Comments on: Speed Reading : Is it good?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:59:38 +0000

Almost the same with me. Normal speed for fiction. Quick read for MOST non-fiction. (The exceptions are books with concepts that are hard to grasp. Physics and theology come to mind.)

By: Faith

Faith — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:44:43 +0000

i speedread on scientific journals and academic books, as in skimming it through works for me. but i never speedread on fiction and manga… very slow reader myself!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:00:24 +0000

I think I’ve seen one video before of a speed reader (not sure if it’s him too) who was challenged to say something from a particular page and he was able to do it. But that was a long time ago and my memory is not be trusted even at the best of circumstances. Hehe!

By: bookworm

bookworm — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:40:11 +0000

about the video.. i find it very disturbing… i don’t think he is SPEED READING.. .he ISN’T READING. he is just gazing at each paper and hastily leaf thru the next pages. i want to challenge him by asking whats the content of the 987th page, 5th paragraph…let’s see if he can recall the salient point on that part. =/

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:40:25 +0000

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.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:49:12 +0000

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.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:57:54 +0000

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.

By: Angelo

Angelo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:43:33 +0000

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.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:02:10 +0000

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.

By: Angelo

Angelo — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:15:50 +0000

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.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:19 +0000

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.