Speed Reading

Is it for Real?

[Jane_Doe]

If I have some free time I can generally read a book in a few hours, but I think that is just because I like to read and read a lot. I'm curious about trying to learn to speed read.

Have you ever taken any classes or read any books on speed reading? Does it work? Can you speed read and really still comprehend what you've read? Or as Woody Allen joked, is it more like reading War and Peace in twenty minutes and only finding out it is about Russia?

[plumsauce]

Yes, but it is a pain.

It takes the enjoyment out of reading to always be pushing for faster.

Now, I just read at whatever pace suits the material. If it takes a bit longer, then so be it.

I got it because of a programme in grade school. But, like I said, it seems somewhat artificial.

[King_Fisher]

Could you write slower? I am having a hard time keeping up!...KF :o)

[Dabrowski]

Apparently some kids speed read the last Harry Potter book, it was on the news. Cover to cover it's 600 pages and they read it in 4 hours. Then to prove they'd actually read it, correctly answered questions about the story.

Heard it on the News, not a guy down the pub!

[Green_Grass]

I can read an interesting 'novel' of about 400 pages in 3-4 hours. Is that speed reading? Never thought so...

But these day.. I tend to take things a little slow, to be able to 'enjoy' the storyline a little longer..

[bunltd]

I'm like Green_Grass, reading through a novel in a few hours. Never thought it was speed reading until...

I took a speed reading class - at the start of the class they tested to see where you were - I was already where they expected you to be by the end of the course, and we hadn't even begun. I did get faster though.

I tend to use it for research/info gathering, and not when reading for fun. Since I'm always reading, it can be hard to tell the difference. ;)

LisaB

[jsinger]

Evelyn Woods is still around but far less popular than in the 1960s when speed reading was the rage.

[Jane_Doe]

I spend a too much money on books each year as it is, so maybe I should not read any faster or I'll go broke. :)

[walkman]

Jane_Doe,
it's a cappucino at Barnes bookstore. By the time you're done driking one...the book is over. No need to buy it :)