In reply to Karl.

Karl,

Thanks for your query. Your English is actually quite good.

Yes, speed reading is possible while still maintaining comprehension. The difficult part when doing classical speed reading (using printed texts) is forcing yourself to keep plowing forward even though you’re not quite getting everything in an effort to not “plateau”. (This post by Brain Pickings has a short and simple discussion on the “OK Plateau”, which you can also read more about on the web as well as in psychology journals including the work of psychologists Paul Fitts and Michael Posner. Josh Foer also discusses the concept and some of the research literature in his book Moonwalking with Einstein, and if I recall Malcolm Gladwell also covers some of it in his book Outliers too.) Practicing the techniques for a while (perhaps on texts that aren’t as important to you) can certainly help significantly.

Most of the speed reading I do these days is via one of the apps I mentioned in my post (primarily Spritz), so that getting stuck at a particular plateau isn’t as difficult. To increase my speed, I’ll push up the programmed speed by 100-150 words per minute for a few minutes and then drop it back down to 50-100 words per minute. This way I’m still 50-100 wpm faster than I had been previously, and (not so) surprisingly the new speed often feels almost slow while still being manageable. I’m sure there’s some eventual upper limit for speed, but why not push the boundaries?

These days I primarily only speed read newspaper and magazine articles and fiction which I read for pleasure or enjoyment/entertainment. For me trying to read advanced mathematical or technical texts at high speeds just doesn’t work and I suspect it never will as they take more thought to digest than most narrative form writing which can be read at much higher speeds. Another thing that can be very helpful is to read the first chapter or two (of a novel for example) to familiarize yourself with the characters and setting after which speed reading through the remainder is much simpler to digest since you have a better idea of the players and location which are often stumbling blocks for comprehension when reading longer works at higher speeds.

As a note for the tyro speed readers: While I’ve skimmed through several books on speed reading in the past (decades ago) and while they can be helpful/useful, I think that using one of the (mostly) self-explanatory speed reading apps I’ve mentioned above can help you read much faster without having read any of the speed reading “literature”.

You might also find this short article “Double Your Reading Rate” by Scott Young useful as it sums up most of the books pretty quickly and aptly.

Good luck!