Speed Reading - Anyone ever tried it?

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parody

parody

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kiwifarms.net
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Nov 4, 2023
Been trying to increase my reading speed and comprehension recently and came across this book which claims to teach readers to read up to 200 pages in 1-hour without compromising the quality of reading comprehension (sorry for the gay amazon link).


I've known one or two people who could speed read like this before, but both of them told me it wasn't worth it and discontinued the practice because you're not fully able to appreciate what you're reading when you read at this rate.

Is anyone here familiar with the book linked above or has anyone here ever gotten good at speed reading? Curious what your methods were. While not technically "speed-reading" I've recently found that reading a physical book while playing the audiobook at 2x speed helps with reading comprehension and avoiding distractions while maintaining a steady reading pace, if you're a brainlet like me and want to read more I'd recommend trying this out.
 
Read this as "sneed reading" Anyway there is no hack to actually absorb information you're reading any faster, in fact most substantive work should actually be re-read a few times with time in between for introspection before revisiting it.

I did practice this as a child to plow through slop like bearenstien bears to quickly meet my accelerated reader points quota. My biggest issue is actually keeping my attention on the book, I easily let my mind wander while my eyes continue scanning ahead and find myself lost on the page.
 
parody said:
if you're a brainlet like me and want to read more
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Then the answer is to eliminate distractions that break your focus from the text, not some meme training books. Read at your natural speed that lets you comprehend a text, don't be afraid of rereading particularly dense passages, and your speed and ability to comprehend will improve over time.
Just, like, be urself.

Scanning is an actual ability you can train for, and it's useful if you're a lawyer or an accountant that needs to skim through hundreds of documents for one piece of info, but it isn't enjoyable.
 
I've never tried to practice speed reading, but I have a tendancy fly through pages picking out key phrases, characters, etc if I'm really into a book and I want to know what happens next. I'll go back and reread the section more slowly if I realize I'm doing it. Do I understand what's happening? Yeah. Do I lose out on detail and nuance and perhaps underlying themes? Sure do.

I don't see any reason to try to purposefully speed read if you're reading for enjoyment. It's meant to be relaxing.
 
There's been research conducted on this sort of thing. The consesnus is that speed reading is nothing more than skimming, especially since there is a hard limit on how fast a human's eyeballs can move. And when you think about it, reading is a slow methodical activity anyway, so why try to fuck it up?
 
I do it and it’s not really special. You just read, and the more you read the better you get at reading. For what you’re probably thinking of, really the trick is just to first know what you’re reading, and then scan the page for the key words and phrases while ignoring the stuff you don’t need.
Basically, I read most things normally and I speedread stuff for work or school because I know what to look for.
 
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Reading this book, about how to read books, made me better and faster at reading and comprehending. It basically proposes reading in stages; first, be able to read the material ("Elementary reading"). Then, give it a once-over ("Inspectional reading") read the cover, the back, the index, flip through the chapters, and read a few passages or even entire chapters that catch your interest. After that, you should be able to understand the purpose of the book, how it's structured, what it's about, and decide whether or not it's even worth your time to read.

I find that this inspectional reading stage achieves the same thing as speed reading.

Then, if it's worth reading, read it ("Analytical reading"). Don't spend too long dwelling on every single thing, but fold pages, highlight, and take margin notes of thoughts/questions you have. Get through the book at whatever pace is comfortable, but don't stop and study until after your first pass. It encourages you to have a conversation with the book at all times, but to not let the conversation slow you down. If you feel the conversation slip, you're not really reading.

If after that first pass you are still captivated, then the last stage is like a meta-level of reading ("Syntopical reading"). That's where the book can be compared to others, its ideas can be conveyed in your own words, you go back and address your thoughts and etc.

It even acknowledges speed reading and it says basically the same as above:
Merton J. Dingle said:
There's been research conducted on this sort of thing. The consesnus is that speed reading is nothing more than skimming, especially since there is a hard limit on how fast a human's eyeballs can move. And when you think about it, reading is a slow methodical activity anyway, so why try to fuck it up?
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Simply burning through words fast doesn't do shit for me. I am a fast reader, but sometimes a single sentence merits time to sit and stew on for longer than it takes to read. Autistically breezing through an entire book just to take away the same thing as a cursory inspectional reading is gay and retarded.
 
Jerk Sausage said:
Reading this book, about how to read books, made me better and faster at reading and comprehending.
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Glad you mentioned that book! Ironically, I probably need to use the techniques they outline to fully absorb everything that they said in it; it was a great read, but I feel like there were a fair number of details that I have forgotten. Also, the Synopticon that they mention is freely available on Library Genesis despite being out of print for decades.

It's also a shame that Charles Van Doren is more well known for the quiz show scandal than for his writing, since the latter proves that he is actually a well-read and intelligent guy.
 
Trying to speedread fucked my reading comprehension up big time. My eyes would automatically start skimming for a few years and I couldn't get into an even pace with a book for a while. Eventually unlearned the habit and I'm doing much better now.

We all want to read faster. I think the trick is literally just practice, man. I can eat a nonfiction book (I finished Irreversable Damage in like 2-3 days) in a day or two if the tone is fairly simple, I don't have to look shit up constantly, and I enjoy the material, but we're not fortunate enough to have all that all the time, and if we did we wouldn't grow as readers.

For example, lets say you pick up an author with a complex writing style thats hard to parse, such as Nabokov or James Patterson. The more of that writing style you eat, the better you will know how to eat it. Your eyes will slow down to digest more difficult passages and will speed up whenever you're in a prosaic clearing.
 
Cemetery Support said:
I think the trick is literally just practice, man. I can eat a nonfiction book (I finished Irreversable Damage in like 2-3 days) in a day or two if the tone is fairly simple, I don't have to look shit up constantly, and I enjoy the material, but we're not fortunate enough to have all that all the time, and if we did we wouldn't grow as readers.

For example, lets say you pick up an author with a complex writing style thats hard to parse, such as Nabokov or James Patterson. The more of that writing style you eat, the better you will know how to eat it. Your eyes will slow down to digest more difficult passages and will speed up whenever you're in a prosaic clearing.
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This is the main thing. If you're not reading, you're not becoming practiced in reading and comprehending faster. Naturally speeding up or slowing down is just a learned skill through practicing by reading.

I re-read Adler's section in "How to Read a Book" about speed reading (4th chapter, big part of "Inspectional Reading"). His stance is that reading fast can be good and is a necessary skill; some entire books, or interstitial sections of books are surface level words that do not require pensive thought. However, The Declaration of Independence is 1,320 words, and a pop-fiction romance novel has 100,000 words. You'd be wasting your time slowing down and analyzing the latter, but completely devoid of comprehension if you speed-read the former.

Man, it's a good book on how to read books. Makes me want to read more books.
 
Merton J. Dingle said:
There's been research conducted on this sort of thing. The consesnus is that speed reading is nothing more than skimming, especially since there is a hard limit on how fast a human's eyeballs can move. And when you think about it, reading is a slow methodical activity anyway, so why try to fuck it up?
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That assumes that everyone reads by going one word at a time along the lines.
I read fast, I just get completely absorbed in books. I can read one word at a time if I need to and I’d do that if it’s something very technical, or another language. But when I’m reading prose in English I seem to kind of snapshot paragraphs and ingest them. It’s not speed reading, I’ve looked at that and it’s more like skimming. I sort of photograph maybe a quarter of a page, then another, then another. I could read fluently by the time I was two.
What I do seems to make all the words go in just fine and if I stop I can go back and rewind it. I do not have an eidetic memory, it’s not that either, it’s more that I just absorb text.
I can get through a chunky book in a couple of hours.
I think this is why I dislike audiobooks and the trend for videos for everything. It’s so SLOW. Text is king.
I don’t think speed reading techniques are much good tbh. It’s just skipping over the text. Enjoy what you read and read more, I’m sure the more you do it the easier it is. We don’t always have to be doing everything more and faster - reading is beneficial for us as it is, whether you’re slow or fast
 
Otterly said:
I think this is why I dislike audiobooks and the trend for videos for everything. It’s so SLOW. Text is king.
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Well, I can say that I don't do anything like what you do when I read, but goddamn do I hate it when people put information into a fucking video. I don't know how many times I've tried to look on Reddit for an answer to a technical question, clicked the link, and then saw a video as the only content in the OP.
 
Otterly said:
That assumes that everyone reads by going one word at a time along the lines.
I read fast, I just get completely absorbed in books. I can read one word at a time if I need to and I’d do that if it’s something very technical, or another language. But when I’m reading prose in English I seem to kind of snapshot paragraphs and ingest them. It’s not speed reading, I’ve looked at that and it’s more like skimming. I sort of photograph maybe a quarter of a page, then another, then another. I could read fluently by the time I was two.
What I do seems to make all the words go in just fine and if I stop I can go back and rewind it. I do not have an eidetic memory, it’s not that either, it’s more that I just absorb text.
I can get through a chunky book in a couple of hours.
I think this is why I dislike audiobooks and the trend for videos for everything. It’s so SLOW. Text is king.
I don’t think speed reading techniques are much good tbh. It’s just skipping over the text. Enjoy what you read and read more, I’m sure the more you do it the easier it is. We don’t always have to be doing everything more and faster - reading is beneficial for us as it is, whether you’re slow or fast
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Hey, this is the way I read too! It was a pain in the butt at school though, as my teachers would never believe me when I said I had read the text assigned in about 10 minutes. The teacher would then ask me questions about the text, and would be rather surprised when I answered the questions correctly. I would go through the cycle every time I had a new teacher/professor. Those whole class reads a text one line at a time sessions were like Chinese water torture.
 
Elim Garak said:
Hey, this is the way I read too! It was a pain in the butt at school though, as my teachers would never believe me when I said I had read the text assigned in about 10 minutes. The teacher would then ask me questions about the text, and would be rather surprised when I answered the questions correctly. I would go through the cycle every time I had a new teacher/professor. Those whole class reads a text one line at a time sessions were like Chinese water torture.
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Christ, you’re giving me flashbacks to those fucking “the class reads aloud one paragraph at a time” things. God damn, I hated those.
 
Here he comes,
Here comes SPEED READER
He's a literate man!
He's a reader and he's way ahead of everyone!

The dance of turnin' pages makes them almost look alive!
His words per minute are greater than Mach Five!
And when the teacher says there's a test to study for...
Speed Reader's ready for it, and a whole lot more!

Go Speed Reader!
Go Speed Reader!
GO SPEED READER GO!!!

Library books go flying off the shelves!
His knowledge gives professors lots of hell!
His classmates are left trailing in his wake!

Go Speed Reader!
Go Speed Reader!
GO SPEED READER GO!!!
 
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Reading is borderline meditation. Now imagine asking "how do I meditate faster?". Is your goal with reading to get the general gist of the story? Why not just read a summary then? Why sit down with a 500 page fantasy epic and go "zamn I wish I could get over this faster"? I started reading the last few years after never having done so before and I greatly enjoy that I simply read if I'm bored.
 
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