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Speed reading isn't bogus. Learning to skim just happens to fall into the speed reading category and it's what everybody points to. However, it is not the main point of 'speed reading.' Speed reading is about picking up the speed of your reading so that you aren't plodding. A lot of students drop out of college the first year or two because they simply cannot keep up with the load of material that they have to read weekly. Usually the fault is one of two things - lack of time management or slow reading. Speed reading simply teaches you some skills to practice to increase your rate of reading. For some, it's pointless - they already read 500-600 words per minute. Any improvements are going to be slight. It's for the person reading 100-200 words per minute who will likely see significant improvement.
If all you read is technical stuff, your reading often slows down. You can use the same techniques to speed you up when reading novels, if your speed is bothersome to you.
All of this ignores comprehension. Your speed is going to be limited to your rate of comprehension. If the words and concepts are easy for you to understand, you will read faster than if they are not. That is why most people read novels far faster than they do technical books. There also can be physical limits. My speed is very low today because I have to often go back and reread (short term memory loss). I don't usually have the same issue with audiobooks because they use a different part of the brain.
Finally, as Crich70 mentions, if you enjoy what you are reading, you will likely read it faster than if you don't enjoy it.
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