How fast can you read and still retain comprehension.
This is a fun video that in just over a minute illustrates the exercise. Enjoy!
Fun Fridays – June 1, 2018
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World…Word by Word
The Steve Laube Agency
Helping to Change the World Word by Word
Four Ways a Proposal Gives You Focus
Excellent! Now if only authors could become speed writers. We could crank out a book a day and sell hundreds of thousands of copies the next day (since our readers could devour them them so quickly). If we kept up that pace for just a year, we could release 365 books. And with that many titles on Amazon, we could retire rich—having concluded a speed career in publishing!
Then again, maybe there’s a case to be made for just settling into an easy chair with a cup of coffee and a good book, and losing track of time.
“Then again, maybe there’s a case to be made for just settling into an easy chair with a cup of coffee and a good book, and losing track of time”….Here, here! Your comment, Bill i think summates the whole problem with the Amazon model… the churn it out or gurgle, rinse and repeat model.
I used to be a speed reader until I became educated enough to chew the cud. Now I read slowly to weigh everything against what I already know. This means that you can usually weigh things up faster in a shorter amount of time without having to read the entire… but OH WOW when that moment comes when you find a book that you want to read not just entirely, but inside-out and upside-down, and over and over again gleaning something new every time. Then you’re onto a winner!!
You may enjoy my post, “In Praise of Slow Reading”
https://stevelaube2.wpengine.com/praise-slow-reading/
Thanks, Steve, I did enjoy it and am going to share it! I also love searching out the essence of a work, and when I find some things only become clearer on second or third readings. I just love those moments when you connect with an author whom you may never have met before, but who you can understand instantly in that moment, when their words suddenly go deep into your heart. For me, this is priceless and has always been ‘my joy’ in reading 🙂
Sarah, I loved the inside-out and upside-down descriptor! Yes, it’s so sweet to have some book-friends like that…
I’ve found they’re hard to come by, Tisha, but maybe I should make more of an effort to seek them out! My father is the only person who can even begin to understand just why I get so excited about a particular book, or movie, or song even… I always thought there was something wrong with me because of it!
No… nothing wrong with getting excited about books! Or movies. Or songs. Sarah, hats off to your father! What a special bond.
A few of my book-friends are The Sea Before Us by Sarah Sundin, Lady Jayne Disappears by Joanna Davidson Politano, and the book that inspired me to write, a little title, Tall and Proud by Vian Smith.
Do you have any that are making their way into your book-friend list?
This was neat, thanks for sharing, Steve. How much does the average editor or writer or reader accomplish on a productive weekday or weekend?
Comfortably, I can read up to 500 words per minute. Now as for being awarded a Nobel Prize, I think that is still a future goal. 😉 That said, I’m happy with the title “Bookworm.” And furthermore, I’m off to read (and edit, and write) a few more books…
Okay, so at 700 wpm I’m super-human. I may feel compelled to share that with my consulting/editing clients who pay me by the hour! ;-D
I’m guessing the fact that I often spend many hours a day editing doctoral dissertations has a lot to do with having that reading speed. I’m also guessing that having the gift of what I call “editor’s eye” has a lot to do with it. When needed, I can quickly just skim read over a page of black-on-white text and spot things as small as an extra space between words or a typo. (That doesn’t always kick in on my phone or here, where text is in light blue!) But in tight edits of scholarly text, I slow ‘way down and consider every aspect of content as well as the spacing and punctuation details. Pleasure reading is totally different–like you all, I love v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w reading: underlining, highlighting in multiple colors, taking notes, marking with post-it tabs, and taking breaks to cogitate, or what Sarah called “chew the cud.” Isn’t that a joy?
I was able to read it, but that may be because they gave us a speed reading course the first day of graduate school, telling us if we couldn’t read at least 500 words a minute we would never make it. I am a bookworm.
Yep. 700 words. I learned speed reading in 6th grade, but my comprehension was 80% at 1000 words/min. But I prefer slow reading. I love words. They are not just tools of the trade, they give the fiction author’s voice that unique sound in my head. Reading non-fiction texts–there is no way I want only 80% comprehension! What if it’s a life-saving concept?
700 was easy, and I almost got all of the 800. That’s what comes from being a bookaholic.
Oh, mercy, Steve–FUNNY Friday! My phone is juggling the sources of posts and their headlines when I open email, then re-juggling to correct the matches several seconds later. I had plenty of time to read the headline “Germanfest brings food, fun, and beer to South Park” as the headline under Steve Laube. ?