Any other speed-readers in the house?

Subject: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 01:30 PM

It's a truly bizarre "skill"(?) and certainly not one I ever put any effort into learning. Considering my abysmal scholastic history of failing grade after grade and eventually being tossed out of High School as "unteachable", it strikes me as pretty funny as well. But..truth of the matter is I'm able to scan a paragraph and soak it all up in a matter of a couple of seconds.

There's always been one big CONDITION though, the subject must really interest me. I'm practically dyslexic when it comes to the simplest instruction manual. I've thrown out watches, because I simply couldn't remember how to set them, EVEN after pouring through the instructions again and again. VCRs? Not a chance. Computers? Hah! (ask Joe Offer) Even my Electronic Keyboards had to be learned through hours of practical use.

When it comes to Biographies, Histories, Personality profiles, Newspapers, "Net" stories, and (especially) Mudcat, I just sail through at the speed of light. Tested this a lot as well...I really DO absorb it. It results in a head just chock full of the stuff I find personally interesting, with huge holes where some practical (like taxes, plumbing, bill-paying, receipt-saving) stuff should be.

Anyone else have a similar strange dichotomy?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 01:39 PM

Almost exactly. And it seems to get worse with age. If I am fascinated with it, I just fly through it without thinking about what I'm doing. If not, it has gotten to the point where I can't even keep my mind on the first sentence and get impatient and just skip the whole thing.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 01:57 PM

I took an adult education class in speed reading many years ago. About half-way through the classes I came down with appendicitis and was also "diagnosed" with being pregnant. It turned out to be twins, so on top of the appendectomy and severe nausea and fatigue with the twin pregnancy, I never went back!

But I did learn several techniques that anyone can do to push their reading speed.

1) Practice on a ~6th grade reading level.

2) Move your finger (or a card) down the center of the page at a speed that forces you to read faster.

3) Practice glimpsing at strings of numbers (5,7,9 digits long) and remembering them.

There are more tricks with images that only flash for a second or so that a reading lab would have.

I still don't read real fast, but have never felt the need to. Right now would be a good time because I'm trying to finish a series of alphabet mysteries that I've borrowed. I'm still on "H."

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Banjer
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 02:14 PM

yes sir, I tuk one of them Evelyn Woods' sped reding corses an I kin now reed up to 60 words n hour! It sumtimes takes me 90 minuts to evan watch the Tv show called 60minuts but evan thet is improving!

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 02:23 PM

I struggle something awful with reading & comprehension. I have to read each sentence very slowly, over and over again to comprehend what is being said. Even if it is a topic of personal interest. On the Mudcat, I can only follow a couple of threads at one time because it takes so much of my energy to read & join in on the discussion.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 06:06 PM

Yeah Bonnie, I've seen threads like that as well, ha ha!

My typing has never moved from the Neanderthal stage tho'. Two fingers PLONKING away. I often forget what I was going to write halfway through a sentence, 'cause my mind was racing so fast. I need a secretary.

Rick

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 06:14 PM

I still tend to 'photograph' things, though not consciously; it's just that very often, long afterwards, I can recall an article by 'seeing ' it. e.g. top right hand corner of the page. Strange, and fascinating , how the mind /brain works.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 06:15 PM

I speed read, I used to proof read in the days before spell checkers rendered us (allegedly) redundant. Boy, you wouldn't believe the amount of books I've wanted to return to the publisher with the mistakes marked in red on them..... I'd read once through quickly to get the story and spot some of the more obvious errors, and then again slowly to check the grammar and less obvious mistakes. It drives me batty when I'm reading on the train and I finish the page before the owner and true reader of the book/magazine/paper has finished the first paragraph......

LTS

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: sophocleese
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 11:29 PM

I've always been a fast reader so never learned any speed reading techniques. I never use a bookmark, I always remember the page number I stopped at and then, when I open the book, my eyes automatically start at the paragraph I finished on.

I need to get into the habit of keeping paper and pen beside the bed. There are times when I dream pages of a book. Not a sort of movie action but just pages of text which I read. When I wake up I cannot remember ever reading those pages in my life before my dream. If I could just right them down once I might find out where I had read them before.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 12:12 AM

Rick- I am exactly the same, I can read 2 paberback novels a day, but technology has me baffled.One of my hobbies is crosswords, so last year I bought myself a crossword solver but could never figure out how to work it, so it is now in the cupboard somewhere.I am sure it would take me years to learn to use a computer,(I am using internet TV).

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 03:08 AM

Hey, Soph, I can do that!!! The bookmark thing... and read 2 paperbacks (or a couple of hardbacks, what's the difference apart from weight and wrist breaking ability?) in a day too.... Once read all of the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings in 5 days.....

I also dream of phrases or sentences from a book and then go batty trying to find the book so I can read it all again, because I know the phrase will squirrel until I've read it in context.

And don't you find it dead annoying when you have 4 books of a series of 5 and can't find the remaining one? And it's always one from the middle with all the plot explainations in it.

Anyone got a spare copy of 'Rainbow Valley' by L M Montgomery? It's the only one of the Anne of Green Gables series that doesn't have Anne in the title, so the kind person who bought me the set, didn't think it was part of it, so didn't buy it...... Been looking for it for about 8 years now.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 09:20 AM

Liz,

You can buy it from Amazon. Link

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: GUEST,jayohjo
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 01:29 PM

Hahahahaha, a whole load of people like me! I only realised I read fast when my mum showed me some postcards she'd bouhgt, and I was laughing at the jokes as soon as she pulled them out, she was flabbergasted but I never realised it was unusual (except, Lts, re people finishing after I did!) Jayohjo XXX

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 02:04 PM

When I was in seventh or eighth grade (age 12 or 13, in 1959 or '60) I took part in an experimental program designed to teach speed-reading to kids. They used a tachistoscope, a kind of film projector that flashed words on a screen at a predetermined and adjustable speed. In the first lessons, they just flashed single words on the screen for, I think, a tenth of a second. After we got comfortable recognizing single words, they progressed to phrases, sentences, and later whole stories displayed one line at a time. Sometimes the projector would illuminate first the left half, and then the right half of the line, simulating the way you would move your eyes in normal reading. As the lessons progressed, the speed increased, too. They always tested our comprehension with questions afterward.

I think when I started the program, I read at about 200 words per minute. After the training, I could read comfortably at 500 wpm and 700 when I really pushed, but I certainly didn't enjoy reading at that speed. I think I was average for the class. (This was a class of "gifted" students.) There were one or two students in the class who reached 1000 or 1200 -- which was just a blur for me.

I guess the experiment must have been deemed a failure, because I never saw any campaign to purchase tachistoscopes for every school in the country. And today, if people were still interested in such things, it should be easy for someone to write a computer program that would do what the tachistoscope did, but I have never heard of such a program.

I'm sure it was a failure for me. Although I haven't measured my reading speed for many years, I'd bet I've totally reverted to the 200 wpm that I started with, or less. And I'm happy with that. In fact, the only time I've ever TRIED to read faster than that was when I was a college student and I had huge reading assignments that I had to get through whether I liked them or not. For me, trying to read fast spoils the fun of reading.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: blt
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 02:12 PM

When I was taught to read (in the 50s), the school instruction included a line of moving text projected on the wall. As a result, and because I've always loved to read, I am a very fast reader. From attending way too much grad school, I now habitually skim books at the library before I decide to check them out. I read anything, although I definitely have moments when certain non-fiction makes me gag. I have had a run on Dorothy Dunnett novels lately (wonderful historical fiction), and I typically have at least 5 books in various states of being read--two or more in my car, several in the bathroom, one in my backpack, one or two in the kitchen, about 3 by my bedside, not counting the handy bookshelf nearby. I consider libraries (and librarians) as divine.

blt

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 02:14 PM

I have found myself trying to slow down on books which I really enjoy. I think I'm trying to balance the two feelings which make reading so enjoyable: The quest for going on, whether it's for the knowledge as in history/bio stuff or to get to the next part of story as in novels; And--To luxuriate in the enjoyment of a truly good book, or at least one I like. Now I know you can re-read it and I often do, but that first time is so special that I hate for it to end, although I can't wait to see what happens next. I guess it's a pleasurable angst.

Anybody else feel that way too?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 03:42 PM

I find it kind of disrespectful to whiz through a book. The author has put so much effort into their writing and here I am just glancing over the passages. That thought makes me go back and read again more attentively. It reminds me of not really listening.
Catspaw I can totally relate. The first experience is no comparison to a reread.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 04:42 PM

Jim Dixon are you really Joe 90?
What ever happened to the Big Rat?

I was snitched on by one of the other kids at school for reading too fast, the teacher wouldn't believe I had read the book in question so fast. When she tried to catch me out by quizzing me on the book and failing she told me off anyway!!
I think the quick reading in that case was due to the dire books we were given to read

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 05:39 PM

Hey, Roger - I got stung that way too. I'd be a chapter or three ahead of everyone else, so when it came to my turn to read, I didn't know where they all were.... I got told off for not paying attention but confused them when I answered all the questions correctly.

LTS

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: JenEllen
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 06:15 PM

VORACIOUS!! Piles upon piles of the bleeding things... everywhere!!! There are definite favourites that can be savoured and re-read a thousand times, to be sure. And there isn't a room in the house that doesn't have at least one book in it.

I sail through the things I find interesting, and can muddle through the instruction manuals if I have to. Amazingly enough, it all sticks whether I intended it to or not, which has frightened folks on more than one occasion.

The only thing that has me perpetually frightened is that there is 'only so much space'(...not the house, there's always room for another book) but in my skull! One of these days I'll be rambling somewhere inbetween Neitzche and Nijinsky and forget where I live.....which wouldn't be so bad, except for that's where all my books are....

~J

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: jaze
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 07:35 PM

Spaw, I know exactly what you mean. I do the same thing. I often have to reread books I really love because I read them so fast the first time I'm sure I missed something. I also slow down towards the end because I don't want the book to end.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 08:12 PM

Roger in Sheffield: Who is Joe 90? Who or what is the Big Rat? If there's a joke here, I don't get it. Is this some reference to British TV?

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: andrewjohn
Date: 08 Jul 01 - 11:21 PM

I just found a neat trick to speed read this thread using this newfangled mouse .

If you press the thumb button you can set it auto scrolling at whatever speed you like .

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: sophocleese
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 12:10 AM

Ahh Catspaw I know whereof you speak. But sometimes being able to read fast makes the story more intense for me. When I read a good novel I sink myself completely into the world that is created; I find it difficult to get out again. With two small kids I haven't read nearly as much as I used to because I'm not allowed to sink into another world. If I try and do it when they are asleep I keep myself awake and sleep deprived and end up being cranky as all hell. As they get older I have started reading more again but I'm pickier and my tastes have shifted towards adding non-fiction to my reading diet.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 01:56 AM

That's the only good thing about travelling on the tube... I get an hour or so to read (if I get a seat.... not so easy standing up.... like a lot of things), without being pestered for juice or reading Tweenie books.

LTS

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 09:35 AM

guilty as charged.

But Rick, remember Manuals and Instuction booklets are written in International Dialect Incorperating Odd Terminoly - not English...They are specifically designed to be incomprehensible; therefore preserving the jobs of technicians and help desk personnel.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: clansfolk
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 10:23 AM

Rick - I started reading this thread on the 7th July stayed on line til I finished it - just this minute - do I qualify as a "Speed Reader?"

Surely people who read faster than other people write will have a problem with books as they'll reach the end before it's been written?

most confusing to an old Folksinger (oops that's another thread!) like me

Pete

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: GUEST,jayohjo
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 02:56 PM

As for slowing down....it's not possible, I don't 'try' and read fast, that's just the speed I read at. And yes, voracious is the word, will read anything and everything, from Dickens to the back of cereal packets, I've never started a book I haven't finished, and all the books I actually own (and a whole heap I don't) I've read on average at least 5 times.... Jayohjo XXX

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Grab
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 06:04 PM

Jayohjo, I'm a compulsive reader like that - cereal packets and stuff if I'm really bored!

Me, I can't remember how old I was when I learned to read, but I must have been 3 or 4, since I was reading Winnie the Pooh to my sister b4 I was at school. At weekends I'd sit next to my mum in bed while she read through the Reader's Digest, and she was a fast reader so I guess I just learnt to read fast to keep up. The average paperback lasts about 3 hours, longer or more complex ones (like Pratchett) last about 4. Sword of Shannara took maybe 8 hours. Pratchett is my downfall, cos I have to find a natural break to stop reading, and there aren't chapters in Pratchett so it's all the book or nothing - I can't start one after 8pm or I won't get to bed before midnight! And like Roger, I do remember it. (BTW, a memory for words and speed-reading also serves me very well in learning song lyrics!)

I can quite happily have several books scattered around the house in different rooms in various stages of read-ness - if I fancy reading in one place, I'll grab the book that's in that room, or that's closest in that room. I look at the page number b4 I put it down, and pick it up there when I start again. Sometimes I forget and just scan a few lines of each page until I find where I stopped.

Reading at that speed makes it much more like seeing a film, but with the extra depth that you don't get from a film. Sometimes it really does come to life like a film, and I can actually see how I'd film it - for instance, a battle scene in Elfstones of Shannara (a book with no other preposessing qualities) is so vivid for me it's scarey. Some of Lord of the Rings is the same, as is the scene in the arena in Magician (you may have guessed by now that I like sci-fi/fantasy! :-) Often, the rest of the book is very so-so, but sometimes a particular scene will stand out and take my breath away. In "Danse Macabre" (non-fiction and very interesting, incidentally), Stephen King said that ppl watch B-movies bcos although most of it is rubbish, sometimes you get that sound of pure crystal ringing through - that's exactly how it feels for me reading a near-perfect passage in a book.

Liz, I share your pain on spelling errors in books! I've often thought I should volunteer on proof-reading - I could do 2 paperbacks a week no problem, an hour a night. If I'm reading anyway, why shouldn't I get paid for it? :-) Even reading that speed, I'll nearly always spot all the mistakes first time through - it's like feeling stones under your feet when you're walking barefoot through grass. Anyone know if any publishing houses want part-time proofreaders?

Graham.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 06:19 PM

Who wants to pay proofreaders to sit on their (none too skinny) backsides and read, when a machine can do it for nothing?

I too, have several books on the go at once. Three this week, but I'm rushing to finish one so Manitas can have it.

LTS

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: mousethief
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 06:34 PM

My wife and my 17yo stepson are able to read without reading the words. They always have to wait for me to catch up if we're reading something together. I read every single word. I can't imagine how they do it.

Alex

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Burke
Date: 09 Jul 01 - 06:59 PM

I think I'm a faster than average, but not speed reader like Rick describes.

I am voracious; every poster I pass, cereal boxes, billboards, you name it. I do have difficulty slowing down on a book to savor the writing. Unfortunately, while I can devour a book in an evening, I will promptly forget it. I can't count the number of times I've reread a book later & had the deja vu, I've read this before sense, while still not able to remember what comes next. If I think I'm going to want to remember it, I'll reread it.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 02:16 PM

Sorry Jim I forgot about this thread till now
The Big rat / Joe 90

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 02:25 PM

Alex, part of learning to speed read is to look at a phrase without "pronouncing" each word in your head. If you practice on a low enough reading level, you can do this, and the comprehension is good too.

All this is opposite to what I taught Algebra students. Many of them were rapid "glossovers" who made lots of mistakes, so I had them slow down and "pronounce" each letter and sign in their minds as they read through. ie. talk to yourself, say neg-a-tive 2 AND pos-i-tive 3 so you won't make careless mistakes.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: mousethief
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 02:28 PM

I took one of those "teaser" courses whose purpose is to get you to sign up for the full deal. I just couldn't do it. I have to pronounce each word.

I like what you say about algebra, though. My daughter just flunked algebra and will have to take it again next year (9th grade). She does tend to hurry things.

Alex

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: LR Mole
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 03:59 PM

I'm a quick reader, but there are things I just can't be caught by.Some sort of instinctive switch gets thrown and I can only rarely throw it back. This happened to me with a lot of Sci-fi: I just couldn't settle in. On the other hand, there are books I'm really never NOT reading: ones I love so much I'm always ready for a few pages of .And, yeah, technical stuff drives me out. It's as if the mental voicepainter that turns prose into experience suddenly goes drony and dead, and I just can't care about it. And sometimes in sleep I can hear rhythms of the prose I've been reading but not words, like awareness of a conversation on the other side of a wall. Odd.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: MMario
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 04:19 PM

Mole - exactly - with some novels I don't really read but rather I experience - at least that's what it feels like. - Technical stuff though - I have to force myself to focus on each word, sometimes even have trouble recognizing common words.

Especially with lyrics and poetry I will often find myself "hearing" them - and sometimes as a "mindworm".

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 05:05 PM

Although I'm a good, middling-fast, and compulsive reader, I was once interested in taking speed-reading. I did a little "research" to find out what it was all about, and decided I'd BETTER not do it! Here's why (in three parts):

One. I'm a court reporter; with stenotypy (high speed machine shorthand) I write down everything everyone in a meeting (say a session of court) says, and later transcribe it for whoever orders transcript.

Naturally I have to prooofread every word (maybe two hundred pages for a day's proceedings). I DO NOT DARE get into skimming! Even my "normal" reading speed is dangerous; I have to consciously slow down to catch typos, wrong punctuation, wrong homonyms, and so forth. I'd just better not change my habits to a higher speed, or I'd be cutting my own throat!

Two. I love to savor good writing, reflect on an author's salubrious vocabulary choice or elegant phrasing. I'm greatly afraid this aspect of my pleasure would be lessened, given what I understand of speed-reading techniques.

Three. I couldn't afford it. I read so much that, even buying my books at the Friends of the Library sales ($2 for hardcover, $1 for paperback), I spend quite a lot now on books to feed the habit. What's more, I often find myself running out of books before the next quarterly sale. I don't want to run through my dwindling stock even faster!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: lady penelope
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 06:19 PM

Speed reading is a handy skill, but other than that I see no advantage in it. In fact, I too find my self having to conciously slow down or I start to miss pertinent points.

I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a reading style for students!

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: Any other speed-readers in the house?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 10:34 PM

I don't understand this, but as best I remember, the speed reading teachers taught that comprehension improves with faster reading. I think it has something to do with focusing and not allowing the mind to wander (if even for a nonosecond). I found though that it was usually the opposite for math students.

And Alex, good luck to your daughter. I've always believed that learning math was more attitude than ability. And what we do to young girls in math and science instruction is simply criminal, IMO.

Dave, in my first teaching job (college chemistry labs) I realized I had the talent to quickly scan for typos without bothering with content or comprehension...made the students think I was actually checking their lab reports because I would circle all the typos!

I think this all ties in with memorizing and performing music...but that's another story.