Help for reading faster

[Me Died Blue]

I know this may seem like a silly thing to post here, but I'd love to know if anyone could recommend any good material (or just suggestions) for improving reading speed without losing understanding. I've always read pretty slowly, and I mainly want to improve because there is so much I want to read by the Reformers and the Puritans, but at my current rate, I wouldn't even be "down out of the trees" by the time I graduate from college! Any help or references would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[Edited on 3-21-2004 by Me Died Blue]

 

[Bryan]

The more you read, the faster you become at it, at least in my expirence. Also the harder the the stuff you read, the faster you will find yourself reading easier stuff (IE if you practice lifting 50kg weights, 25kg ones are no problem)

Bryan
SDG

 

[blhowes]

[b:2a155efbdf]Chris wrote:[/b:2a155efbdf]
I know this may seem like a silly thing to post here but I'd love to know if anyone could recommend any good material (or just suggestions) for improving reading speed without losing understanding.

I don't think that's a silly post at all. As a matter of fact, I had the same question a while ago and got some good advice in this [u:2a155efbdf]thread.[/u:2a155efbdf]

Bob

 

[cupotea]

I read at a high rate of speed, generally speaking. In fact, I was once solicited to take a speed reading course by the teacher and I could already read faster than his projected goal.

Having said that, I believe there is much value to reading some things slowly. For instance, reading John Owen, Charnock, van Til, and many others quickly will not be of much benefit.

Matthew Henry, Spurgeon's sermons, the newspaper and Time magazine can generally be read at a faster clip with little or no loss.

And if you want to read the Bible through at a fast pace, just get the [i:b0d75402a0]One-Minute Bible.[/i:b0d75402a0] :biggrin:

I would imagine the more reading you do for comprehension the easier it would be to read faster those things for which no or little thinking is required.

For starters, I would check out what is available at the public library. There are different schemes for speed reading such as skimming, picking out primary words, etc. I come by it naturally, so I can't recommend anything in particular.

 

[Gregg]

 

[robot]

I read at a pretty fast rate. My recommendation for reading faster would probably be to read more often, at a higher difficulty level of reading material. If you grow comfortable reading denser material at a normal pace, then reading normal things will be a breeze.

 

[Me Died Blue]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll probably try reading more advanced material more often, plus memorizing at least one Scripture a day (that was suggested in another similar thread I just saw). But usually, my problem with reading fast is this: If I'm not interested in the material, I simply can't make myself keep focused on it for very lnog at all. If I [i:3cb7e8f622]am[/i:3cb7e8f622] interested in the material (like theology), I can't keep myself from thinking about every paragraph and trying to relate it to the rest of the reading and apply it to my life, etc.

Chris