on holidays for example.

Dades

I think non-fiction books are always going to be a slower read, as the purpose is to absorb and understand the information. The heavier the subject the slower the read.

Much as I'd love to read Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation" I know it would take me a year, when instead I can have read a dozen great fiction/sci-fi books with the odd popular science book thrown in.

Life's just too short and there are too many books to read!

Dave!

lol, cheers lads.

I'll check out those links later, nice one

Sad Professor

Dades wrote: »

Much as I'd love to read Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation" I know it would take me a year, when instead I can have read a dozen great fiction/sci-fi books with the odd popular science book thrown in.

Hehe, yeah, I've been reading that book for what seems like forever now.

nesf

Dave! wrote: »

I'm mainly interested in non-fiction books, for example I'm reading Steven Pinker's book 'The Blank Slate' at the moment. It's arguing against the idea that we're born 'blank', and it's mainly our environment that shapes us (but rather, he argues, our genes).

Pinker is not an author that I can read quickly, actually I don't think he's a good writer really, he's very interesting but as popular science goes his work doesn't flow as well as many others I've read. The authors you read might be slowing you down rather than you having a slow reading speed necessarily.

Pick up a light fiction book and read it, if you still are reading very slowly it's your approach to reading that's slowing you (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, reading slower generally means absorbing more of the text), if you read faster just chalk up your reading speed to your taste for dense non-fiction, which isn't something that I would worry about. I read light fiction extremely quickly, I read dense faction relatively slowly in comparison for example partly because of the material and partly because I find it more rewarding to read dense faction slowly. The kind of (to be honest) crappy fiction I enjoy isn't worth reading slowly if you get what I mean.

brianthebard

Tony buzan does a speed reading book that can increase your reading capacity to 1000 wpm its a very good book.You don't have to go at that speed either though but it will build you up to a speed you like.