At what speed do you read?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I can see the advantages of speed reading for ploughing through technical stuff as fast as possible; but I'm puzzled by the notion of speed reading recreational books.

I'm not sure why we're resurrecting this ancient thread, but, since you ask, it's not something I do deliberately; it's just the way I read. Certainly not a conscious choice.

[Lobolover]

I finished Zanoni in four days,and one of those I realy slacked of and read only thirty pages.Actualy,two of those days,I read 197 pages alltogether.I was able to read over 100 pages in one day.

and there,I got 348,mostly cause of the numbers and figures,cause otherwise,it'd be much higher.

[brecklundin]

Interesting 'tests' did the first at 780wpm @ 100%. But those were not tests of comprehension.

So called "comprehension" is a misnomer on these tests. Comprehension, to my thinking, implies a deeper understanding of topics and concepts. These tests measure memorization and regurgitation. Better to read slowly and once then to read fast, memorize, as say for a test in skool, then never actually know what the stuff you memorized really means.

I have a big chip about the quantization of everything, including 'intelligence'. Learning is a joy and should never have been led down the dark path of measurement. Quantization also detracts from truly learning a subject for a large majority of people. The goal is no longer learning the goal becomes "the grade".

Sure some people absorb more then others but timed testing and the way we grade (otherwise known as culling) in the US is appalling and detrimental to learning. Better if testing was used to guide students into areas which they excel rather than simply cast them aside if they do not fit into the predetermined 'right thinking' mold our PTB's want.

Some form of grading is inevitable but for every regurgitator there are the ruminators who take a topic in, then over time, on their own, process the information into something which exceeds those who can simply take tests well via route memorization.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure why we're resurrecting this ancient thread, but, since you ask, it's not something I do deliberately; it's just the way I read. Certainly not a conscious choice.

Harry, I get your intent completely. I find many books I read in the same fashion as you. I skim, often a significant portion of the material, even novels. I try and gleen the primary topics. This allows me to re-read the book after I had time to digest the concepts or premise.

I never try and read a novel as if I way preparing to do brain surgery for the first time. That makes it work. I want to read what keeps my attention and skim the rest. I often cannot recall the names of many characters even half way through a novel, so I decide to begin again. It's for fun and like you say, it's how I read.

[Alexander Turcic]

Interesting, because my reading habits are the exact opposite. I tend to start a book very slowly, to get the feeling for the characters and their environment; then, probably after one third of a book, my reading becomes faster and I tend to skim passages which seem less relevant to me.

[tompe]

I usually do not skim at all. if you need to skim then the book is not worth reading. But one exception for me was some Tom Clancy books and especially the book with long boring passages about how to build and atomic bomb.

I also think I slow down in the end since then you have to integrate the whole ending with the rest of the text that you have in you head and that takes more time.

Subjectively it feels like I am reading slower in the beginning and faster in the middle but that might be just the perception. I have not measured it.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by tompe

I usually do not skim at all. if you need to skim then the book is not worth reading.

Yep, that's my view too.
I don't consider I've read a book unless I've perused every single word (although I've skimmed the odd book or two in my time, I don't regard myself as having 'read' them).
I even read every tedious word of the cetacean lectures in 'Moby Dick'; and the equally boring descriptions of undersea life in Verne's '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'! What a slog they were .

[astra]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Interesting, because my reading habits are the exact opposite. I tend to start a book very slowly, to get the feeling for the characters and their environment; then, probably after one third of a book, my reading becomes faster and I tend to skim passages which seem less relevant to me.

I usually do not skim at all, othewise the same. Slow start then after 1/3 an increase in speed after I am familiar with the environment.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

Interesting 'tests' did the first at 780wpm @ 100%. But those were not tests of comprehension.

So called "comprehension" is a misnomer on these tests. Comprehension, to my thinking, implies a deeper understanding of topics and concepts. These tests measure memorization and regurgitation. Better to read slowly and once then to read fast, memorize, as say for a test in skool, then never actually know what the stuff you memorized really means.

I have a big chip about the quantization of everything, including 'intelligence'. Learning is a joy and should never have been led down the dark path of measurement. Quantization also detracts from truly learning a subject for a large majority of people. The goal is no longer learning the goal becomes "the grade".

Sure some people absorb more then others but timed testing and the way we grade (otherwise known as culling) in the US is appalling and detrimental to learning. Better if testing was used to guide students into areas which they excel rather than simply cast them aside if they do not fit into the predetermined 'right thinking' mold our PTB's want.

Some form of grading is inevitable but for every regurgitator there are the ruminators who take a topic in, then over time, on their own, process the information into something which exceeds those who can simply take tests well via route memorization.

The thing about so-called "Intelligence Testing" is that only measures your ability to take the tests, nothing more. IQ derives from an attempt to combine varying data points into a single quantifiable factor and there's evidence some of those points may have been the product of falsified data.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

The thing about so-called "Intelligence Testing" is that only measures your ability to take the tests, nothing more. IQ derives from an attempt to combine varying data points into a single quantifiable factor and there's evidence some of those points may have been the product of falsified data.

Exactly...I have thought of finishing my PhD in mathematics and teaching somewhere. But, I abhor the whole grading process. When I was in college I knew so many extremely bright fellow students who had all manner of problems memorizing. Education equated memorization with learning. Few instructors actually know how to test the depth of a student's understanding and prefer instead to weed out those who simply require a different approach to learning.

And yes, I am aware colleges & universities offer so-called 'learning centers' but typically those are peer learning folks (as in "gradual students"...er I mean grad students doing the mentoring) some are good at it others, not so much. But in essence those who need a different approach are pushed out for no other reason than they need more attention. This is especially true at large universities/colleges. I spent one semester at UCLA & one at USC and knew almost right away the assembly line education model was not for me. I figured since I was paying out of my own pocket I was danged well going to have a place where the emphasis was on teaching and learning not just keeping the line moving.

I decided on a much smaller well regarded private university which offered significant access to faculty for more then a quick 5-min session because the profs are so over burdened with about 5-million students/semester... Cost me a fortune but was worth every penny and kept me interested despite the fact the summer weather was typically well over 100F for 10-days at a time and often for as long as 22-days over 105F. And I came from a coastal city with and avg temp around 68F - 73F all summer. Now THAT was a difficult adjustment...thank the gawds that the library had AC...hehehehe...

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure why we're resurrecting this ancient thread, but, since you ask,....

HarryT ya delicate flower you, the tampon goes in straight not sideways... hehehehe...sorry could not help teasing a bit. I get that way too so it makes me chuckle.

But, dude so it's an old topic? Does that make it not worth discussing? That logic would make topics addressed by Shakespeare totally pointless and Plato or Aristotle even more so...

[moz]

Thought for the day: it would be interesting to have a liseuse that counted words per page and gave you reading speed from that. I suspect you'd want a cut-off where pages that took longer than (say) twice expected were not counted, the assumption being you'd stopped reading.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by moz

Thought for the day: it would be interesting to have a liseuse that counted words per page and gave you reading speed from that. I suspect you'd want a cut-off where pages that took longer than (say) twice expected were not counted, the assumption being you'd stopped reading.

If I wrote a reader program I would add such things directly. I would also save when the book was read and how fast a book was read so you can do statistics on this. I would also save information like how many books are read at the same time.

[Hvatum]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

Interesting 'tests' did the first at 780wpm @ 100%. But those were not tests of comprehension.

So called "comprehension" is a misnomer on these tests. Comprehension, to my thinking, implies a deeper understanding of topics and concepts. These tests measure memorization and regurgitation. Better to read slowly and once then to read fast, memorize, as say for a test in skool, then never actually know what the stuff you memorized really means.

Better to read quickly, and then read quickly again to give your brain more chances to memorize things. Given a strict choice I would of course prefer to read through something slowly once than quickly once.

It depends of course on the material. I would rather spend more time on a concept based text and actually understand those concepts. But if it's a novel which I will be tested on I would prefer to read through the novel quickly a few times than slowly once, I find I retain much more that way for the same amount of time invested.

For recreational reading I prefer to read through things quickly simply because I develop a picture in my head of everything happening anyway at this point. Reading slowly instead of speed reading just feels, well, slow.

Actually after spending some time with this speed reading stuff I find I actually write more quickly too because I'm no longer vocalizing everything I'm typing out. If it's something where accuracy is critical then I will read over it once I'm done (which I used to do anyway), but for forum posts and most emails this isn't necessary. The things which slows me down the most is spell check, which is now seems to have been added to every browser and instant messaging client out there.

[Sparrow]

Dictator is a fun way to experiment with reading speeds:
http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html