How do you guys read so fast? I want to know the secret.
I started reading Star Trek novels when I was ten, and I love learning new words--the longer the better. I can usually read a 200-300 page novel in less than eight hours, if I don't go anywhere or do anything except eat and go to the toilet. In fact, I read the latest Harry Potter book in about 13 hours. My sister woke me up at midnight, I had the book home by 1am, and finished it by 2pm. Heh. My original plan was to SLEEP and THEN read the book, but it went the other way around.
I got a speed-reading course for my computer from a company called Infinite Mind a few months back, and it didn't really improve my reading speed much, but it did tell me how fast I already read.
I once heard that the secret to reading fast is to keep your eyes moving--it may sound simple, but you'd be surprised how many people move their heads instead of their eyes, or who don't move at all when they're trying to read.
That, and when I read, I'm able either to picture the scenes (in fiction) or to "hear" the words in my head like they would be spoken out loud. A lot of people, when they read aloud, don't sound like they're really speaking about anything--they're just trying to get to the end of the paragraph/page/book. They don't get any meaning from it, because they don't take the time to assimilate it. I guess I've just been reading for so long, and in such large quantities, that I've trained my eyes and my brain to assimilate the meanings from words faster.
I never read textbooks though. I tried a couple times, but ultimately, I got more out of the course just by taking notes during lectures--my psych 101 textbook kind of made my eyes cross after a while, not to mention I didn't have time to read it.
I've also been typing since I was eight, when everybody in my new elementary school (we had just moved to a different county) was required to learn keyboarding. After that, I kept my journal on my dad's computer, so I had lots of practice, despite my sporatic journaling.
People say "write the way you speak." I'd like to change that to: "Read the way you speak, and write the way you would speak if you were the most eloquent person you know."
Mostly, that's because I tend to express myself much better in writing than out loud.
