Speed Reading!

Discussion in 'Books' started by IMjustfishin, Jan 31, 2015.

  1. IMjustfishin

    IMjustfishin Member

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    anybody into speed reading? anyone been practicing for over a year? i've just started practicing some basic techniques over the last 4-5 weeks and ive noticed my speed has increased like crazy. i cant believe how fast i can read now after just a few weeks of practice. i can read almost a book a day.

    my goal is to read a book a day but realistically i cant really set aside a few hours every single day, but just knowing that im almost there blows my mind. i never would have thought it was possible until i actually started practicing it. i cannot recommend it enough if you like to read. it actually makes reading better too! before i used to like to read, now i love to read every chance i get because i know i can go though a huge chunk of pages.

    ive known about it for a long time, my mom even bought a program for it years ago, but i always thought that i would be "losing something" if i started speed reading. i thought i wouldn't be able to fully "absorb" the book, and when i started i was right. my comprehension went way down as my speed increased, but after some practice my comprehension and recall increased. its hard to explain, but i understand the actual context of words alot better. i wouldn't be able to recall the exact word for word sentences, but i began understanding the context and ideas better as i practiced.

    i feel like i have re-discovered reading again. its way more fun now, and im reading more than ever. it has truly changed my life, and i want to recommend it to everyone who likes to read. if you have the same worries that i had, and you think you wont be able to understand as well, all i can say is just try it, within a few days i promise it will pass and speed reading will feel like normal reading to you.

    if the idea of reading a book in one day sounds amazingly mind blowing to you, you have to try it. its awesome. you will feel like you have a superpower.

    the way i learned is just watching some youtube videos and following some basic tips. im going to investigate further into some more advanced techniques for speed reading now that i feel like im ready.

    i would like to hear from other people who have discovered speed reading. are you as amazed as i am? what are some books that you went through super fast? im thinking about re-reading some of my old favorites like the hobbit and the lord of the rings now that i know it wont be so time consuming.
     
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  2. Ashalicious

    Ashalicious Senior Member

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    Is speed reading actually legit? I feel like I wouldn't actually be absorbing anything if I were speed reading....
     
  3. IMjustfishin

    IMjustfishin Member

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    at first you dont, but with practice your retention increases. i didnt believe it either untill i tried it, noticed a difference in as little as a week. also, when im stoned i still read really slow lol.
     
  4. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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    i usually read about as fast as i would were i speaking the words. i just timed it and got about 220 wpm but am tired with a headache right now so im sure i can do better than that. Mind you, this isnt with material i'd consider difficult.

    i suppose the trick would be to read the words purely visually rather than internally vocalizing and pronunciating them in your head as if you were talking which ive always kinda thought about; why do we do this when were not actually reading aloud and no one is listening, is it really necessary? i suspect not. What you might want to do is taking each word as a symbol or "token" like a computer might when it is parsing text, rather than as individual syllables. This is in fact how i read but far too often i notice myself taking extra steps to break it down into syllables as if my brain was processing it as speech even though im not actually speaking. A further improvement would be to process larger language structures such as several words as one symbol removing the seperation between words, after all its the semantics that really mattter, the syntax not so much and more abstract symbols can convey meaning with fewer symbols which would increase speed. Are words really seperate things? They are not, just symbols or tokens. Some languages are very verbose, while others are more terse like russian or chinese, where chinese would require far fewer symbols to convey the same content.

    I can say that not all text is equal. Text that contains what you might call conversational english I'm sure I could read through much faster than the stuff i usually read but I don't usually read stuff quite that simple. Very dense stuff with complex semantics, structure and relationship between clauses and subclauses may have to be read slower in order to achieve 100% comprehension which is what i aim for, and such material is often structured in a way that there are subtleties that may be missed if you went too quickly. Stuff with lots of numbers and mathematics embedded in the text slows me down a lot though because i have to do the math in my head before i can proceed as well as processing the actual text.

    I do think theres probably a difference between recreational reading and "studying" where theres more going on than just being aware of "what was said" (ok .. written). You have to actually sometimes slow down to really absorb what you just read actually means. Books on algorithms and such things come to mind as things that might have to be taken at a slower pace than "conversational english" that is if you would hope to actually understand what you just read.

    Now that you mention it though, i think I'm gonna try it (increasing my reading speed) because anything that helps you absorb a book quicker must be a good thing since reading equals knowledge and knowledge is power. I think I'll experiment with it on some more casual things and try to judge my comprehension before trying such a thing with material i'm going to be tested on later ;) I usually end up taking notes on the most difficult of material, or at least the most unfamiliar (most things turn out being mostly unfamiliar and what seemed difficult turns out not to be the case once one becomes familiar enough with it).

    Im sure such techniques (so called speed reading) can be of value, but im not convinced that they can really be applied to non-trivial material which is where it would really count the most. I'd love to be proven wrong though. I'd love to be able to read like Data from Star Trek next gen.

    see if you can speed read something like this:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_black_trees#Properties
     
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  5. lion1978

    lion1978 The King

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    actually once you know how to speed read you can absorb a lot more than through normal reading.
     
  6. scratcho

    scratcho Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I learned it in college. To look straight down the center of a page and see all of it ,side to side. I don't care to do it, so I don't. But I can still read a book in one day--8-9 hours or so.
     
  7. deepblue897

    deepblue897 Member

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    about fiction, its ridicilous..
     
  8. I'minmyunderwear

    I'minmyunderwear Newbie

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    same here...

    [​IMG]
     
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  9. StellarCoon

    StellarCoon Dr. Professor

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    Not for me at all.

    I like to go really slow, highlighting words/phrases and writing notes on the sides of pages, comparing/reviewing/contemplating ideas presented. Plowing through it like it's a race seems like a waste of money and literature.
     
  10. WOLF ANGEL

    WOLF ANGEL Senior Member - A Fool on the Hill Lifetime Supporter

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    I do a lot of scanning of literature rather than reading (if uou count that as speed reading?) - I can fly though bools however, by doing so, feel I can miss out on the plot
     
  11. Piaf

    Piaf Senior Member

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    Nope, just good old normal reading for me.
     
  12. StellarCoon

    StellarCoon Dr. Professor

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    The only speed reading I've ever done was with Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, at age 13, which I read in about 8 hours. It was an interesting experiment, but I felt the speed-reading simply watered down the overall experience. I understood everything I read, but I feel one should give oneself time to pause and reflect on what is being studied to take in the full experience.
     

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