Reading speed

[Poider]

G'day, Just curious to know how fast people take to read a book?
Does anybody speed read?
Is speed reading effective, or do you miss important points?
Is speed reading easy to pick up?
It takes me about a month to read a book, I might average 1 hour per day.
Peter

[StevieG]

I'm slow.

I know Avatar is bloody fast, and rdhopeca is a speed reader. He got through the Gap series in a flash...

I'd like some tips because it takes me forever to get through books (especially Malazan...)

It took me a month or so to get through Martin's first Ice and Fire book, but it took me about 7 months to get through Erikson's 5th book...

[Shaun das Schaf]

Haha StevieG, I was just about to say, keep Av away from this thread!

I think there's quite a few bookmunchers around this place actually. My pace depends on the book. If I really like it then it's gone in a day or two. If it's not rocking my boat, maybe a couple of weeks? I rarely take longer than that to read something. If it's still unfinished in a couple of weeks, I usually move on to something else and maybe come back to it, or maybe not.

Non-fiction can be a different kettle of fish, especially the science stuff that's tougher to digest, but I don't seem to be reading much of that these days, at least not since I fell down the Malazan hole.

Edited to actually answer the question: I used to speed read at school and uni, kind of an 'eye-scan' approach to pick up the important bits so I could bullshit my way through having studied something. I still speed read work stuff, but I don't do it when I'm reading for pleasure. That would be like swallowing my food whole, which I don't do any more either, not since Granny Davis broke two ribs Heimliching me last Christmas.

[aliantha]

I think speed-reading was a more popular technique back when I was in middle school -- dunno if it's taught any more. Shaun is right about how it works: it's a matter of training yourself to read in groups of words, or phrases, or sometimes a whole line at once -- instead of reading each word individually.

[Iolanthe]

Never been a speed reader, more a dogged reader. My mother used to say "Got her head in a b....y book again!", but these days I usually only find time to read at bedtime. However.....I just read the first three Chronicles in just over a week - finished TPTP at 3.00 this morning - hence wearing matchsticks today.

[I'm Murrin]

I used to read books in a few days, now it's a few months. I don't think I've ever been able to speed-read, though.

[rdhopeca]

I certainly do it. I average, depending on the size of the type and page, about 100 pages an hour. Sometimes that also is impacted by the subject material as well (Donaldson, because of his content density, is a little slower than, say, Brooks or Eddings).

I can't describe how I do it, because I'm not aware of what I am doing per se: I enter a sort of transcendental state where I am not even aware I am turning pages. But essentially it's a scan technique where I absorb whole lines or paragraphs as opposed to words or sentences. I know I miss things from time to time, and sometimes on a second read I will try to go slower, but that becomes work.

[MsMary]

I read fast, but I'm not a speed reader. Sometimes, if I'm really caught up in a story, I may read quickly over descriptive background details that are not moving the story forward just to find out what's going to happen next.

I usually pick up those details better on a re-read. I'm a big re-reader of stories that I enjoy.

[Vraith]

I can do fast/scanning reading, but I have to do it on purpose/consciously, and find I miss things if I do...not content really, but it...I don't know...sorta thins the experience.
My normal/natural speed is pretty slow...about half of rhod's 100page/hour on average...I "make up" for it by the fact that I find it very difficult to read in short chunks unless forced to...once I sip that first page, it's hard to stop.

[sgt.null]

i am a speed reader. easily the 100 pages an hour type - if i am interested in the book. i have on a few occassions read the book of the month for our library the day of the meeting.

i just scan over non important text. King writes lots of description. my comprehension is actually pretty good.

if i don't like the material i have to slog through it. the Great Gatsby book took an entire week - and i hated every minute of it. kept thinking of more pleasant books to read.

[aliantha]

One of the supposed advantages of speed reading (at least, that's what they told us ) was that you comprehend more when you read phrases instead of individual words. It's like you're stringing the ideas together in your head while you read, so supposedly they stick better. Dunno if anybody's ever studied that, tho...

I think there's a difference between skimming and speed reading, too. If I'm skimming, *nothing* sticks with me...

[Vraith]

One of the supposed advantages of speed reading (at least, that's what they told us ) was that you comprehend more when you read phrases instead of individual words. It's like you're stringing the ideas together in your head while you read, so supposedly they stick better. Dunno if anybody's ever studied that, tho...

I think there's a difference between skimming and speed reading, too. If I'm skimming, *nothing* sticks with me...

Most of that is based on a bad interpretation/assumption [especially by people who want to make cash teaching you to speed read] of actual education research. It showed that people with poor comprehension also in almost every case read not just slowly [compared to average] but very slowly. In the early days of the research they assumed they were doing so because they didn't know the words...which led to lots of useless stuff [depending on why they believed they didn't know the words] like phonics and intense vocab flashcards. Basically making them read by focusing even MORE intently on individual letters and words.
Later research actually showed that good readers read in scanning clumps...the central focus at any given moment on a cluster, and proceeding forward, but interrupted by jumps forward and behind, and also peripheral awareness of ahead/behind/above/below.
The latest research I'm aware of [2002-3ish] showed that learning the clustering and scanning techniques and practicing them regularly can improve comprehension and speed especially for the bottom end. If you're average or above already the vast majority can improve speed but not really comprehension [only lots of challenging reading and reflective thought on it can do that]...and even the speed, any increase above 25% or so results in comprehension loss. [peeps seem to have a natural cruising speed where they run best]. There are outliers, of course...peeps whose whole reading world is changed by it, and peeps who get nothing except an huge extra load of frustration and anxiety and tension.

so yes, reading in phrases is good. But chances are if you're here you're probably already doing it...though maybe you can do it a bit better if you really work at it.

[Avatar]

Uh, yeah, as some people have already mentioned, I read pretty fast. Last time I checked, I was averaging about 120 pages an hour. (It's a handy way to tell time, too. )

And if I say so myself, my comprehension is usually pretty good. In huge big multi-volume epics, you do miss details though. Of course, when you read that fast, re-reads are easy, and I re-read a lot.

(Also because when you read that fast, books don't last very long. I waited years for Runes, but I read it in one night...sometimes makes things a little anti-climatic.)

I've never tried to speed read, never tried any course or technique or anything. The more I read, the better I got at it I think. The first time I ever tested my reading speed was when I was 15, and it was around 750 w/pm. By the time I was in University, it was around 1,200, and there it's pretty much stayed.

If there is any one thing I can suggest, it's not to read every individual word. Don't focus on a word, just look along the line.

(I never got the hang of the more advanced techniques...my uncle, he just runs his eyes straight down the page to read it...never met anybody who reads as fast as he does.)

--A

[sgt.null]

i took two speed reading courses back in high school.