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LonelyJar
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03 Sep 2014, 1:22 am

Is speed-reading even worthwhile?



progaspie
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03 Sep 2014, 4:23 am

I tend to speed read, but you do lose some of the detail of the book. You get through more books that way, but you may not enjoy the reading experience as much. If you find a book that you really enjoy, you may not want it to finish, so reading it more slowly prolongs the reading experience.



Roobot
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03 Sep 2014, 8:00 am

Have you seen this?

http://www.spreeder.com

There are apps that do the same thing.



BirdInFlight
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03 Sep 2014, 8:59 am

I'd rather savor a book. Speed-reading is like bolting your food too fast -- you're not tasting much or fully enjoying each mouthful.



Kiriae
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03 Sep 2014, 10:24 am

Speed reading is only useful when you have no time and have to know what a text is about. It works for browsing news and forums to check if there is anything interesting but it doesn't work well for books and texts you want to read for fun.

I can do the "fast reading" thing but I don't use it too often. I still remember the time I overdid it. I had no idea we were supposed to read "Potop" for the next day in school so I decided to read it using the speed reading technique the last evening. It took me 3h to read the 900 pages. But the next morning I woke up with a terrible headache that lasted for a week and I couldn't focus enough to remember the book. My memory about it appeared blank although I remembered the book when I was falling asleep. I believe a part of my brain got slightly damaged then.
Never again!



LonelyJar
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13 Mar 2016, 6:19 am

If I'm reading something for purpose rather than pleasure, and I need to remember what I've read, should I write summaries of chunks of text that I read? What about making diagrams?



Sigbold
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13 Mar 2016, 7:28 am

LonelyJar wrote:
Is speed-reading even worthwhile?


Writting about the skill, from what I know it is a skill you need to keep on practising. And I have noticed if I have done a lot of speed reading for a time I have trouble focussing on a text if I do not use speed reading techniques.