Advice for improving my pathetic reading speed?

Miscellaneous General
21

That is a bit slow then, but for a work such as HA I would not aim that much higher.

How fast do you read novels, or stuff that is designed to be educational like a 101 course text book for some stuff without too many graphs and equations? If it is the same rate I think you could quickly improve by looking at some speed-reading introductions, I believe I found most of the stuff that helped me free on the web after the shorty study-technique guide we had when I started university. Just remember that are probably way exagerated about results and you shouldn’t aim for what they tell you is possible or normal…

Unfortunally it was a long time ago so I don’t have links…

If it is closer to 20-30 you don’t need to worry to much about it even if there could still be room for some improvement.

22

Something that I’ve found helpful as of late is to read 10 books at a time, about 10-15 pages per book per day (when time is available). I’ve actually decided to take 12 months off from academic writing (though I have some articles sitting in queue at TLS) and read/journal.

Ideas come from clustering knowledge. I find that it’s much easier to make connection across disciplines than to be linear in your reading.

Another big area that I want to work on is how to squeeze out small bits of productivity from typically unproductive conversations. You know, like talking to your family, spouse or loser friends.

23

I must say, that makes a lot of sense Jeremy! In fact I have found moments of my inspiration came so far often having studied or revised something rigorously in physics when I was still studying it and going on to read something by Mises, or another Austrian with everything still fresh in my mind. The inter-relations were dazzling. (One example is realising how prescient Mises was about the limitations of mathematical economics given the importance of having constants relating different variables in order to relate different parts of a system mathematically. This resonated with what I learned when reading classical thermodynamics, and learning the importance of the same idea!)

Similiarly, I have found a lot of inspiration from my current study of neoclassical economics at Birkbeck College, though often in quite a critical direction. I guess one way to further expand the fields I have some experience in would be to get into logic and philosophy too.

Also, about conversations, I must say I often get great ideas from them, whether with friends or family. I’ve actually had some fruitful ideas from discussions with folks on this forum too (for which I am most grateful). An ex girlfriend once told me I was more of a conversational thinker, keen to debate and figure out the consequences of ideas. I think I misunderstood her at the time, saying that when I really needed to learn, I buckled down to read and make notes. That’s more the way I revise and get things finally glued in my head; but now I think more that she had a point.

24

I agree with Jeremiah. I find that splitting up my reading helps me out significantly. I alway supplement a fiction while reading something dense. As a result I’m often reading 2-3 books at a time. I find myself more productive this way.

25

I. Ryan writes,

In fact, I used to read a lot (for example, maybe 4+ hours per day, finishing a lot of books over a few months). But I found that it was pretty useless. I would recommend that pick like 2-3 books (for example, “Human Action”, “Man, Economy, and State”, and something else), and stick with them really seriously.

Why did you find reading a lot useless?

I think that you need to pick a small pool of books to read multiple times over a lifetime (if that’s the subject that you plan to spend your life on, that is). For example, an Austrian economist may pick Human Action and Man, Economy, and State (although, more likely than not, we are talking about a larger pool of books). You will never assimilate all information in one pass, no matter how slow you read it. Also, I guarantee that after leaving the book for some time you will begin to forget specific arguments.

However, I think that someone interested in a subject (and that is my caveat; if you are physicist that just wants to get a basic picture of economics then only a few books would prob. be necessary) should get as wide a pallet of reading as possible. If you are an economist, you couldn’t get enough out of reading two or three books over and over.

I am a slow reader, because I am lazy and sometimes decide not read for very long periods of time—I also can’t read for very long periods of time straight, I get bored. I am currently reading Human Action cover to cover (largely because I want to get the time preference theory of interest down really well before I continue finishing Reisman’s Capitalism; so I want to read Human Action and Man, Economy, and State cover to cover), and I’m reading it at about 50 pages a day (which I consider a lot for myself — I was reading Capitalism at a rate of like 10 pages per day). It’s been maybe three weeks since I started reading it, and I figure it will take me one more week. I really wish I was a faster reader, because I have a lot of books to read, but like others have seen assimilation is more important than just reading (the purpose of reading, in any case, is assimilation of the information).

26

I’m surprised no one has said this, but…the secret to reading more is…reading less!

Now that I have made the most radical claim I can, let me take it back and revise my statement.

(Henry Hazlitt has a book, “Thinking As a Science”, which has a chapter on suggestions about how to read that I strongly advise. That is where a majority of my thoughts here on this come from.)

Apply Pareto’s Principle to reading, the top 80% of material and ideas that you want from a book really only come from 20%. Most of the time you can summarize entire chapters for yourself in your notes in one or two sentences. And, that’s perfectly fine, if not the ideal. Of course, what is clear in one or two sentences for you may take chapters for others, and this is why most authors (in my opinion) tend to write more than they need to. Moreover, if you are reading a book about, say, basics of economics, and you really don’t care for an introduction to Keynesianism (especially, after a light skimming seeing it is all arguments you’ve seen before), then why read it? Seriously, I think this impetus to “Finish a book” is a harmful one. And we should take from our books what arguments and ideas we want.

Also, if later on in life we find that there is something important that is missed, then there is no harm done in going back to it! Just as learning happens in concentric circles, so does reading. The reading we do later allows us to gleam knowledge skipped from before.

So, skim, skip, and always read what is new. The key to reading fast is not reading every single word as quickly as possible, but rather, in extracting the necessary information.

Related to this, becoming an expert in a specific field allows you to read material in that field because, well, at least due to vocabulary, but more importantly because you understand the specific style and ways that similar authors introduce ideas and concepts that allow you to skim up into the relevant and important information. I have noticed that in reading the amount of mathematics that I have, that I now read mathematical texts a lot faster than before, not because I mentally process the new ideas or read word-by-word that much faster, but because I have a much better idea of how information is organized, and how to look up the relevant information that I need.

Related to this is what I think is actually going on when a person 'speed-read’s. That is, they don’t actually speed-read, but know the structure of a given genre well enough so as to reconstruct the rest of the paragraph by only a few key words.

tl;dr, now the vocabulary and structure to use Pareto’s Principle to your advantage and skim to what you actually need to read. Thus, you read faster by reading less. Read in ‘concentric circles’, and not front to back.

(if you took my advice, you’d only have read the ‘tl;dr’ section :wink: )

27

For the same reasons that AJ lined out in this post.

28

I’ve decided to start blogging my notes http://libertarianunderlining.blogspot.com/ in hopes to better retain my readings. I hope to blog my notes each day by the first of January. If anyone else is interested in this or starting/joining a book group read post here or contact me. I want to stay really engaged in learning this coming year

29

I perceive my slow reading as a strength, not a weakness because I retain far more than my peers. If you don’t retain your reading, you are passing time instead of gaining education.

Tips for speed:

-Read in a quiet place without distractions

-To lead your eyes to avoid losing your place, put a finger to the left of the next line of the text (or put the sentence your reading at the top of the computer screen).

Tips for retention:

-Do subvocalize

-Relate reading to all the senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing, body positioning, balance)

-Relate reading to your emotions

-Investigate topics of interest beyond the book

-Reread confusing material

-Stop reading or refocus when your mind starts to wander

-Learn Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Bandler and Erickson)

30

people that say that ‘’ speed reading is absurd’’ obviously have not taken the time to learn it… it is very useful and you do remember alot more because instead of retaining words in your short term memory, you retain phrases… obviously, you read slower when you study compared to reading a fictional story for pleasure, but speed reading does work… if you do not have patience for ‘‘speed reading’’ then, yes, you should just stick with your way of reading…

31

I have not read everyone’s responses here so I hope I am not repeating something already said. But as a current college student I find my reading speed to be extraordinarily slow when reading my textbooks. But I also look at my time spent in the textbook as a study time instead of reading time for the sake of reading. What I find is that when it comes time to go over the material again before a test I find it a quite speedy process. In fact, the day or so before any test I rarely study for more than an hour or so because most of my study time can be attributed to my initial reading of the material. I am a finance major BTW so it’s not like I am speaking of studying history or art which requires less critical thought.

But I will say that I am glad I am not the only one one here who has this problem :slight_smile: although I hope you still improve

32

I read articles, listen to a lot of podcasts, and watch a lot of presentations. I usually watch/listen/read a piece of media multiple times. I have probably read my favorite set of fiction 30+ times. I find repetition helps.

33

Skip things.

Don’t sell yourself short. You probably have better things to do than torture yourself with every passage of every page of every book you read.