Can you speed read?

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I'm able to have the natural ability to read books very quickly. The only thing that is depressing about this is that it's not "unique"
I've found out that there are more than one people on this website and even all over the Internet who can do the exact same thing.
I can read books in less than a day and I've finished many books in just one sitting. Kids and teachers alike where shocked that I posessed an ability to do such a thing. Maybe it's because they're surprised that someone with my intellect could do such a thing NOT because they thought it was special
When I was in 6th grade, I read an entire book in about 45 minutes. It was a really easy book also and I noticed that some people were shocked at the fact that I could do it. I don't read most books in 45 minutes but I've did with that book because I often read books of higher grade levels.
Are all of you able to have such an ability? I want to know how common it really is...

I can also read books quickly, but it depends upon the paper, lighting, and the content. If I try it under the wrong conditions, I never get the same content twice. But with most books that I've read, I can read them quicker than most people (or at the very least, all of my classmates when I was in grade 6).

Yeah, I can do that, but I don't think it's all that common, to be honest. In my experience, most people don't read as quickly as I do. I frequently plow through whatever book I may be reading provided it's sufficiently engaging. I generally do ~100pg/hr, but it varies. Keep in mind, too, that a site like this isn't necessarily an accurate sample against which to compare yourself; we're here because we all have a similar set of symptoms, accompanying which are abilities that the general population frequently does not have.

I can speed-read, but I don't like to read books that much. I speed-read The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and How to Eat Fried Worms for the accelerated reader program (which is TOO MUCH PRESSURE) and didn't pass either one! I hate the accelerated reader program! Maybe next year I'll fail all AR tests I take on purpose so I can get out of it! After all, that accelerated reader program gives me nothing but trouble...and PRESSURE! !!

Mich

Words to me are food for my mind, some times i stuff my mind with words other times i slowly input them Have learn far more by reading than talking to humans. and i read much better than writing and on output i talk alot better than write

It is ok mich it is just reading (I am very good at it)
CALM DOWN

I read very quickly too and I can go to the library, sit down with several books (this works best with children's books, because they're usually short), and get as many as 14 read in 3 or 4 hours!! !

If I'm at home and reading a "grown-up" book, I can usually get one or two read in a day.

I even can read while I'm at the computer; I've seemed to develop it to an art form.

I do when I'm so inclined. I have a hard time getting around to settling down to start them but once I do it doesn't last long.
I recall in tenth grade we were had read To Kill A MockingBird over a couple weeks with regular tests on the chapters and a final test on the book. I read it overnight. The next class my teacher asked me why I wasn't reading it and I told her I was finished. I took all the tests during my lunch and passed every one of them so I got to spend the rest of the time doing whatever I wanted. I couldn't figure out why everyone thought I was so strange for getting it done with but I guess maybe they were confused because I spent my free time reading more books?

I am a slow reader, sort of. I average about 20 pages a minute. There are many exceptions to this average speed. I can read George Orwell's Animal Farm at a rate of about 30 pages per hour but his essay Shoothing an Elephant will go much slower. I think I had to reread the later ten or more times before I got it. Some of Franz Kafka's work averages out 20 pages but much of the comprehension happens days later, I didn't realize that Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis was not really a giant bug until maybe 24 hours after I finished reading. Like the_enigma, I have noticed that there are a large amount of speed readers on this site. I have been curious to ask if any of the speed readers find it necessary to slow down for certain material. I had to reread and read slowly Shooting an Elephant because of my limited knowledge of the colonial period. Text books often slow me down also, like physics or chemistry, and if the topic is completely new I slow down to maybe 3 or 4 pages per hour. Sorry if this is shifting from the topic but I thought this might be a good place to ask if speed reading slows or affects comprehension? A slow reader wants to know.

I used to speed read - I think I just did it to impress myself with how 'bright' I was (needed to feel good about myself at the time), but I'd have to say that speed reading is like speed eating, you don't take in all the possible flavours and colours of a text, although you get the basic nutrition. I've had to force myself to stop speed reading, as I think it can become a bad habit and there's some texts you really enjoy more if you take it slowly. I think if you're studying for uni or something it's ok, I used to get comments from my lecturers at unit that no-one could read THAT many books, but I did, but eh for pleasure reading it's better to do a normal speed, or you can get to hate it.

PP

yup

Nope. I can parse text pretty quickly, but I've always taken the route of deep absorption when I read, particularly if it's something like a book. Sometimes I'll kick back a pretty straightforward book in like fifteen minutes, but that should send most people a message of contempt. A really thoughtfully written novel, though, I can linger on for weeks, taking time to really visualize a particularly colorfully written scene or to truly take in a moving paragraph. One of the reasons that I've always loved fantasy novels is that you get to imagine yourself in an exotic body and alien mind, and there is often flight. Try taking time to really touch what you are reading one day, to cuddle with it, to show your appreciation for it. It really enhances the experience of reading by a great deal.

"I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia." ~Woody Allen.

I probably read slower than most, due to having to re-read what I just read because my mind wanders too much. When I'd read an assigned article in class, most(sometimes all) of the other students would finish before I would; this has been consistent from 1st grade through college. Standardized tests say my reading comprehension is above average(~80th %tile), even though I'd often not come close to finishing this section of those sorts of tests.

I'm like this too. Sometimes I read many pages without even paying attention to what I'm reading. It becomes automatic.

Heh, yeah. That's what keeps me in a novel for several weeks with people going, "dude, have you like considered some speed-reading courses? My mother wouldn't take that long, and she has to squint even with her glasses!"

At other times, it's just a kind of paranoia about missing something, and I stare at it for a while just to make sure I'm getting everything. This is what slows me down most significantly in going through textbooks. I often find going into a kind of mental paralysis on that type of stuff. If I'm really finding myself a little stuck on a particular point, I'll end up so mesmerized, man!

I'm actually pretty good as a writer, though. I can generally type at about the same pace that I can talk when I really get on a roll, and I can chatter at pretty much a mile a minute. A lot of people seem to be really surprised by it, but I actually can compose a complete essay completely as I type it and without premeditation. I think that it goes a little bit with the mental wandering. I can type a ten page essay without forethought in a very short time, generally moving along with it at the fastest pace at which I can type.