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Speed reading help!!!!

AquaBlue said:
275 wpm is not poor- it's an average rate.
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I have to do more research before opening my mouth :eek: :) .

Last year, I read about 4 books in one night but they weren't so big but big enough that it would equal to about 400 and something pages. AND I retained about 86% of it (or more).

Well, I'm not sure if that's something to say wow to, but I still feel like bragging :D.
 
I don't know how many kilometers per hour I read, but my speed is about a book per month, so not that fast. This is mostly because I need to stop to think about what I've just read to completely enjoy the story. Sometimes I can read for hours though, but most of the time I stop when something important has happened and dwell on what I've just "experienced" before I move on to have another "experience".
 
Well, I can read 1 book less than a week for sure. It's pretty easy and I don't really dwell on something important. I "dwell" (or daydream) about it during school when it's boring and I know what we have to do.

Also, like the book I'm reading currently, I sometimes do other things then reading but I read everyday if I have a new book. Lucky for me I'm young and have a lot of time :D.
 
When I point-and-skip a pencil across each sentence on a book, I do read much, much faster. That's because my eyes are focused as I take in segments (pencil skips) rather than individual words.

My two main problems are that I vocalize words (as I read) under my breath; and I also can't sub-vocalize- when you read without saying the words/phrases in your mind. I just can't do that technique at all. The how-to books do not explain how to grasp that technique correctly. Hence I remain at a moderate pace.
 
When I read out load, I think I sub-vocalize. Who knows? I barely retain anything when reading (well, usually) out load.
 
I normally read a pathetic number of books a year...say around (more-or-less) a dozen or more books. To me that is not acceptable so I made a list- 25 books in all- as a target amount for 2008. Here is that list:
2008 Book List

  • Catch-22
  • Night
  • Housekeeping
  • The Bell Jar
  • Door Into Summer
  • Eye of the Needle
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude
  • The Stand
  • The Assistant
  • Alias Grace
  • Kafka on the Shore
  • Kite Runner
  • The Handmaid’s Tale
  • The Pillars of the Earth
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany
  • The Red Tent
  • The Lord of the Flies
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Lolita
  • The Remains of the Day
  • Atonement
  • A Moveable Feast
  • Middlesex
  • Blindness
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I read fairly quickly as far as fiction is concerned. Nonfiction, well then I'm a bit slower. I like to take notes and check things out along the way. If I read nonfiction as fast as I read fiction, I wouldn't remember much at the end of the book.

Of course, it also depends on the kind of nonfiction. Biographies, travel narratives etc... I can read those at a fiction pace.
 
I wonder how much you retain? Now I have two questions in my mind. The original one and how much can you retain of what you read?
 
I've never been tested but I think I read at a average to slightly above average speed. A book a week is normal for me, depending on my work hours and social life. I generally only re-read absolute favourites and that is more to see the story from a different perspective once I've read all/more books in the series, eg Harry Potter.
 
How fast can I read? Don't know, don't care.

Who is the fastest reader? Same answers.

It's not a competition folks!!!!!
 
Depends in which language, and what :cool: .

Comics I read slower (per page) than a pure text.

Technical stuff I read much faster (because it is boring) but several times (because I never actually get what they are trying to say to me).

Emails that I get I simply "photograph" with my eyes - just "fishing out" the information and not the words.
 
I think it depends. I can read a Harry Potter book much faster than Shakespeare. I have never tested myself to see how quickly I read, only how quickly I type. I think it would vary a great deal depending on what I'm reading, the atmosphere in which I am reading, my schedule and how interested I am in the text.

I cannot say that I read a certain number of books a week/month/year because the size of the books I read are hugely varied. I'm currently reading Gone with the Wind which has 1,000 pages. The book I read prior, Son of a Witch, had only about 350 pages. Needless to say, I finished that in a much shorter time than it has taken me to get through half of GWTW. The Iliad and The Odyssey took me much longer the first time I read it, but I can read it much faster now since I've read it so many times.

My comprehension rate is probably very high though. I usually can remember nearly every detail in a book years after I've read it (even if I don't want to remember). I'm the same way with conversations and dreams. It really freaks out the hubby and he has to watch what he says every minute because he knows that I will never forget it.
 
PhilW said:
How fast can I read? Don't know, don't care.

Who is the fastest reader? Same answers.

It's not a competition folks!!!!!
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It isn't. I just asked a simple quesitoin. I wonder how you thought we thought it was a competition (I would've went on, but I didn't :D ).

I love reading. I agree, it does matter the condition for speed.
 
Some of the replies suggest that reading more quickly than someone else is a "good thing". Or, conversely, that reading slowly is a "bad thing". Neither of which is true of course.
 
PhilW said:
Some of the replies suggest that reading more quickly than someone else is a "good thing". Or, conversely, that reading slowly is a "bad thing". Neither of which is true of course.
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I wonder where people get these types of ideas that everyone, or atleast most people, are thinking this.
 
The healthy way to think is that the slow reader experience the same type of satisfation that faster readers do. In other words, it does not matter how slow/fast one reads just have fun.
 
AquaBlue said:
I normally read a pathetic number of books a year...say around (more-or-less) a dozen or more books. To me that is not acceptable so I made a list- 25 books in all- as a target amount for 2008. Here is that list:
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Wow we have something in common there.

Catch-22, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Middlesex and A Clockwork Orange are on my 2008 reading list too ^.^

Well, I don't know how can we actually measure the reading speed? At least I don't know mine. I've tried to read really fast before, but like some of you here, I couldn't remember most of what I read except the outline of the plot. As such, I tend to read slower these days. Savoring every word. Heh.
 
I pay far more attention to comprehension than speed. Reading at light speed isn't worth it if you miss nuances or subtle details. Everyone has their own comfortable pace. It also depends largely on what I'm reading. Fiction tends to fly by like napkins in a wind tunnel. Philosophy, on the other hand, can crawl by at an agonizing pace. A 150 page philosophy book can take me an entire week to digest and fully comprehend. The equivalent size of fiction may take me an hour or two, or less. So the question has a lot of qualifiers. Not to mention reading in another language...
 
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