How fast do you read and have you any tips?

dr gonzo

I love to read but for some reason fast reading is not a skill that ive ever had. On numerous occasions ive tried to remind myself while reading to scan a bit more but i always end up taking too long with books.

My irritation with the whole matter is only further compounded by the fact that people on here or other people i talk to seem to get through hefty tomes in a matter of days and then pick up the next one with no problem.

I dont have any issues, i can read complex, large books but would love to read just a bit faster so i was wondering if anyone had any advice or tricks that they could share.



Also i know that this is not an issue whatsoever, theres no real problem taking a bit longer with books but i buy faster then i can read and i now have a huge backlog to get through so any advice appreciated

James T Kirk

You can skim, or you can skip - that's it; I do it if the author starts to waffle.

All those magical speed-reading techniques are BS, and you won't enjoy or remember much of what you've read.

Just relax and read at your own pace.

I just speed-read War and Peace. It's about some Russians.

- Woody Allen

luliang

These things looked pretty good, and some that I can learn, and I hope to learn more on it!

Earthhorse

I've always been a fairly slow reader, it has to be said. When I was younger my brother told me this was a better way to be as you'd remember more of the book but I still always wanted to be a bit quicker at it.

Anyway, around a year ago, I joined a Book Club. We tend to read a book every 3 weeks. I don't always read the book but I've noticed that as result of the deadline my reading habits have improved; I'm better able to start a new book or settle down to read for a while. As a result I'm sometimes reading two books in the 3 week period, which far outstrips my old speed (I don't really have a measurement for you, you'll just have to take my word for it).

Maybe doing something like the 52 book a year challenge would have a similar effect? I've found that increasing my pace in a steady, practised manner like this has allowed me to probably remember more of the book which speed reading, as mentioned above, probably won't.

Magic Eight Ball

My only bit of advice, and this is from someone who use to read multiple books at the same time is to only read one book at a time. You'll get much more out of it.

All I can suggest really is just keep reading a lot. I chew through books fairly quickly (not scanning, just reading normally).

I think there are techniques for faster reading with increased retention, but I can only imagine these would be for, say, business documents than reading for pleasure.

Toby Take a Bow

I wouldn't've been a huge reader when I was younger, but got into it in my late teens and found it difficult enough to read hefty-ish and literary books in a reasonable time-frame. I found (and it's probably not what you want to hear) that reading fast depends on maybe 3 things: how much you like what you're reading, practice and whether you've got a reasonable amount of free-time to put into the whole thing.

I would say playing a LOT of computer games when I was younger killed my ability to concentrate, and that's only really being dealt with now.

Denerick

The only thing I lack is time. If I had time I'd be reading a tome a day...

When I was in college I had a handy knack for skim reading, generally getting the gist of a text without analysing it fully. I seem to have lost that ability though; its something that goes along with time restraints.