VISUAL BOOK SUMMARY

Oscar Wilde once said that It is what you read when you dont have to that determines what you will be when you cant help it. Simply put, what you put into your brain makes an enormous dierence in who you are and who you will become. So why do so few people actually read books on a regular basis after they are nished their formal education and get launched in the real world? Theres no shortage of excuses, thats for sure. When I tell people that I read about 3 times as many books as we summarize here on Readitfor.me, I hear all of the excuses in the book most of them revolving around the lack of time to read. A book will sit on their nightstand for weeks.

NO MORE TEACHERS, NO MORE BOOKS

However, theres another side to the same coin here. Perhaps its because they just dont know how to read fast enough. If you are willing to put aside the excuse that you dont have enough time, and learn how to double or even triple your reading speed, you might unlock a world of new possibilities for yourself. In the next 10 minutes you are going to learn the skills and tricks that the worlds fastest readers use to gain access to more knowledge than you ever thought possible.

10x

Understanding where you are today

If you are like me, you probably arent testing your reading rate on a weekly basis, if ever. So, just like any good exercise program, we are going to gure out where you are starting from, and where you want to go. Grab something that you enjoy reading. It could be a novel, your favourite magazine, anything that has a passage that you havent read before and that is least 1,000 words long. Now, grab a timer and set it for one minute. Remember to read at a rate that you nd comfortable this isnt the nal exam and theres nobody you need to impress. The impressing comes later when you double or triple your reading speed. When the timer is nished, mark the last word you read and count up the words. Its a lot quicker if you gure out the average number of words per line and then count the total number of lines you read: (number of words per line x total lines read). Now, nd out how you stack up. Here are some broad categories across the general adult population:

Under 180 words per minute:

you are a below average reader. you are an average reader.

Between 180 240 words per minute: Between 240 350 words per minute:

you are reading at an average college level. you are an above average reader. you are a superior reader.

Between 350 500 words per minute: Above 500 words per minute:
Now that we know where you are starting from, lets gure out how you got there, and what we can do to get you above that 500 word mark (and perhaps even up to 1,000!).

Backtracking
There are two things that prevent you from becoming a speed reader today. The rst is called Backtracking. There are two dierent types of backtracking in reading. Conscious and unconscious. Concious backtracking is when you read a passage of text and realize that you didnt completely comprehend it, so you go back and read it again. This isnt the most eective way to increase your reading comprehension, but there isnt anything wrong with it. However, unconscious backtracking is one of the most time-consuming reading habits of normal people. Have you ever read entire passages of text and then realized that you had drifted o to some other place and didnt remember a damn thing you read? I sure have. In fact, the average reader re-read 15% of the material they are reading because of this.

Vocalizing Words
There are 3 stages of reading out loud. The rst one is the one you learned in kindergarten where you literally read the words out loud. We are going to assume that youve moved beyond that stage and can read a book on the train into work in the morning without annoying the rest of the passengers.

The second stage is subvocalizing, where you are moving your lips but no words are coming out, which is usually learned in grade school as the rst step away from saying words out loud. Again, well assume you are beyond this point. The third stage is another form of subvocalizing, and happens when you are still hearing the words in your head as you read them, even though you arent moving your lips. This is where most people end up, and they usually subvocalize all of the words as the see them. Take a minute and read a passage right now to see if you are subvocalizing. Why are we subvocalizing? Because weve been trained from an early age that we are only able to see and comprehend one word at a time, and that we must read them in a sequential order. Logically, this makes sense. However, like many other situations, logic places a very limiting belief on us that we never contemplate breaking out of.

If you are like me and most of the people in the world, you were taught to read one way for everything you read. Of course, you are going to read a novel you are reading for pleasure much dierently than you will a business book that you are looking to learn a set of principles from. But there we go, reading them exactly the same way one word at a time. Why are you reading this, anyways?

Reading with a purpose, and on purpose

The rst thing you can do to combat this mistake is to be very clear about why are reading, and exactly what you need to take out from it. If it is strictly for entertainment value, then youll be less worried about comprehension and speed, and more worried about the atmosphere you set so that you can lose yourself in the moment. However, if you are reading a business book that you want to apply to your life, youll be more worried about speed (so you can learn more, quicker) comprehension (so you understand what you are reading) and recall (so you can remember what you learned).

The second thing you can do is to understand how authors write. Fiction authors will often write in a way to keep you engrossed in the story and to keep turning the pages. They will also want you to keep from speeding ahead, so they typically dont give you clear headings and chapter structures so you can create a roadmap before you start. However, non-ction authors will often lay out their books in just that way. Their books will be laid out in sequential order, usually with one concept building on top of another. Why is this important? For one thing, you can scan the material that you are already

familiar with without giving up too much in comprehension, and then read carefully the parts that are new to you. The third thing you can do is understand paragraph structure. The vast majority of the time, the main point of a paragraph will be in the rst sentence of the paragraph. This means that understanding the rst sentence in each paragraph is crucial in your understanding of the main concepts. This also means that you can read the rest of the paragraph much quicker because it is not introducing any new concepts, but adding context to the rst sentence.

Unde how arstand write uthors

The one thing that speed readers know that you and I dont is that using your nger speeds up your reading rate dramatically. They use their ngers to guide their eyes because they realize one very critical thing: that we can see and comprehend more than a couple of words at a time. There are a few ways to do this, and you should work through them sequentially, only moving on to the next when you are comfortable enough to push yourself further.

TECHNIQUES

TO READ

FASTER

Underlining
The rst technique is underlining. You can start by simply running your nger across the page as you read, underlining the words with your index nger. At rst, this is going to feel odd to you, and you might get a few weird looks from strangers who havent seen this technique before. Once again, go and grab something that you havent read before, and practice reading the material using your nger as a guide. Now, start moving your nger faster. If you were reading at 200 words a minute, start using your nger at 300 words a minute. If you feel like you are starting to lose control and that you wont remember a thing you are reading, thats ok. Right now you are battling your tendency to vocalize your words, and for the rst while you will nd it uncomfortable.

Dusting
The second technique you can use to read faster is dusting. Instead of using your nger as an underlining tool, now think about dusting o the page of the book with your entire hand, moving your hand back and forth down the page. I often read on my computer screen, and this motion is very similar to the motion youd use to dust of your monitor, so you should be comfortable with it. Make sure to move your hand very quickly back and forth as you move down the page so that you are able to see the words through your hands, just like you are able to see the road ahead of you even when your windshield wipers are on at full power. Again, it is going to feel weird to read this way, but youll soon be reading at a much higher rate.

cling Cir

n to ove o to m , and going are ment we ove Now, ing and m derlin ling h un rc the ci r. ith the earlie e it w in ned nce comb e lear tw sente rst men move ing at the h ain th ecall t r the m Youll in ph is lly). So ragra a sua in a p ur end (u preh use yo to com ique youll line n e rst ch e th ake this te derlin hen m nd un a nd t nger aph, a r f the parag rest o the the of the ck to ough y ba s thr he wa circle t ing ph on weep ra be s parag Youll or 6 argin. h in 5 left m grap the e para est of tir the r the en me. ng in at a ti , taki s nks circle in chu ph aragra p

At this point youll start to feel that re ading at a much higher rate feels much diere nt than when you sta rted. You wont be rea ding in the way that you were taught and li ved most of your life wo rd by word. Thats ok, and youll get ove r that awkward fee ling quickly.

Paragraphing
Now that you are comfortable reading at a much higher rate, you can move on to the last stage well cover here by using the paragraphing technique. Youll start o by using the same rst line technique as you did in circling, by underlining it from left to right. Then, instead of circling the rest of the paragraph with your nger, youll drop down at least 4 lines and then bring your nger right back to the left margin. If the paragraph is more than 4 lines long, you can repeat the motion until you hit the end of the paragraph.

Reading faster and comprehending more

None of this means anything if you cant comprehend what you are reading. Most non-ction authors are attempting to build a mental model for you. However, they usually stop short of actually creating one for you. So, youll create one yourself. The best way to do this is to create what most people would call a mindmap. Youll start o with one concept in the middle of a page, and then start branching o the sub-ideas as appropriate, and making sure to keep related materials together. So, as you are moving through the text, make sure to stop at points when you want to remember one of the concepts and make sure you build it into your mind map of the subject. Although it is beyond the scope of this summary, you should try and make the mindmap as memorable as possible. The more memorable you make the concepts, the easier it will be for you to recall them at a later point.

have it So there you of a summary ou need everything y crease in order to in rate to your reading u never levels that yo ible. thought poss nd let Good luck, a w it me know ho goes!

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