I am a slow reader. That’s a very hard truth to swallow for someone like me who just loves to read. This sad fact only makes my TBR (to-be-read) pile of books grow exponentially over the years.
When I was a small kid, I saw a TV commercial that showed a man reading a book by simply leafing through its pages. I didn’t want to believe it then because I thought it couldn’t be possible. Turns out, he’s actually the world’s fastest reader. Later, I heard of people who claimed to read pages in just seconds! The ever curious me naturally resolved to learn more about this cool thing they called “speed reading”.
In 1999, I bought the book Super Reading Secrets by Howard Stephen Berg – acclaimed as the world’s fastest speed reader. Wait, is there even a slow speed reader? 
My worn out copy of Super Reading Secrets
I thought I had already lost my copy of this book. But just a few weeks ago, I found it shelved together with my old and dusty grade school books. After 10 years, I’m now rediscovering the techniques I once dreamed of mastering so I could brag about it in elementary school. 
I was really excited to learn the tricks described in this book. But at the back of my mind, I was repeatedly asking myself if I really wanted this. I was thinking that speed reading is something you cautiously unlock much like the third eye. I thought once I learned speed reading then I could never go back to reading normally again. Well of course, I later realized that my worries were unfounded and well… farfetched. Hey! How should I know? I was barely an adolescent back then.
Surprisingly, the book is not all gimmick. It actually has some well-grounded recommendations designed to improve not just reading speed but also comprehension skills. The topics are constructed like a self-learning program with several hands-on exercises you can practice to gauge yourself. It’s readers belonging in the academe who will benefit most from the techniques here.
Ironically, I never finished reading this speed reading book. I think the program does work if you have the time and determination to earnestly follow it. However, I don’t think I will ever want to learn true speed reading again.
There are two reasons why I no longer like the idea of speed reading. Speed reading in the sense that you read faster than your usual reading speed.
- First, I don’t think that we can ever speed read without sacrificing comprehension and retention. What’s the use of getting to the end of a book if you don’t fully understand the ideas presented in it or only remember half of it?
- The second reason is obvious for readers of novels or fiction. Speed reading sucks out all the joy in reading for fun. We may be able to read fast but I don’t think our minds can keep up with it to do… uh… “speed imagining”.
Speed reading isn’t all that bad though. Ideally, our reading pace should depend on the type of material we are reading. If you’re studying for an exam or writing a critique, you should read the source material at just the right speed where you can gain maximum comprehension so you don’t miss important facts.
Our understanding and interest in the subject matter also plays a big factor in our reading speed. I can read tech-related books fast but I don’t expect to be able to do the same with Shakespearean novels. Speed reading is most appropriate for those materials which we read just for the information like newspapers and magazines, as well as for those things that we’re simply reading again.
Howard Berg’s book has gotten mixed reviews but I’m seriously going through his tips again. With my less-than-average reading speed, I could definitely use a reading improvement program. Just don’t expect me to read like him.
It’s one thing to read a hundred pages in just a few minutes but to be able to analyze and deduce new ideas and well thought out insights from it – now that’s the kind of skill everyone should be aiming to have.
Hi, Patrick! I’m actually a speed reader! Even though I don’t speed read novels, I’ve been able to worm my way out of situations because of speed reading. I use in my line of work, when browsing through bookstores (I usually read the first 10 or 20 pages just to check if I like it), and in reading web content. I think the skill is really helpful and would encourage people to try it. Nevertheless, I make it a point not to speed read novels and my other leisurely reading materials since (1) I want to take my time enjoying them and (2) I want to maximize every buck that I spent on those books. Considering that I’ve been buying new books lately, it would be crazy if I just spent one or two hours reading them! hehehe.
That’s exactly why I don’t like reading my novels too fast. I want to savor the amazing feeling of reading about new worlds and characters. If I read them in just a few hours, I’d feel I didn’t get my money’s worth. I think that’s also the reason why I’ve never bought books like Series of Unfortunate Events and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. They’re too expensive for their short length.
Thank you Patrick for the list of bookstores. As I finished reading your reply I was having some reflections about words being building blocks of our language. You may notice that language and thought are so intimately connected so that thoughts can be expressed as a single word or as a collection of words. For example “love” or “a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness” just like in the dictionary. A thought can even be expressed using a single letter if it so well defined to express it that way. A word or a group of words can represent different thoughts depending on contexts. What I would like to say is that the boundaries can rely on what we are considering at a particular context and I’m beginning to realize at this point that there can be no fixed boundaries – it can depend on what one sets or sees. So if we would consider language in relation to thought, the building blocks that our mind may notice in reading can change (if we only know how). We can know the entire Philippines, for example, as a set of regions, a set of provinces, a set of islands or a set of itself entirely. And I guess this situation can be much the same in reading. The partitions or blocks we put on what we read may not be fixed and this can open new possibilities for improvement.
I agree that in reading for pleasure we need to slow down, its like seeing the trees in the forest, there is a level of details we need – to imagine, feel and hear what’s described. We build an internal experience to appreciate a novel for example. What if we can reconstruct the internal experience as we read just like how we experience things in our actual experience (in the external world)? What if we can experience, say “The polar bear roared” in a smooth seamlessly streaming internal experience? It can be a leap from seeing the sentence as a collection of words to seeing the sentence as a whole. From “the” “polar” “bear” “roared” to “the polar bear roared” wholly constructed in our internal experience. Haha, these are only my speculations and I still need to see that book. Thanks again.
Actually, that’s a very good point Angelo. Our thoughts really are collections of words too lifted from the pages of the books we read. But then, those pictures do take time to form in the mind. That’s why we have long swaths of descriptions in a novel just to describe a particular scene. And it does depend on the existing knowledge of the reader. He may not even know yet what a polar bear is!
That’s why I think speed readers either have to be extremely knowledgeable already of the subject in the book or they’re just bluffing. As a slow reader, I just can’t fathom how anyone could glance at a page and still get a vivid picture of the subject in the said page. It’s just unbelievable to me!
I think of our brain like it’s a computer processor limited to a particular speed. A computer which so far, we haven’t found any ways yet to upgrade so that it could naturally read at a rate of 1000 words per minute. I think that’s just one of the human brain’s cognitive limitations. Or, I’m just really slower than everyone else and I’m just trying to generalize the whole reading population so I don’t feel too bad about my own failings. It’s probably the latter.
If you haven’t had any luck with the search and you really want to read the book, I can lend it to you. Well if you’re in Manila, that is. It’s just sitting here all yellowed and torn. Almost taunting me actually as if telling me that he’s really the answer to my reading problems. Okay, I just called a book a “He”… I really need some sleep now.
Thank you for mentioning that book. I have similar situation – I read slowly. It is a problem only in some situations it is really needed, for example, when things are pilling up even at one’s most disciplined management. If there’s a person like Howard Stephen Berg, then there is at least one exemplar that breaks a commonly held belief. I remember an article in the web that related skiing to be once perceived as an innate ability but was “decoded” and made available to those who want to learn it at finest levels. I hope this happens too in speed reading. Another article in the net said that learning skills can have tresholds. It’s like climbing a mountain – the way up would be really difficult, it’s uncomfortable and it isn’t the usual, but once you reach the top and start your way down to the other side, it becomes easy. The thing is, maybe Berg has already finished that climb compared to us who are making the beginning steps. So it seems to me that it would be nice to make that book available here in the Philippines. Is there any way I can have a copy of the book other than from amazon.com? Maybe a library or bookstore here in the Philippines? Thanks.
Hi Angelo! You can try calling bookstores to inquire about this book’s availability. I have a page which lists the official websites of our bookstores here. You can check their contact numbers from there.
http://www.syaoran.net/thebookishpinoy/browse/philippine-bookstores/
However, this book is quite old and I’m kinda doubtful if it’s still carried by our major bookstores here. But good luck with the search!
I think your insight on our hidden reading abilities echoes what I said about this skill being like the third eye. But now, I think it’s silly. Words are the building blocks of our language not whole paragraphs or pages. Our mind is trained to read those blocks and not whole collections of it in an instant.
I remember that segment in the Home TV shopping channel in which a speed-reading system was being shown. It had the books, the audio tapes and the reading materials to help you speed up your reading but it was giving more emphasis on improving your comprehension skills.
I think it takes time and practice to use your speed reading skills to improve your comprehension. Whatever the reason someone wants to speed up his reading speed, it should not kill the joy of reading.
Yeah, well I guess I just couldn’t find myself to enjoy reading a novel by reading it fast. I like things happening in real-life speed and not in fast forward. Hehe.
And I think we saw the same thing on TV.