A recent question on ask.metafilter.com asked "how can I learn to read and comprehend faster?".
Lots of people had advice on how to skim and quickly polish off books, but I was dissatisfied with their responses. Here's mine:
First: ignore all the advice on speed reading. If you are reading for enjoyment and retention, it's useless. Go to the Cliff notes for the "gist" of the book.
Here's some tips that I think will help:
1. Remove distractions: don't try to read with the TV on, where there's lots of other people interrupting you, or even listening to vocal music. Do consider reading somewhere private and listen to instrumental music.
2. Let the writer tell you the story. Too many wrestle with trying to figure out what's going on from the very start, then fight with their misconceptions the rest of the way through. Let the story unfold before you.
3. Slow down! You're doing this for pleasure, remember? So, what's the rush? Enjoy what you're reading, savour it. No one has a timer on you. Yes, there are things we need to plow through, but when you read for pleasure, don't feel compelled to gobble it up.
4. Reread a favorite. You'll find that your comprehension a and perhaps your enjoyment will increase with a second or third reading. But don't overdo it. Don't become a freak that reads nothing but "The Lord of the Rings" or "The DaVinci Code" over and over again.
5. Read some plays. Get some scripts of modern plays (not Shakespeare to start with) and read them, but let them be staged in your mind, just as if you were sitting in the audience. This is great practice to transfer to novels.
6. Most important rule: always carry something with you to read. You'll find that if you never leave the house without a book you'll find many times during the day - lunch, long waits, breaks, that you can fill by reading for a bit. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can polish off a novel this way.
7. Become a voracious reader. Don't limit yourself to one type of books. Although you may love mysteries, you might find gold in historical novels, comic books, biographies, popular science, and science fiction. Read widely and deeply. You'll find that more experience with more types of books will increase your vocabulary and your understanding of writing and literature. That will also increase your reading speed.
8. Read aloud for someone. Reading to someone, a child, a significant other, is a surprisingly intimate experience. Yes, it will force you to slow down, but you'll find that it will dramatically and astonishingly increase your comprehension and enjoyment. And yes, it may also help increase your personal reading speed as well.
Reading is one of my great joys and pleasures in life. To read widely is a subversive act. Read everything and you can't help but to grow and change how you look at the world.
And here's another tip: writing is fun, too. Keep a journal, make your own blog. Readers who write have an opportunity to think more about the things they've read, which is also enjoyable.
What am I currently reading? Everything I can get my hands on by or about James Thurber and John McNulty. Do yourself a favor and look up these guys.
