You probably have heard about people who read lots of books in a very short time, and you might have wondered how it is even possible to read books that fast. Theodore Roosevelt was a real passionate reader. He could read a book or two in a day. John F. Kennedy was known for his reading speed as well and encouraged all of his cabinet to take speed reading classes.
Average readers have a speed of around 200 words per minute. Good readers can read at about 400-500 words per minute while having good comprehension of the material. There are people who claim to read at 800-1000 wpm but the comprehension percentage drops and there is no point in speed reading if you don’t know what you just read.
If, the last time that you grabbed a book to read, it took you a full month to finish it, then you’re probably a not so good reader. Practice makes perfect, true, but you’ll never improve your reading speed if you don’t fix some of the usual reading problems that a lot of people have because of the way we learned to read at school.
So yes, speed reading is a skill that you can master with time and you’ll be able to enjoy reading all those wonderful books that you never had the time to read before. There are many methods that speed-readers use, so it’s all up to you to choose the one that works best for you.
Speed Reading Methods That Work
Stop Subvocalizing
At school, we were taught to read each word one by one aloud, and now even if we don’t read aloud there is still a voice inside us that sub-vocalizes each word while reading. This is one of the key problems that make us read not as fast as we want to.
Identify that internal voice and instead of sub-vocalizing, try counting 1, 2, 3…etc. or humming while reading. Just glide through the words with your eyes. The important thing here is to keep practicing this as much as you can and whenever you find yourself subvocalizing just replace it with counting or humming.
It takes time to do this perfectly because you’ll always go back to the old habit, but keep practicing and you’ll get used to it.
Read Clusters of Words
After you overcome the problem of sub-vocalizing words while you’re reading, you need to learn how to read clusters of words. Our eyes can focus on 3-4 words at a time, so try grouping words and focus your eyes on those groups instead of single words.
Avoid focusing on words that don’t give any specific information, such as: and, a, an, the…etc. Your brain will automatically pick these up and connect everything.
Stop Backtracking
One of the biggest problems that average readers face is going back and re-reading previous lines. Backtracking will slow your down a lot, so try using your finger to avoid going back and reading the same words.
They important thing here is to stay focused on what you’re reading, so that you don’t have to go back and read the same lines again. With time you’ll train your eyes to stop backtracking without having a need to use the finger all the time.
Skim Through
We pretty much all learned how to skim in the age of internet and online newspapers, so skimming is not something that is unknown to us, but many speed readers like to skim through text.
When you grab a book to read, it’s good to do a little bit of pre-reading in order to understand what each chapter is about so that you can move quickly through the ones that you’re not interested in and focus on the ones that you are.
When you skim through text your eyes will only pick the most important words in a line and then your brain does the rest. There is no point in wasting your time reading material that you won’t get real benefit from. So, avoid the filler text and try to find the main chapters where the most valuable information is presented.
Read a Lot
Improving your reading speed takes time and a lot of practice, so grab a few books and just start reading as much as you can. Keep a list of the books that you want to read and don’t start reading a new book before finishing the last one.
Remember that reading should be an activity that is fun and that you do it for pleasure. There is no point in speed-reading a good novel that is meant to be enjoyed in every detail. Also, good comprehension should be your main goal when reading, so keep that in mind.
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