How to Increase the speed of your Reading

SPEED reading is a fine art of absorbing written information in a fast and efficient way. If you can speed read, you will learn more, know more and finish your assignments faster. It may not mean you are smarter, but you certainly will know more but that too doesn't mean anything unless you know how to analyse all the data you can absorb at blinding speed. Actually, it simply means it can make your life a little easier. And you thought, you just won the lottery!

FOR those who desire to read and digest those numerous volumes stacked in
some corner of their room or kitchen but have not found the inclination,
time or good sense to do so, there is an answer at last.
Yes, it is speed reading. And it has not come to stay. It is actually
just passing. An Indian scholar from Bombay and a research officer from
Mysore have pooled their mental and physical energies to produce this neat
piece of work.
Let's be clear at the outset. It may not solve your reading problem, be
it speed or lack of comprehension. But it does point to several directions
which you may proceed to resolve some of your reading problems, thereby
taking that first important step towards increasing reading speed and
enhancing comprehension.
This book is aimed at the sea of humanity who read little due to lack of
motivation, or none simply because of sheer inertia. As any good doctor
will say: Understand the problem first. That's what this book does.
It outlines the topics logically. For example, the first chapter deals
with understanding the nature of reading. The second deals with the
science of reading and the third touches on developing greater speed in
reading. By the time the reader gets to the 10th and last chapter, it
would become fairly obvious that it has been somewhat of an adventure
trail that these two writers have created.
Of course, the book is pedantic at times but that's the way it's meant
to be. The Ahujas do not simply diagnose and dissect the issue; they also
probe the innards of speed reading. At this point, I must add, the subject
of reading goes back about 100 years, when most of our forebears may have
just completed their Junior Cambridge, if at all.
There are scores of references at the end of each chapter. Interested
parties who wish to pursue the subject further afield can look up the
numerous educational monographs and doctoral dissertations quoted in
abundance.
This book is best read like this: Fast, the first time. Slow, the second
time. And if you still have the stamina, handpick the chapters you like
the third time round.
That's one of the vital points stressed by the writers - stamina. Good
and fast readers have a vast reservoir of stamina. Mix that with a
positive attitude and diligence, and speed reading becomes a piece of
cake. The persistent advice is practice. Like most practitioners who
excel, practice is the key that turbo-charges your eyes and revs up your
mind.
It is a marvellous recipe for many of us who are currently caught in the
endless tide of ever-flowing river of information. The number of magazines
and other reading literature is increasing at a frightening rate.
How to increase your reading speed as this book advocates is just the
"weapon" you need to cut the whole mass of information to the bone. It
explains quite nicely why bad habits like head movements, vocalisation,
finger-pointing have to be eliminated before you can cultivate those good
ones which help you pick up speed.
It's not too late to start to pick up a book like this so you can at
least cultivate one good habit before the year is over. If you have been
too timid in the past to try the first two chapters of that thousand-odd
pages of War and Peace, or that half-a-palm-size width of Les Miserables,
digest this collaborative effort by the Ahujas.
When you believe you are sufficiently equipped with well-trained eyes,
dive headlong into the classics which you have been wanting to read before
you retire or have grandchildren, whichever comes first.