Can you speed read?

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Yeah, me too. I even skip reading some posts, because they are too long. I have a very short attention span.

Do you mostly(99% of the time) remember every last detail that you personally have an interest in, and then tend to have to re-read everything else?

How are you with diagrams? Can you look at a picture diagram of something and memorize all the details within 1 or 2 tries?

What you have already stated is very interesting.



Wow. I've done this with a lot of college essays and still did reasonably well on them! Glad I'm not the only one.

I'm a slow reader. I jump around, get distracted, try to fill in what I consider to be blanks in content, mentally revise text to make it clearer--at least to me--and too often start at the end of a sentence or page. While I've earned three degrees and parts of two others, these habits were never helpful.

I can cover a great deal of written material fairly quickly if it is interesting.

I have always been a very, very slow reader. I tried several different speed reading techniques and it made no difference. Then I went to vision therapy (in my 30's). The vision therapist had me wear some special goggles connected to a computer while I read something. We discovered that I didn't know how to move my eyes efficiently for reading. I read just like a first grader just learning to read. I had perfect comprehension, but I was hopeless for speed.

After doing vision exercises for about a year, I was retested and did much better. Then I tried to learn speed reading again and made progress.

It seems I just never figured out on my own how to use my eyes.

I am a fast reader...although never manage to finish a book all at once. I can read about 5 pages before I need to get up and move around...which is odd because I can stay online for 3 hours without getting out of my chair.

One of the things that made me feel good about myself when I was younger, was the fact that I can burn through a book, depending on size, pretty quickly. If I read it for the first time, it takes me longer. Fourth Harry Potter book, first time? Minus sleep and meals, eight hours, give or take half an hour. Second time? Just one seven hour sitting. I was a little sore from not moving for so long, and I was hungry afterward. Smaller page sizes, like in a Tamora Pierce book? Less than four hours, for a full 350-450 page book.

When I was a kid, there was nothing better than getting lost in a book.

Yes, although it depends on the type of book. As a rule, I like longer, more complex books than what is found in the average paperback rack. Some books I can get through fairly quickly, others I slow down for, especially if something strikes me about the writing, I will go back and reread favorite passages. I especially like books that make me think. But that doesn't mean I don't read "fluff" every now and then.

I can also read and write backwards and upside down. I like to do that at meetings, when I push a paper over to another person to get their comments on it, I will write what they say upside down to me but right side to them. It freaks them out!
Another thing that drives people nuts is that I am right handed but I mouse with my left hand. Must be my Aspergers making me do stuff like that.

I do this too! My handwriting is also *much* easier to read if I write upside down, but it takes about twice as long to write. When I take twice as long to write normally, it doesn't turn out near as neat.

I read for fun, so I'm in no hurry. I do burn through books by a week, but that's because work and home life get in the way.

I'm left handed, but I mouse with my right because I've always seen them that way...

Can you speed read? nope infact i have to read things over and over again for it to sink in

and then it only works about 50% of the time

I can currently read about 130 pages in an hour, if it is interesting, and comprehend what i am reading. Text books take longer, simply because I have to be able to do what the book is demonstrating. I no longer buy simple reading books from the store, ifinish them too quickly. so if there is a new book out I want to read, I sit in BAM and read it.

I was in the accelerated reader program when I was in high school. Took third place in how many books i had read, and tested on. won an old mac computer from my school. Back then, first read through of Harry Potter, Order of the pheonix, 870 pages, took me 8 hours. I got 4 hours of sleep that night.

My mom's last husband had a speed reading program he was trying to get his son to try because his son was having issues reading. I worked with it about twice and stopped because it increased my speed about 10 pages a minute. I read fast enough as it is.

I don't type fast. I have typing dyslexia, I don't even know if it is medically possible but my brain triggers my hand to reverse the order in which the letters are supposed to be. It takes forever for me to post sometimes.

Oh. I am also technically ambidextrious, though I write with my right hand most of the time, I just never developed the left's penmanship enough to use it all the time. and i can read/write upside down too.

I read very quickly. I think it is something natural. When group reading, like on a video game with multiple players, I often have to ask when they are done. I just would let the words flash on and then go...

I am good on the backwards/upside down side. It makes no difference to me.

I'm painfully slow at reading. I can try to go quickly, but it just doesn't sink in that way. I have to read really slowly to get it. Even then, I'll sometimes have a lapse where I'll sort of zone out in the middle of reading and I won't understand what it's talking about or how it got there, so I'll have to go back and reread a few sentences, only to find that I hadn't actually missed anything and that it makes sense if I just focus on what it's saying.

And if someone interrupts me mid-sentence... That really pisses me off because I get confused and have to go back and reread the whole paragraph or so.

I read real quick, but as far as I am concerned, this is not a good thing at all. I am usually very inattentive while doing it, and tend to read the book in fragments and skip a good deal of necessary information. As a result, I miss out on most of the meaning. The only exceptions are books which are so engaging that they completely rivet my attention (that takes some doing), so that I will absorb every word without having to make an extra effort.

However, most commonly I have to slow down on purpose, and possibly re-read some places in the book as well, to make sure that I have really read and understood it all.

Last edited by ixochiyo_yohuallan on 03 Mar 2008, 3:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

My reading speed is exceptionally fast, even when I'm not skimming. Unfortunately I can't retain concentration doing this for very long periods so after about 15 minutes my comprehension rate starts to plummet.