WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SPEED READING???

IMO, there is a big difference between speed reading and speed UNDERSTANDING. If, for instance, a writer is creating a scene in a novel, one needs for the brain to absorb and assimilate the various elements that make up the scene, in order to receive the full enjoyment of the work.

On the other hand, there are certain kinds of writing that is best read quickly. Light "summer novels" IMO, fall into this category. It is not critical to absorb and understand every nuance of the work. As far as non-fiction is concerned, where one wants to absorb information, I don't think that speed reading is a practical way to approach a work.

Oh, by the way, I tend to read very quickly, and I know that my brain is not receiving all of the information that the author has put down. I know that when I REALLY want to understand something that is important to me, I will slow down. If I just want to get the gist of what has been written, I will speed read.

Often times, I wish I was a speed reader. I'm very slow, and will take months sometimes to finish one book. c.i.

I used to read about 3 a week. I won't read any other way.

I used to read... a lot. Peak was probably 5-7 a week (yes, one a day), more normal was probably 2-3 a week. I'm now waaaaay less than that.

I have never been able to purposely speed read, but when I am totally into a book it just kind of washes over me and I'm done quickly. That is my absolute favorite way to read -- sit down, become immersed, come back up for air when it's finished.

Does anyone know about subvocalization. I heard someone say that if you can prevent saying the words in your head while you read, you will be able to sight read and eventually read faster.

It's very true, you can read whole sentences at a time this way.

On the whole I do not agree with speed reading because you often get only a superficial sense of the book. That said I read the Perfect Storm in 5 hours. My exwife had ordered it from the University Co op and I sat down at one of the tables on the plaza intending simply to peruse the first several chapters to see what the book was about. When I came to it was dinere time and the co op was closed. Some books you just fall into.

I had a roomie on my South Africa trip in April 2002 that reads 2 books per day. He said he reads 3 sometimes. I've often wondered how many pages one can read and still comprehend what the heck the book is about. c.i.

I'm under the age of 20 and still only read about a book or two a week. How can you guys read so fast? When it comes to text book readings that I really want to understand, I get really bored and end up taking hours reading a couple of pages. THere is a class at George Washington University to learn how to read faster but its about $380 dollars. Is it worth it?

I keep about two or three going a week, not including the ones in my Palm. (Currently: Grisham's "The Brethren", Susan McDougal's "The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk", and in the E-Reader, "Seabiscuit" and Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?")

I never took a course so I could not advise on the benefits of one.

Whatever it is I do, I learned, somehow.

I was a speed reader (not Speed Reader) up to the age of about thirty, devouring books at a great rate. Now I've become a meandering reader and note taker and I do something I NEVER thought I'd do: I read several books at the same time, moving from one to the other. It's become more rewarding to digest really good pieces of writing than to rush to find out what happens next.

gvapid, I don't think it would be worth it. I think you just gotta slog through. The people I know who are effective speed readers didn't learn how, they just are.

Tartarin, I don't think its necessarily either/or -- the books that I devoured in college I also had a very thorough understanding of. It wasn't superficial by any means. (Especially since I had to write 10-page papers on them... )

I'm now more meandering, and find that it negatively impacts my understanding and appreciation. I miss connections, allusions, forget who minor characters are when they show up again, etc. I don't think it's possible to read "Midnight's Children", for example, over too long of a period or you're utterly lost. It's such a dense, tangled mess, going forward and backward in time, and it expects you to pay attention and remember. I found that infinitely easier to do in the space of 2 days than over a longer period of time (I've done both.)

it depends, but I usually average about 2 a week. if the book is thick then it's one a week. my life is in the toilet when i have nothing to read. i just finished a thick Nelson Demille book called Up Country, not as good as Plum Island, but entertaining just the same.

Sozobe -- I was meaning pleasure reading, not college texts! But I can well understand your getting lost in Midnight's Children. That was one I read through pretty quickly and can vouch it was a tangle, though a reasonably pleasurable one. (Am not Rushdie's greatest fan...!)

I read at least one book and as many as three, but I might not finish one of the three, for some reason, an evaluation that I don't care enough about it to finish. I tend to have whole batches of books on hand, in fear of dreaded bookabsense. Nothing worse for me than to be bookabsent and without any favorite essay type magazines, panic city. Yes, I know there is the net, but that is additive for me to the basic satisfaction of book reading.

Like Tartarin, I move from book to book, which book having to do with my interest at that minute. I don't read that much can't-put-it-down type fiction or much in the way of best sellers, and so my sampling is kind of a state of luxurious book-lolling.

I haven't been interested in speed reading, other than what happens when I read occasional lightweight fare, like police procedural "mysteries" - except I wish I could have sped read my chemistry texts, or, geez, even read them at all.

There were tricks in college reading...going straight for summary paragraphs if they existed, but that isn't very satisfying, and leaves you without much basis for the summary's regurgitation in some test essay, and past that, doesn't build up your general understanding of the world.

Reading in a subvocalizing manner sounds repulsive to me, for whom the sound of words swirling and settling or clanging together is a fair part of the pleasure of reading at all. I just tried the subvocalizing to be fair, no luck. Perhaps I am just without practice at it.

Tartarin, since I was an English major, "college texts" and "pleasure reading" were often one and the same. (Gawd, I loved being an English major. Utterly useless, of course, but SUCH fun!)

I've decided not to take the class because it seems not to be worth it and obviously, those of you who do read fast didn't need a class. maybe in time i'll get better.

OSSOBUCO --SUbvocalization is a habit that i cant break. I've probably done it all my life. You know how the teacher teaches you to sound out words in your head, you grow up doing that, not exactly sounding it out, just saying them in your head when you don't know it.

I just finished AGE Of INNOCENCe. I MUST ADD IT to my favorite book list. I have to read the perfect storm next.

I think you've made a good choice gvapid.

I'm in the 2-3 per week group. And usually thick novels.

The older I get, the more books I read, and the easier it is to read them quickly ~ while retaining what I've read.

i'm slow
I'm really slow when it comes to reading. I'm at like one book every 2-3 weeks or more, and they're not really big books... maybe like 1-2 hundread pages. i have friends that read so fast it ticks me off. The whole family of 6 read the newest harry potter book within a week. the youngest member was 12 and the oldest was her father at like 50. they only had one copy of the book. both of the youngest children spent 15 straight hours and just devoured it. their brother is a really fast reader as well.. i think they were all just born that way. speed readers aren't easy to come by though. only about 1or2 in 30 are speedreaders and only 1 is subvocal. i'll never get faster, but it makes me feel better to know that there is always someone slower.