Breakthrough Rapid Reading

[grantmeaname]

Hey all! Right now I'm tackling Breakthrough Rapid Reading, a book by a speed-reading educator named Peter Kump. I tested my reading rate at about 425WPM in pleasure-reading material before I started, and I'm up to a little over 600 in similarly easy material in two weeks of intermittent not-quite-daily practice. The concept of the book is that you learn a new speed-reading concept every few days and drill every day at things like using your finger as a pointer and recognizing whole words more easily. I picked it up in the hopes of saving time when next semester starts. So far, it looks like I'll be able to substantially decrease reading time! For a free book from the library, as compared to a more expensive weekly course, I've got to say I'm pretty pleased with that potential!

[arebelspy]

Interesting.  I've thought about and tried some of that stuff, but I read so fast anyways that I could never stick with the "methods" due to the concentration they took to try and make them set in, in order to gain what seemed like incremental speed (maybe a 20% boost or so, though I suppose that's significant if I think about it).

Any decrease in pleasure seen so far?

[anastrophe]

Interesting. I'm looking for the opposite thing, actually--I read incredibly fast and I'd like to slow down. I think the method I use (nothing I do on purpose) has to do with focusing primarily on the first and last sentences and skimming the middle of the paragraph.

[grantmeaname]

Interesting.  I've thought about and tried some of that stuff, but I read so fast anyways that I could never stick with the "methods" due to the concentration they took to try and make them set in, in order to gain what seemed like incremental speed (maybe a 20% boost or so, though I suppose that's significant if I think about it).

Not much concentration so far for anything, though I haven't been getting any farther in the book due to travel/family obligations/life butting in. And the speed boost looks to be more in the 100-200% range, since I'm around 50% faster already - hopefully enough that I can still squeeze in pleasure reading at my busiest.

Any decrease in pleasure seen so far?

None. I'm getting reading done that I wouldn't have otherwise and making more progress than I expected to.

[grantmeaname]

Interesting. I'm looking for the opposite thing, actually--I read incredibly fast and I'd like to slow down. I think the method I use (nothing I do on purpose) has to do with focusing primarily on the first and last sentences and skimming the middle of the paragraph.

Do you think your comprehension isn't good enough?

[anastrophe]

Interesting. I'm looking for the opposite thing, actually--I read incredibly fast and I'd like to slow down. I think the method I use (nothing I do on purpose) has to do with focusing primarily on the first and last sentences and skimming the middle of the paragraph.

Do you think your comprehension isn't good enough?

Sometimes I do find myself flipping back a few pages to check my understanding but that might just be a research method.

Mostly, I often feel like I don't relax enough, I read tensely (if that makes sense). Less comprehension than enjoyment.

Never thought through this before, but I was a 'gifted' child and read to extremes as a way to prove myself. So as an adult I guess I'd prefer reading to be more of a recreational activity than an information-cramming one. Maybe this isn't the thread for me;)

[grantmeaname]

No, the point of this project for me is recreational.

[mxt0133]

Interesting. I'm looking for the opposite thing, actually--I read incredibly fast and I'd like to slow down. I think the method I use (nothing I do on purpose) has to do with focusing primarily on the first and last sentences and skimming the middle of the paragraph.

I just picked up "How To Read A Book" by Mortimer J. Adler at the library and one of the topics covered is varying reading speed depending on what you are reading.  So if you are reading for information or entertainment you would go a bit faster than say reading for understanding such as a new or difficult material.

I consider myself an avid reader and picked up the book because it covers various levels of reading, but this whole time it has never occurred to me that the speed at which I read should also vary depending on what I am trying to get out of the material.

Just took an online speed reading test and i'm at 230wpm with 90% comprehension.  Basically I shouldn't be reading everything like a philosophical treatise.

I'll be working on getting my casual reading speed above 500 wpm.

[Nords]

No, the point of this project for me is recreational.

Does reading faster make it feel as though you're on a production line with a quota?  Where's the recreation on that?

I enjoy the process of reading, of having to look up new words, and of discovering different writing techniques.  It all probably combines to slow me down.  It doesn't matter if I'm reading one of my daughter's college textbooks (hey, this civil engineering stuff is cool) or a new John Rain novel. 

I also have plenty of distractions-- the view out the window, the critter noises in the yard, the classic rock soundtrack perpetually reverbing in my head, whatever I can see/hear my spouse doing, and the difficulty of focusing my presbyopian eyes on the page. 

I could speedwalk through my neighborhood, too, but I'd rather amble along checking out the landscaping and saying hello to the neighbors.

I enjoy reading at my inefficient pace.  I'm not sure that I'd get more pleasure, let alone accomplishment, out of reading faster.

[Tempe]

I never thought of trying the online speed reading tests and now I'm trying them out of curiosity. I'm contemplating reading the book just to compare what I do to some of the strategies in it, and to see if any strategies increase my reading speed. I do think my reading speed on the online tests I tried was hindered by the interruption of when I scrolled. It does get me wondering what some of my family and friends reading speeds are, thinking back on the times we were reading the same thing and I spent a minute bored waiting for them to finish.

[totoro]

I am a speed reader.  I never took a course.  It just happened somehow. 

If I pick up a novel and I'm interested I will finish it within a matter of hours.  I have a problem with stopping before I finish sometimes if I'm interested which may have spurred the speed reading technique. I might not recall some of the names of the characters but I have good comprehension of everything.  I don't read every word - I haven't tested it but I think I do a fair bit of filling in of connecting words (and/or/if/when/...).

Technical reading happens at a slower pace for me.  It takes me a bit longer because I need to make sure that I read every word.

[grantmeaname]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this, Nords, I wanted to wait until I could give it real time.

Does reading faster make it feel as though you're on a production line with a quota?

No, it doesn't. The project is something I've had to set aside with the start of the semester, but I read a lot more over break than I would have otherwise, I'm sure.

I could speedwalk through my neighborhood, too, but I'd rather amble along checking out the landscaping and saying hello to the neighbors.

The point of the book isn't that you have to read everything as quickly as possible, it's that you should determine a purpose for everything you read and then choose a speed accordingly. When people ask the author how fast he can read, he asks them how fast they can drive a car. The point isn't just to do everything as quickly as possible, it's to learn to choose an appropriate pace for the type of material and the purpose you're reading it with. That doesn't preclude looking up words you don't know, looking out the window, or anything else.

I enjoy reading at my inefficient pace.  I'm not sure that I'd get more pleasure, let alone accomplishment, out of reading faster.

Many of the changes from a book like this are to get rid of wasted effort. For example, the author suggests reading with the book at a 45 degree angle so that all the lines of the page are at approximately the same distance from your eyes and you don't have to refocus on a new distance with every line like you do with a vertical or horizontal book. You can also train your eyes not to continually go back and reread words, so you are only rereading anything you need to for comprehension and not spending a quarter (or whatever) of your time on unconscious, unproductive regression. You can still choose to read at whatever speed you like, but you could have the same comprehension in less time or better comprehension at the same speed. I don't know why you wouldn't want that. If I get more pleasure out of it, it'll be because I got more reading out of it.

Maybe you should check out the book and see if it's not more up your alley than the title suggests. There's a lot more to it than 'faster, faster, faster', and I only got through the mechanical parts of the training.

[Nords]

The point isn't just to do everything as quickly as possible, it's to learn to choose an appropriate pace for the type of material and the purpose you're reading it with. That doesn't preclude looking up words you don't know, looking out the window, or anything else.
Many of the changes from a book like this are to get rid of wasted effort. For example, the author suggests reading with the book at a 45 degree angle so that all the lines of the page are at approximately the same distance from your eyes and you don't have to refocus on a new distance with every line like you do with a vertical or horizontal book. You can also train your eyes not to continually go back and reread words, so you are only rereading anything you need to for comprehension and not spending a quarter (or whatever) of your time on unconscious, unproductive regression. You can still choose to read at whatever speed you like, but you could have the same comprehension in less time or better comprehension at the same speed. I don't know why you wouldn't want that. If I get more pleasure out of it, it'll be because I got more reading out of it.
Maybe you should check out the book and see if it's not more up your alley than the title suggests. There's a lot more to it than 'faster, faster, faster', and I only got through the mechanical parts of the training.

Thanks, that sounds a lot better than the typical speed-reading training from the last millennium.  Hunh, never mind, looks like it was published in the last millennium.  I've reserved a copy from our library.

It's hard to overcome all those decades of habit.  Maybe I should put the Kindle version on my iPad and set it to auto-scroll...

[Nords]

That's an interesting book.  I'm glad you pointed me back into it, and I enjoyed reading it.

Ironically I got more out of it by reading the whole thing and then starting over with the exercises.  At the beginning he cautions readers to master each exercise before moving on (which is a lot of exercising!) yet in the back half of the book he talks about previewing and scanning.  The book's later hand-motion techniques feel a lot more efficient than "waving" & "dusting".  He also seems to live in a perfect world where all the texts are at 45 degrees and their pages lay flat at that angle, instead of reading paperbacks while curled up in a recliner. 

But it seems to work.  I started out a little over 600 wpm and doubled it in a couple of weeks.  It was mainly learning to stop subvocalizing and start scanning.  Above that speed, though, an assessment of a satisfactory rate seems fairly subjective.  It's up to us to decide how much we comprehend with immediate recall after reading, and how much we can really remember a few weeks later.

I think the biggest payoff for me will be my daily online reading-- news sites, my RSS feed, and forums.  I'll see how I do with company annual reports and investment analyses.  Maybe I'll keep up the speed in a novel but I haven't been practicing on those.  I've been reading them for fun.

I wish there was a new edition for handling e-readers.  Those hand-scanning techniques just don't cut it on an iPad...

[mxt0133]

I started out a little over 600 wpm and doubled it in a couple of weeks.  It was mainly learning to stop subvocalizing and start scanning.

Are you saying you are at 1200wpm, that is amazing?  I'm trying to break 300, with good comprehension.  The sub-vocalizing is killing me!!!!

[Nords]

I started out a little over 600 wpm and doubled it in a couple of weeks.  It was mainly learning to stop subvocalizing and start scanning.

Are you saying you are at 1200wpm, that is amazing?  I'm trying to break 300, with good comprehension.  The sub-vocalizing is killing me!!!!

I survived both the U.S. Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, read Navy nuclear reactor plant manuals and warfare publications for 20 years, screened a three-inch stack of message traffic every morning before the staff meeting for several years, and researched/wrote hundreds of point papers before I could go on liberty.

I like to read, and I read for several hours a day.  I was kinda surprised by those initial test results.  I was even more surprised by the improvement.  But when I put them into the context of what I've had to read over the years, I guess I learned to read that fast because I didn't have any other choice.

I know several lawyers who seem to absorb court filings at a frightening pace.  I thought it was because most of what they read was formatted boilerplate, but now I understand how they're doing it.  If you can't read that fast then you won't be a lawyer for very long...

[grantmeaname]

I like to read, and I read for several hours a day.  I was kinda surprised by those initial test results.  I was even more surprised by the improvement.  But when I put them into the context of what I've had to read over the years, I guess I learned to read that fast because I didn't have any other choice.

I was a little over 450 at first and had about the same thoughts you did. Glad you liked the book!

[Frankies Girl]

I'm like totoro - I've always been a natural speed reader, but don't retain much detail after several weeks. I kind of consider that an advantage as I tend to enjoy mystery/thriller for recreational reading, and I read so fast I'm not apparently processing the book into my long term memory. So I can come back to a book I read a year ago and while it will seem familiar, I won't remember "who done it" and can get the same thrill of discovery all over again. If I re-read a book more than 2-3 times, it will stay with me, tho.

I think I read slower when it is technical or informational reading (when it is more important to retain that knowledge), but pleasure reading I do tend to skim through pretty darn fast.

Just did a quicky test online, and it said I read about 800 words a minute with good comprehension. I guess that's not bad considering.

[Nords]

Thanks again to Grant for raising my awareness of reading tech.  Here's a real breakthrough in rapid reading for e-readers & tablets, and hopefully it'll break into Kindle formats soon. 

http://www.spritzinc.com/#

The Technology
The time consuming part of reading lies mainly in the actual eye movements from word to word and sentence to sentence. In addition, traditional reading simply takes up a lot of physical space. Spritz solves both of these problems. First, your eyes do not have to move from word to word or around the page that you’re reading. In fact, there’s no longer a page – with Spritz you only need 13 total characters to show all of your content. Fast streaming of text is easier and more comfortable for the reader, especially when reading areas become smaller. Spritz’s patent-pending technology can also be integrated into photos, maps, videos, and websites for more effective communication.

The screen at the home page of their website can display text as fast as 700 WPM.  It still seems kinda slow...

Next I'm going to see how I can mash Readsy into my RSS feed:  http://www.readsy.co/

[grantmeaname]

I've heard very mixed things about spritz. You're liking it a lot?

[arebelspy]

How's spritz any different from the other RSVP apps/programs that's been around for a decade or more?

Just the red letter?  Or am I missing something else?

EDIT: Found the one I used quite a bit in the early 2000s on my Pocket PC: www.mobiledynamo.com/prod01.htm

[Nords]

I've heard very mixed things about spritz. You're liking it a lot?

One hour into it, so far so good. 

I like the part about not having to move my eyes, and I find that I concentrate more on the reading instead of having my brain wander away from the printed page.  You also can't scan a page (like a blog post) for headers & lists-- you end up seeing every word instead of doing your own summary.  But for readers who are still subvocalizing, this is a powerful way to drop that habit and speed up their comprehension.

Uploading blocks of text (instead of dumping straight from an RSS feed) can take longer than the actual old-fashioned reading method, so this is still bleeding-edge early-adopter tech. 

How's spritz any different from the other RSVP apps/programs that's been around for a decade or more?
Just the red letter?  Or am I missing something else?
EDIT: Found the one I used quite a bit in the early 2000s on my Pocket PC: www.mobiledynamo.com/prod01.htm

It's new to me!

Spouse saw a commercial (or a demo?) and that led me to the website.  But, yeah, Mobile Dynamo seems to be a direct ancestor.

[arebelspy]

Uploading blocks of text (instead of dumping straight from an RSS feed) can take longer than the actual old-fashioned reading method, so this is still bleeding-edge early-adopter tech. 

There are ones to dump straight from an RSS feed so you don't have to cut and paste.

Also, I don't know if Spritz charges or not, because I've never heard of it, aside from clicking the website earlier today from your link, but there are lots of free versions of RSVP programs (including apps that will read your ebooks that are in epub format), so make sure not to pay - it's not proprietary technology.   :)

I did really like the color bar of Mobile Dynamo - it helped a lot to know where in the sentence you were, surprisingly enough.

Here's a recent Lifehacker post on speed reading: http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-1542508398