Reading faster.

[Nikitta]

Do you think it's possible to learn to read faster?

Not as in speed-reading, but just reading a bit faster?

Or do you just think that some people can do and other can't?

Do you know of anyone who has managed to learn to read faster as adults?

Or is it maybe just that some people are better at not getting distracted by sounds?

[iiradned]

My reading speed fluctuates. Sometimes I can breeze through a 400 page paperback in about 3 hours. I finished the book 7 of Harry Potter in about 3 1/2 hours.

And sometimes it can take me a 10 days just to finish a chapter.

That said I read about 3 times faster now than 10 years ago. So I think it is possible to read faster without having to speed read.

[Cynthia Dalton]

I read fast. I have for as long as I can remember. I think it's just practice; the more you read the faster you can read. Starting to read at age 3 and always being a bookworm certainly helped. Also I think that some material is easier to read than others. Anything with a plot I speed through. Scientific papers take much longer.

[Tania]

I'm with you, Cynthia. When I'm editing, I read much slower than when I'm reading for pleasure. I feel like I'm using a different part of my brain. I communicate differently in editor mode, I am actually strict about grammar rules. Not like now.

I think it comes with practice and inclination. If you like to read, and you read frequently, you get faster. It's like any other skill.

[Tor]

If you focus on it, sure. But it depends on what you are trying to read. Fluff is easier to read faster than more serious stuff. But once you get up to speed on the fluff, the more serious stuff should come faster too...

[Nikitta]

I think it comes with practice and inclination. If you like to read, and you read frequently, you get faster. It's like any other skill.

Not entirely, I think. I enjoy reading and have read a good deal, but I still don't read fast at all. Even though my reading speed has probably improved, then it's still a lot less fast than I wish it was.

So, it's like you can get better, but only to a certain point and what that point is seems to vary from person to person.

OTOH, I get easily distracted by sounds and if there's loud music playing, I can't concentrate on reading at all. Maybe things like that has a lot to say about how fast someone can read too.

[PixelFish]

I can read pretty fast. Fiction goes quicker than non-fiction, naturally, and books I love I can zip through. So enjoyment and brain processing speed seem to have something to do with it. (I still read non-fiction quicker than most people read fiction though.)

When I was a teenager, my friend's older brother asked me a bunch of questions about speed reading. We determined that trying to get me to understand and break down the process BREAKS the process. It would throw me to a screechy grindy halt wherein I could focus on the page at all. When this happens (and it occasionally does, even without people questioning me) I can re-read a sentence ten or so times and not get it at all.

We also determined that I have a highly visual recall. While I don't have a photographic memory, we jokingly called it my semi-photographic memory, because I still tend to remember which side of the page a particular phrase was on, or roughly where on the page or where in the book.

And the visual aspects of reading--I tend to read a block of text at a time. Not word by word or even necessarily sentence by sentence. And I can also read ahead silently while reading aloud. (And in fact, did a lot when we had to do read-aloud snippets in English class in school.)

I would suspect that like other swift readers on these boards, my swiftness derives from starting reading at a very young age, and insane amounts of practise.

I have some questions I'd like to add to the thread for those who consider themselves to be swift readers:

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?



For me, the answers are 1) Yes, 2) Yes, and 3) Swift reader/yes.

[Domini]

I'm a fairly swift reader, but not a total speed demon; I usually come across people who read faster than I do when this sort of topic comes up.

I can read a 600-800 page book if I'm motivated and I have 8 hours free. A la Terry Gookind's Temple of the WInds, JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I can read a 200-300 page book in about 2 hours, a la Rachel Caine's Weather Warden books. So I guess that's about 100 pages an hour, give or take, depending on how dense the prose is.

My method is very like PixelFish's. I have trouble figuring it out exactly, but as far as I can tell, I read word chunks, and sometimes phrase chunks. I only "spell out" a word if it's new, and sometimes not then. This caused me, when I was 12 or so and just made the leap from child to adult books (I skipped YA), to get some words and names wrong...for example, Anne McCaffrey's character Menolly was mis-read and mis-pronounced as "Melony" for the longest time. In fact, when I'm not talking to someone else around her, I still mis-pronounce it in my head, I merely force the "correct" spelling and pronunciation when I'm talking to other folks so I don't become embarrassed.

A thought just occurred to me...you know how Asian languages use characters that represent an entire word, rather than an alphabet that spells sounds out? I think I read English words possibly similarly to how someone Asian reads a character that stands for a word. I'm not a linguist, so I can't say for sure, but really, it seems pretty logical to me that people who read in an Asian language would *have* to do something like that, memorize the entire character all the little lines and all, because I'm told that unlike languages written in the Latin alphabet, the similarity of one character to another doesn't necessarily indicate a link in the phonetic way it sounds, or the meaning of the character. And what I do is memorize the overall shape of the word, so I can just glance at it and know what it is without having to sound it out.

Of course, this is why my spelling royally sucks. For some words, once the spelling gets close, I have no way to figure out if the spelling is right if it's not something I've memorized beforehand because at a glance I know what the word is *supposed* to be, but the actual error doesn't always pop out at me. I'm getting better as I get older, mainly because I keep repeating the old mistakes and finally sit myself down to slowly learn the words I didn't used to know how to spell.

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

Yes, in that I'd rather read bad books than bad forms of other media I mean, if there's a really good TV show on (currently my only example of this is Battlestar Galactica) I will drop a book for that. But if I just want to be entertained, I'll go looking for books first, and other media only if I've exhausted anything I feel like reading in print.

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

I carry a book everywhere where I have the space and potential to be bored. If I'm caught without a book by sudden ennui, I will buy newspapers and magazines, or even another book, if I have the cash.

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

I'm faster than normal, and I do re-read books.

[mjr]

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

1) Yes. I've especially noticed this since I've been single again. Even good movies that I have waited to be out on DVD...I find it hard to just sit and watch the whole thing. But I can sit and read for hours at a time.

2) Yes. But I don't have a car and public transit is interminable if I'm not reading.

3) Like most, it seems, who start young I am a fast reader and always was and always read several grade levels above my classmates. I have several books I call my 'old friends'...The Hobbit and LOR I've read maybe 25 or 30 times...several of Heinlein's books are in double digits...Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Agatha Christie ...and sometimes if it's been a while between books in a series I'll do a quick read of earlier volumes before I read the latest.

[Nikitta]

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

I'm not swift at all despite having read since very early and being better at reading than anyone in my class when I was in school - especially in the first classes.

I only rarely reread books.

[Randy Johnson]

I'm not sure I would be classed as a fast reader. Faster than normal yes. On this last day of September, I'm working on my 20th book. I've had months, though, where I've read as few as seven. I think a lot of it, for me anyway, depends on several factors. 1: the style of the author , 2: time availability of course, 3: my health( feeling good or bad, I read every day as much as I can). I'd rather read than watch TV or movies. I prefer instrumental music playing while I read. And yes, I carry a book everywhere I might have time on my hands. I don't like just waiting and carrying on conversations with strangers is not my favorite thing.

[Nikitta]

I'm not sure I would be classed as a fast reader. Faster than normal yes. On this last day of September, I'm working on my 20th book. I've had months, though, where I've read as few as seven.

You consider seven books in a months to be few?

The only times I've ever managed to read a book in one day is when I'm home ill, but well enough to read for hours (like the last day before I feel well enough to go back to work or like when I was home because a bad wrist meant that I couldn't use computers for a week) and the book is fiction.

Granted, I don't read every single day, depending on how tired I am and how many things I have on my mind at the time. However, I do read a good deal and I started pretty early, so I wonder what the difference is between those who can read fast and someone like me.

[Phil]

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

1 - If I absolutely had to choose only one and the others were forever unavailable afterwards, books would be my first choice.

2 - Yes. If not a physical book, I sometimes have quite a few e-books on my old palm pilot (Baen FTW!)

3 - All the time. I usually go through 6-8 books a week. Since that would quickly bankrupt me, I do tend to re-read most of my books (both fiction and non-fiction). Right now (doing a rough estimate) I have around 1,500 - 2,000 books at my place. I usually drop off about 8 or 10 boxes of books at the library every couple of years, so my collection can fluctuate from as low as 600 books to as many as 3,500.

I read a lot. And quickly.

Does anyone else read while walking? A co-worker is amazed that I can do that and not get hit by a bus. I developed that habit in college (that and reading in very noisy environments).

[Phil]

...Right now (doing a rough estimate) I have around 1,500 - 2,000 books at my place. I usually drop off about 8 or 10 boxes of books at the library every couple of years, so my collection can fluctuate from as low as 600 books to as many as 3,500....

Incidentally and apropos to nothing, dust is an absolute nightmare at my apartment.

[Randy Johnson]

Yes, seven for me is a few. I average about fifteen. I've kept records for years and my high water mark was 292 in one year, plus magazines and newspapers. Being disabled and retired, I have a lot of time on my hands and thanks to working my tail off for thirty-two years, I'm able to buy a fair amount of books( a lot of them used) and make use of the local library as well.

[PixelFish]

Domini: I too mispronounced Menolly's name in my head for a long time.

Also your idea about words as ideograms (memorizing the shape of the word) makes a lot of sense. In graphic design courses, we were told that ALL CAPS actually slows people down (perhaps another reason it annoys people on message boards) because there are no distinguishing serifs, descenders, ascenders, ears, feet, etc to make letters within the word form stand out. Ergo, two words of similar length and similar spelling like SNAKE and SNAPE and SNARE would read as the same word. Snake and Snape and snare look very different in lower case though. One word form has two upward spikes (or one upward spike if not used at the start of a sentence) and the other has one upword spike and a lower spike and the last has no spikes at all.



(BTW, I may be prejudicing my data, but I personally theorise that people who read at a slower pace will be less likely to re-read books than people who can read at a faster pace. Time being a resource and all.)


These days my monthly average is about 12-15 books and largely because my free time is not so free as it was in days past. (Or I've developed more of a sense of responsibility. After all when I would knock off two Nancy Drew mysteries in a class period, I was obviously not paying attention in class. But work....I pay a LOT of attention to work.) In high school, my weekly average was about 20-25. (And I should point out that my parents had to have a chat with the librarians one day and I was forced to go through a period of only having one fiction book out at a time until my grades went back up. I think there was some talk about not allowing any books at all, but they conceded I might need the fiction book for one of my English classes.)

[Starstruck]

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

1) I will usually take reading over anything else, except things that are scheduled with other people and I don't get a choice. Lately that's MMOs for me, but sometimes things go badly and I find myself wishing I had just read a book instead. I keep a book on my computer desk so I can read and play at the same time, which makes lulls much more bearable. I probably wouldn't have cable except that it's also my modem.

2) I learned that I can't carry books everywhere with me, as the temptation to read at work, in class, etc, becomes too great for me. I once had a job which involved sitting around in my office waiting for things to do, and I read a lot of books during that time, with one ear alert to anyone about to catch me. My counterpart played endless rounds of Mah-Jong on her computer, and I felt sorry for her being so bored. Ah, those were the days. I, too, mastered reading and walking at the same time.

3a) I am a fast reader, yes, but I don't know how I do it. I just read, and get engrossed in the story and come up for breath now and then. I go faster for books I enjoy. Friends have said they are jealous of my pace, as it means I can read more books, but sometimes I wish I could savour good books longer. I have a very strong editorial sense though, and get annoyingly jarred out of the story if I encounter an error. I don't mentally pronounce words at all, which leads to having little idea of how made-up names are pronounced, nor even many infrequently encountered English words.

3b) I like to reread favourites, but only after a few years have passed. It takes me about that long to forget most of the details so I can enjoy it fresh. Since having my son though, I no longer have time, as my to-read stacks slowly grow instead of shrink, and my forays to the library set things back further.

4) (bonus!) I know people that do, but I cannot fall asleep reading. No matter how tired I am, I'm still there, hooked. It sometimes takes great acts of willpower to find the bookmark and turn out the light. Textbooks are another matter entirely.

[Jeri]

I have always been a super-fast reader but I think it's the same technique that others here describe - reading chunks, phrases & snippets, rather than word-by-word. I know I miss stuff, especially when I start a paragraph and it's an expository lump or a story thread that I'm bored with. Other than that I can't describe how I learned to read this fast. (roughly 100 pp per half hour). As with most here, nonfiction is slower, and professional resources slower still.

In a really high-water mark month, I can read 20-25 books a month. Average reading volume is pretty similar to Pixelfish, 12-15/mo. I have a hard time putting down books in the middle, I like to finish them! I've been really swamped lately with work so am reading at the low end of that range.

In response to Nikitta's question, I wonder - does anyone here read in a language that's not their first? I'd imagine that reading is MUCH MUCH slower when that's the case, you wouldn't have the linguistic context to skip around at all.

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

I always prefer reading to most other forms of entertainment. I'd much rather curl up with a book than watch a movie or a tv show. This drives my husband and family crazy.

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

No, I don't, because I tend to get sucked into books and have a hard time disengaging. If I have free time on public transit or waiting in line, I tend to dink around on my Treo - answering email, etc.

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

Yes, I reread books. I couldn't afford to keep myself in books, otherwise. Some old favorites have been reread into tatters, dozens of times. I keep books by favorite authors or those I know I'll want to read again (about half), and trade the rest in. It adds up. Someone suggested built-in bookshelves in my "About Me" post and I'm seriously considering it!

[Nikitta]

In response to Nikitta's question, I wonder - does anyone here read in a language that's not their first? I'd imagine that reading is MUCH MUCH slower when that's the case, you wouldn't have the linguistic context to skip around at all.

If a book is originally written in English, I will prefer to read it in English since I find that much is often lost in translations. When I read HHGTTG in the Danish translation, I only found it quite funny, but reading it in English made me a fan.

It used to be kind of hard for me to read in English, but now I have no issue with it and I only rarely have to reach for my dictionary (except for when reading someone like HG Wells, in which case I'll need it) - I even sometimes think or dream in English, though it's still easier to read in Danish, which is my native language, and if I'm very tired, I can feel that it's easier.

I don't mean to sound all arrogant, I just didn't think of that factor.

[Jeri]

We Americans tend to be so ethnocentric... we assume the world revolves around us and our language and culture. There's a tremendous amount of literature out there that hasn't been translated - or has been, but imperfectly - and we're completely oblivious to it.

My very outdated second language is German, and it would take me eons to try to get through a 400 pp German book. I have great respect for those of you that have progressed to the point that you can read and think in multiple languages!

[PixelFish]

Oh, my German reading is SLOOOW....currently. But I notice it's picking up as my vocabulary does. :)

[Rita In Hoood]

1) Do you prefer reading to other media? Would you rather read a book than watch a movie? Watch a TV show? See a concert?

2) Do you carry a book with you everywhere?

3) (For anybody, but can you tell us if you consider yourself a fast reader or not so I can correllate the answers) Do you like to re-read books?

Heroes sounds incredibly interesting. Has anyone found a print version? I find I never feel like actually watching it.

My Palm Treo currently is holding about 200 books. If I know I'm going to have sitting-around time, I carry whatever treeware I'm currently in, but I've always got a library in my pocket - great for grocery store lines.

Like Phil, it's not economic to not re-read books. Two years ago my treeware library was at about 8,000 books (incl. fic and nonfic and graphic novels and textbooks) - I was scanning bar codes into DeliciousLibrary for an inventory. I've a e-libary of about 900, with surprisingly little overlap. I've also got library cards from 2 counties. And I'm still re-reading books.

I don't think I've EVER read less then 7 books in a month. I know I've done 4 in a day on a lazy weekend. I'm always amazed at book clubs - how in 'ell do they read ONE BOOK in a month?

[Nikitta]

I accidentally stumbled upon an answer to my own question and felt like posting it here, in case others share the same problem. It seems that I do what is called sub-vocalizing and that the only way to be able to read faster is to learn to stop doing that. I thought that all people read "aloud" to themselves in their own head too, but that seems to not be the case.

Now how to stop sub-vocalizing, now that's one I haven't solved yet.

[Casz]

I'm not surprised by Nikitta's comment about how to slow down reading. I used to read really fast (in chunks) and really slowed myself down by forcing myself to read to me silently. I used to get bugged about reading too fast and people would quiz me on the book to make sure I read it. Dumb and annoying. I started reading at an early age and have always belonged to a library. I am still a fast reader. Some weekends I read 4 books. It's hard when I go on holidays because I can't take enough with me:)

For Pixelfish
1) I prefer reading over other media. In fact I often read while I'm watching a movie at home and sometimes tv shows.
2) Now that I have a smart phone I am always carrying e-books with me. There is no overlap with physical books and ebooks. I read a lot more short stories now so I don't get too caught up.
3) I have favorite books I like to re-read.

How do you all feel about audio books? I have some but I find they take an amazing amount of time to listen too. I have to think of them as something other than books or I get too impatient with the process.

[Nikitta]

How do you all feel about audio books? I have some but I find they take an amazing amount of time to listen too. I have to think of them as something other than books or I get too impatient with the process.

I enjoy audio books, possible partly because I have fond memories of being read aloud to, as a child, but also for the same reason that I buy pre-chopped frozen vegetables in stead of whole ones - it's less effort - plus it's at almost the same speed I read at, myself, anyway (Yes; I'm that slow). It's just not something I get around to do much.

When I read, I sometimes like to skip ahead and read a section here and there - maybe that's what I find myself missing in audio books?