An interesting book. Included a lot of info on how to employ speed reading for a variety of media. I didn't need all of it as some things I do already or weren't relevant to me. I did notice my reading speed has increased by using the strategies in this book. ( )

I'm afraid I didn't manage to get this book completely finished before having to return it to the library (the book didn't work for me!).

However, it was quite an interesting read, and I've given it three stars, since I feel it will probably help some who really wish to increase their reading speed.

An initial chapter includes a description of various finger methods to use to help you to read faster. Although I've never regarded myself as an idiot, my intelligence is apparently lower than idiot level (though I understand idiots have an IQ of 0-20), since I failed to comprehend what was involved in some of the methods - I just couldn't grasp it. But I'm sure all you others will be able to.

Most of the passages at the end of the book for test purposes I found extremely boring, and when I attempted to speed-read these I had from 0-10% comprehension, or at least retention, as far as I could judge. Though the author does inform us that if we continue to speed-read, eventually we will end by focussing to such an extent that we will eventually gain more comprehension than we usually have even when reading slowly. But I didn't get that far, unfortunately.

I DID find out:

1) that the books I read are in general books I really want to read and that I find interesting (as far as the present book is concerned to a slightly lesser extent) and that I don't really want to read these books any faster than I do, since I also really want to understand them and retain some memory of what I've read.

2) that when I occasionally read works of fiction I do actually read quite fast - this happens automatically.

For those who sometimes have to read material they don't really find interesting, for example, students, who are obliged to take boring courses, or businessmen having to read dull reports, I feel that with a bit of application these persons could probably increase their reading speed considerably with the help of this book. But that is just a conjecture.

To revert to the finger (and also hand) methods of increasing speed, the author presents various of these, too many as far as I was concerned. I got bored trying them all, and I PERSONALLY didn't find any of them helpful. I find it best just to command my eyes to read faster without help from my fingers. But we are all different.

The author informs us that the key to achieving faster reading rates is "learning to spread your peripheral vision". We are introduced to "eye warm-ups" and special techniques such as looking for keywords and reading in "thought chunks". I PERSONALLY found that this slowed down my reading considerably as I had to think about what "thought chunks" were not to mention locating them.

There's a chapter about skimming, scanning and skipping. The author is correct when she states that some of us feel obliged to read everythig, when there's no need to. I too have that problem. But in the case of this book I took her at her word and skipped the 2 or 3 final chapters, which, as I stated above, I didn't have time to read anyway.

Apart from the obscure explanations about finger methods, the book was well-written and easy to read. It is probably worth reading for those really committed to increasing their reading speed. ( )