READING WITH THE RIGHT BRAIN

Copyright 2014 David Butler

Praise for
READING WITH THE RIGHT BRAIN
Unlike many other speed reading strategies available, Reading with the Right Brain is not a
gimmick; its a unique method that allows you to more effectively assimilate what you read in a
shorter amount of time.
Amanda Johnson, M.A.,
Assistant Professor of English, Collin College, Plano, Texas

David Butler and I have been friends for five years and have enjoyed many interesting conversations
about reading and comprehension. I have always found his thoughts on this subject to be incredibly
unique and insightful. Reading with the Right Brain has given David a place to collect these ideas in
one place, and make them easy to understand for anyone wishing to improve their reading skills.
This book includes not only original theories and techniques for reading improvement, but also a
totally exclusive method of presenting practice exercises that makes it extremely easy to begin
reading whole ideas at a time.
Pick up this book and start reading with your whole brain.
Richard Sutz, CEO,
The Literacy Company, www.EfficientReading.com,
Author of Speed Reading for Dummies

I strongly recommend David Butlers new book Reading with the Right Brain as one of the most
innovate new approaches to speed reading on the market today. For the past year, Dave and I have
discussed in email exchanges crucial issues about reading comprehension and the history of speed
reading instructions. Daves unique approach emphasizes the importance of reading with the right
side of the brain which helps the reader quickly comprehend a text by converting groups of words
into images and concepts.
It is amazing to me that so much could have been written in so many years since Evelyn Wood about
speed reading and no one came up with the idea of speed comprehension. All the other programs
emphasize rapid eye movement over text, promising that comprehension would follow, which it
usually didnt. The concept of focusing on comprehension first has been the missing link.
Reading with the Right Brain, is a must read for peoples interested in improving their reading
comprehension and speed.
Dr. James Young,
Professor of English, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah

David Butler gets to the core of reading comprehension in Reading with the Right Brain, with
effective techniques and exercises to focus your attention on meaning versus words. This book will
speed up your reading, increase your comprehension, and make reading a pleasurable pursuit of new
worlds of knowledge rather than slow torture that only leads to confusion. Read it and learn!
Danielle Ellis,
Mother, editor, and 6th grade teacher

Table of Contents
Praise for Reading With The Right Brain
Introduction
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: How Can You Read Faster?
Chapter 3: Your New Reading Experience
Chapter 4: The Basics
Chapter 5: Skills
Chapter 6: Ancient History
Chapter 7: Modern History
Chapter 8: Texting the Brain
Chapter 9: Reading with the Brain
Chapter 10: Mindset
Chapter 11: Comprehension
Chapter 12: Habits
Chapter 13: Visualizing
Chapter 14: Conceptualizing
Chapter 15: Reading Speeds
Chapter 16: Comprehension Speeds
Chapter 17: Techniques
Chapter 18: Mythical Exercises
Chapter 19: Mythical Stories
Chapter 20: Reading on Your Own
The End
About the Author

Introduction
I slammed the book shut. Why was I such a frustratingly slow reader? And why couldnt I
remember what I read?
I was sitting in my yard, in the shade of the tall white birch trees, beneath the blue summer sky,
reading a book I was very interested in. But I couldnt help getting angry at how much time the
reading was taking me and how poor my comprehension was. How could I enjoy a book if I had to
read it in slow motion? And then just forget it all?
This was me several years ago. And if this sounds like you, read on. I can show you how to read
faster and understand more, by reading with more of your brain; specifically the powerful, intuitive,
big-picture right hemisphere. Although not normally associated with reading, this side of your head
has a unique capability of quickly visualizing and conceptualizing entire complex ideas.
Reading with the right brain is a technique which opened the doors to reading for me. This is not like
any other technique you may have already tried; believe me, Ive tried them all. This is different.
This book is about learning to read conceptually and imagining and visualizing what you are reading.
Reading conceptually is not just another speed reading trick, but a different way of thinking. By
learning to use your right brains visualizing abilities, you can end the lazy habit of merely reciting
words, and learn to really think about the ideas.
This book explains how stronger comprehension leads to faster reading, how the history of reading
developed, and how the brain manages to accomplish this miracle. There is also a discussion on how
to side-step bad reading habits and an examination of popular speed reading myths.
The jewel of this book though is the set of 20 unique reading exercises, which make it easy to learn to
read with the right brain by guiding your attention to each of the short, meaningful pieces of
information which sentences are made of. These specially formatted exercises will give you an easy
way to experience how it feels to read faster and to read with better comprehension. By spending a
little time practicing with these exercises, you can discover the power of reading with the right brain.

Frustration
I had always wished I was a better reader. I wanted to read more but I was so slow. I was interested
in non-fiction books, especially history and science, but if the point of reading non-fiction was to
acquire and retain knowledge, then this was probably the single least effective activity I ever engaged
in. Not only was I slow, but after spending dozens of hours getting to the end of a book, I only
retained the foggiest idea of what I had read.
I had always been frustrated by how much time my reading took. And no matter how much I read, I
was still slow. I wanted to improve but didnt know how. Nothing I tried worked.
As a young boy, I would see advertisements that promised to teach me to "speed read." I dont

remember what these courses cost, but it must have been more than I could afford on my allowance.
In high school, I finally had the chance to take a night course on speed readingone night a week for
ten weeks. An impressive looking machine displayed text in short segments, one at a time, with a
control for speed adjustment. It seemed like this should work for sure, but in the end it had no real
effect. The faster the text displayed, the worse my comprehension was.
I tried several speed reading books and courses during high school, college, and beyond, but was
always disappointed.
Reading well should have been in my genes. My father and mother were excellent readers. My mother
loved to read fiction and my father loved non-fiction. My father was self-taught since 8th grade, but
because of his passion for reading, he could speak intelligently on practically any subject.
But it didnt look like I had inherited my parents reading skills. I also found it difficult to maintain
concentration and I had a horrible memory. What was wrong with me? Maybe I just had a slow brain.
Maybe I could never read faster.

Discovery
Then one day at the age of 49, in the summer of 2000, I was sitting in my yard trying to get through a
book on the interesting science of fractals. But again, it was a struggle.
I couldnt stand it anymore. It seemed stupid to spend so much time reading with so little to show for
it. I shut the book.
I sat holding the closed book, wondering if I should force myself to continue reading. I didnt know
what to do. I would be a quitter if I gave up, but a fool to waste so much time on a beautiful summer
day.
I reopened the book and stared at the page and then something interesting happened. As my mind
idled, I began to notice patterns in the arrangement of the words. The rows of spaces seemed to form
horizontal, slanted, and vertical lines that outlined blocks of words.

I played with this illusion for a while, but then this mental rest stop led me to wonder if there were
patterns in the ideas too. Just as these clumps of words formed visual patterns, there were probably
clumps of words that created patterns of ideas. What if reading in idea clumps would make reading
faster?
Grouping letters into words is easy because of the spaces between words, but what about ideas?
Ideas usually require multiple words; shorter than sentences, but long enough to form complete pieces
of understandable information. What if I tried to concentrate on these complete ideas instead of
individual words? I grabbed a pencil from the house and started marking off groups of what I thought
sounded like meaningful chunks of words with slashes like this:
But before / we go into / an introductory discussion / of what chaos theory / is trying to
accomplish, / let us look / at some historical aspects / of the field. / If we look / at the development
/ of the sciences / on a time-scale / on which / the efforts / of our forebears / are visible, / we will
observe / indications / of an apparent / recapitulation / in the present day, / even if / at a different
level.
And wow! Suddenly when I read these phrases as complete units of meaning, the ideas seemed to
jump off the page, straight into my mind!
I marked up and read several more pages. This looked like a breakthrough. I could read the text
faster, plus the text was easier to understand.
This was the solution I had been looking for. There was one problem though. How could I read like
this without needing to first manually mark up the text?
As a design engineer, it was difficult to leave a problem like this alone. In fact, it was more like the
idea owned me than vice versa. It was an interesting challenge, and it also looked like it might help
me overcome my long-time struggle with reading.
A few weeks later, I came up with an interesting idea for a computer program that could
automatically divide text into meaningful phrases. After learning a little programming, I put together a
test of this idea and tried this automatic phrase-parser on some text from an online news story. I
displayed the phrases one at a time and I was immediately convinced that I was on to something. The
results werent perfect, but it definitely made the text faster to read and easier to understand.

Development
After this discovery, I spent the next few years improving the algorithm, and also making the program
available online to see if others had the same response I did. This original online reading tool, which
can still be found at speedreader.com/v1, resulted in plenty of positive feedback, which in turn,
motivated me even more to continue working on it.

I was sleeping late one morning in January 2009, when I was woken by a phone call. It was the CEO
of a company that teaches speed reading. He had seen my website and wanted to discuss licensing my
algorithm for use in his own software. This very nice gentleman flew out to California for a couple of
meetings, and over the next few months we worked out an agreement and signed a licensing contract.
I was walking on a cloud. Imagine, licensing my idea! But unfortunately the deteriorating economy
had other plans for me. After several more meetings with the CEO and working for months with his

company programmer to add this new feature to their software, things ground to a halt. Their updated
software was never released, and eventually it became evident that it probably never would be.
But while working with this company, something else happened. They had asked me to help them
develop lesson plans around this method, and the plans I came up with are what led to the creation of
my own course now at readspeeder.com.
The company had also asked for my ideas about why this method worked so well. It was in coming up
with answers to these questions that I realized faster reading mostly required faster thinking, and the
only effective way to think faster is to process more information at a timethat is, to read whole
ideas or thought-units, instead of words.
I could see that reading these thought-units was a faster way to read and comprehend, but reading this
way also took more concentration, and this level of concentration was sometimes difficult to
maintain. What could a reader do to hold their attention on the larger ideas?
Then I discovered that if I visualized what I was reading, I would automatically think in larger
concepts. By concentrating on visual images, I was encouraging my brain to think of the larger ideas.
Even if I couldnt always think of an actual image, the attempt to visualize was still focusing my
attention on mental concepts rather than words.
As I thought about this visualizing technique, I realized Id seen something like this before. Drawing
on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards is a very effective book for learning to draw. The
book was first published in 1979, when the science of lateral brain function was new. The book
explained how, contrary to how the left brain merely described things, the right brain thought in
pictures; and by suppressing the descriptions on the left side, you could use the special right brain
talent to actually draw what you saw instead of what you thought you saw.
This seemed similar to what I was doing when visualizing the thought-units. I was using my visual
right hemisphere to imagine the real concepts of what I was reading.
We dont need to explore any of this science in detail, but only need to understand that each side of
the brain works in a very different way. For those with a computer background, basically the left
brain works as a serial processor, and the right brain works as a parallel processor. This means the
left brain handles information one step at a time, while the right brain looks at whole patterns of
information simultaneously.
The result is that the two sides have different personalities and see the world in very different ways.
But its the partnership of this odd couple that lets us make careful analyses as well as leaps of
intuition.
Recognizing this, it became apparent where my difficulty in reading had occurred. I was concentrating
heavily on the left-brain function of decoding words, and was leaving the real comprehension of
ideas pretty much to chance. But this was all I was ever taught in school. Word-recognition is where
most reading instruction ends.
Most of the more advanced reading improvement courses also only concentrate on the left brain
function of recognizing words, but then just having you try to recognize them faster.
Tapping the right brain was the answer, and understanding how to do this could be a big help. Even
though the ReadSpeeder course was very effective and well-received, I saw there was still a need for
a clearer explanation of how and why this worked, and how to best apply this method. Collecting,

clarifying, and organizing these ideas is what led to this book.

This approach to improving reading skills is different from previous approaches because it doesnt
suggest pushing your speed and waiting for your comprehension to catch up. Instead, it teaches you
how to strengthen your comprehension and then let your reading speed increase on its own. This is not
a subtle difference. To read faster you must forget about how fast you are reading and put all your
attention on what you are reading.
But first I want to tell you a joke.

Initial Speed Test

On the following page, there is a quick test to determine your current reading speed. This short test
will only take about a minute to read.
The test is in the form of a joke. A joke is used to guarantee comprehension, because who likes to
read a joke without getting it? This means you wont need to take a comprehension test because, as
with any joke, youll know if you get it or not.
For this test, read exactly the way you would normally read. Dont worry about getting a low score,
and dont try to read faster than your normal speed. This will be your before picture.
Use a stopwatch (there are several free ones available on the internet) or use a clock and subtract
your starting time from your ending time to find how long it takes you to read the test. You can
download a form for recording your initial speed and your later exercise results at
www.readspeeder.com/reading-speeds.html.
After starting your stopwatch or making a note of your start time, immediately begin reading the text
on the next page. When you have finished reading, make a note of your reading time and calculate
your words per minute.
When youre ready, start the clock, turn to the next page, and begin. Remember, read at your normal
speed.

A wife was preparing a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband when he suddenly burst into the
kitchen.
Careful! he said. Careful! Put in some more butter! Oh, my gosh! Youre cooking too many at
once!
Too many! Turn them! Turn them now! Now! We need more butter! Oh, my gosh! Theyre going to
stick!
Slow things down a bit! Careful! Careful! I said be careful! You never listen to me when youre
cooking! Never!

Right, turn them! Hurry up! Turn them now! Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Dont forget to
salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! USE THE SALT
USE THE SALT!
The wife stared at him in disbelief. What the heck is wrong with you? Do you think I dont know
how to fry a couple of eggs?
The husband replied calmly, I just wanted to show you what it feels like when Im driving.

Stop Your Timer Now

Note the length of time in seconds
(e.g. 1 minute 15 seconds = 75 seconds).
Next, calculate your reading speed in words per minute (WPM) by dividing the number of words
(which is 152) by the seconds you took to read, and then multiplying by sixty.
WPM Formula:
words / seconds x 60 = WPM
For example, if the reading time was seventy-five seconds, your calculation would be:
152 words / 75 seconds x 60 = 122 WPM
When you have completed your calculation, record your speed for later reference.
Note that although there were 161 actual words, we will use the common standard length of 5.5
characters per wordthats 4.5 average characters per word plus one space between each word.
This will give more consistent results regardless of changing word lengths among exercises.

What Your Speed Means

Based on studies of average adult readers, here are some basic speed categories:
1 out of 2 adults can read 200 WPM (slow readers)
1 out of 10 adults can read 300 WPM (good readers)
1 out of 100 adults can read 400 WPM (fast readers)
1 out of 1,000 adults can read 600 WPM (speed readers)
This should give you a general idea of the distribution of speeds. Notice that only one out of every
one hundred adults reads faster than four hundred words per minute. This is interesting because this
seems to be a common plateau for many people. It is like some sort of physical speed limit.
Exceeding four hundred words per minute appears to require a fundamental shift in mindset; readers
can only pass this speed when they stop thinking of the words.
Actual speed readers (over 600 WPM) are a particularly rarified group. In fact, it makes me wonder
where all the graduates of the many speed reading courses arethose courses that claim you can
easily learn to read thousands of words per minutebecause these people certainly are not showing
up in any of the statistics.
But these statistics are not meant to discourage you, only to offer a reality check. Even reading four
hundred words per minute is an excellent skill to have and a very achievable one with this method. If
a two-hundred-words-per-minute reader could double his or her speed to four hundred words per
minute, this would be an excellent result which would definitely be worth their effort.
This does not mean its not possible to continue improving to six hundred words per minute and

beyond, but you can never know how far any individual can go since reading aptitudes are as unique
as basketball or bowling aptitudes. But with proper understanding of the processes and techniques in
this book, you will be on the path to reaching your maximum potential.

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Thank you for purchasing this book and for your time. Time has become a rare commodity, and I truly
appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share an idea that has changed my life. It has been an
adventure to write this book and to develop the supporting concepts and theories. I am honored to be
allowed to share this with you.

Background
The theory of reading conceptually came to me after years of personal frustration. I am sixty-three
years old and had been frustrated with my reading since about the age of ten. By the time I was fortynine, I was convinced my slow reading was incurable. The idea I had in the summer of 2000, in
retrospect, now seems blindingly obvious: READING IS COMPREHENSION.
This idea is more powerful than it might sound. It is this discovery that allowed me to increase my
reading speed from 150 words per minute, to a very enjoyable 450-500 words per minute.
The idea stemmed from the realization that comprehension wasnt just a part of reading; on the
contrary, reading was nothing but comprehension. Seeing text and recognizing words, was only the
delivery processbut it wasnt reading. The words delivered raw data to my brain, but this data
wasnt actually read until I understood it.
All those speed reading books, programs, and courses that Id tried in the past only focused on eye
movement and word recognitionthat is, learning to see words faster. But seeing is not reading.
Many courses even suggested I could completely ignore comprehension and somehow good
comprehension would come to me AFTER I became a fast reader. But this is never what happened.
The faster I pushed my reading, the faster the information seemed to leak out of my brain.
So, why were they telling me that faster reading would result in faster comprehension? It appears that
this hypothesis was based on nothing more than the observation that fast readers had good
comprehension.
But why assume that fast reading leads to good comprehension? Doesnt it make more sense the other
way aroundthat better comprehension leads to faster reading?
After all, what is reading? Is it only recognizing and pronouncing words? Obviously not, because
there are plenty of words I can recognize and pronounce but still have no idea what they mean.
For example, I can read this medical text: Aspergillus was detected histopathologically in the
visceral pleural cavity. But when I say I can read this, I mean I cansay the words. My mouth and
eyes might read this text, but, since I am not a doctor, all my mind processes is "blah blah blah."
Real reading is something that occurs AFTER you recognize the words. Its what happens when you
realize what the writer is saying, or more exactly what the author was thinking when he or she wrote
the words. You havent read anything until youve comprehended it.

OK, as interesting as all this might be (to me anyway), heres the good part. The exercises in this
book are pretty easy to do. Just practice with the specially formatted texts and you will begin reading
whole phrases at a time, and go from hearing words to seeing ideas.

Why Read Faster?

If you tell someone you are learning to read faster, you will usually hear, Why would you want to
read faster? How could you enjoy a book if you read it fast? To enjoy your reading, dont you need
to read slow enough to listen to the sound of the words, the cadence and rhythm of the language?
Wouldnt reading fast destroy the beauty of the story?
But think about this. How do you know what speed is best? Unless youre reading aloud, how do you
know what the correct speed is? Some people read faster and some people read slower. Is yours,
or theirs, the right speed?
There is no clock in your mind. Reading speed is very flexible and relative to your thinking speed. If
you can comprehend faster, you will be thinking faster, but what you read will always seem to be
taking place at normal speed in your mind.
But while you may think you are slowly savoring a book, you actually may be missing much of the big
picture by reading too slowly to tie the story points together. By the time you get to the middle of the
chapter or book, much of the detail and nuance of the beginning may have faded.
The truth is, there is no right speed. If you know how to read faster, you can read faster or slower if
you wish. If you have the right tools, you are free to choose the one you prefer for each situation.

Why This Method?

I realize the field of reading improvement has more than its share of carnival sideshows and tacky
self-help booksmany of them loaded with hype, hucksterism, pop psychology, and pseudoscientific
clichs. Plus, most of these books and courses are simply copies of one another. Im sure youve
already noticed this, and I realize any self-appointed guru is likely going to set off your BS detector.
So allow me to share some of the comments that were emailed or left on my website about this
method:
"I have used several speed reading programs, but they were missing what this teaches. This is
so terrific. Thanks so much."
"I found your course excellent and more than helpful in improving my reading speed and
comprehension."
a most enjoyable course that has invigorated my love for reading and learning."
"I was not even an average reader. But now with practice, Im an average reader working
towards being an excellent reader. Thank you."
"Your course is perfect, really! This method makes it more pleasurable to read! Thank you so
much!"

"Thanks so much for creating this wonderful tool. I struggle with dyslexia and have become
increasingly frustrated with my slow reading speed. I just found your tool today, and Ive
already raised my reading speed significantly :) Thanks again for creating this wonderful
program."
"This is really great for kids to use to increase their reading fluency. It teaches them to read
in meaning units or phrases read. It is transferring to their other reading."
I am seventy-five and only with your course am I able to read in groups of words."
"Great, amazing new tool. Thank you for inventing this. I absolutely love this."
"I use it to help me get through my school work faster and to also read the classics. Thank
you!"
"I have been through countless speed reading books, programs, etc. This is by far the best
program I have found. Thank you."
"Hello. Thank you so much for this amazing program. I have noticed a great difference in my
ability to concentrate, read, and comprehend. Again, thank you so much."
"I really appreciate you making this tool available for all us. I have already doubled my
reading speed. Thank you very much."
I enjoy receiving comments like these. It has been terrific to be able to improve my own reading, but
its been fantastic to hear from other people who have also enjoyed and profited from these ideas.

Layout of This Book

Each chapter of this book starts with instructional material. These explanations will give you an
understanding of what reading with the right brain is and how it can be applied to your reading.
The instructional material also includes information about the history of and the mental processes
involved in reading. This overview of reading will help you stay on the straightest path to faster
reading and better comprehension.
At the end of each chapter there is an exercise to practice what you have learned. Each exercise
consists of the first thousand words of a separate popular classic novel.
The text in these exercises is specially formatted in a way that makes it easy to see the thought-units.
This is done by indicating the separate units of meaning with alternating black and gray text. This will
identify the phrases for you, so you can concentrate more on seeing the meaning of each phrase.
Here is an example of this technique.
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do:
once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or
conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice without pictures or conversation?
In this example, Alice was beginning is the first unit of meaning, to get very tired is the second,
of sitting by her sister is the third, etc.
The alternating black and gray text helps you quickly focus your eyes on each phrase, making these

phrases easier to grasp at a glance.

Each exercise is one thousand words long. The first eight hundred words are highlighted in black and
gray, and the last two hundred words are displayed normally. So after reading thought-units with the
help of the highlighting, the last two hundred words give you practice picking out thought-units on
your own. In effect, the first eight hundred highlighted words will give you a bit of a running start at
the remaining unformatted text.
Practice these exercises and concentrate on reading whole ideas. Reading text in larger chunks this
way will transfer greater amounts of information per glance, like a high-speed broadband form of
reading. It will also make reading easier and faster because you will be concentrating on the larger,
more meaningful concepts. Reading these larger ideas will put more emphasis on what has always
been the true bottleneck of reading speed: comprehension.
Comprehension must come first. Instead of pushing your speed while simply trying to retain your
comprehension, faster reading will come as the natural result of better comprehension. Rather than
focusing on speed reading, you will be focusing on speed comprehension.
In addition to the practice exercises in this book, you can also find other tools and lessons in the free
online course at www.readspeeder.com. Helping ReadSpeeder users was how this book started. This
book originated from the desire to give a more in-depth explanation of the techniques and theories
demonstrated in the ReadSpeeder course. Another reason for this book was to supply a more natural
reading experience to make reading practice more comfortable and realistic.
Of course, as with any skill, it will take practice to embed it into your subconscious and really make
it your own, but as concentrating on ideas becomes a habit, it will soon replace your old habit of
reading words and sounds.

Repeating Exercises
For the maximum benefit, try to read each exercise in one sitting. But if you need to stop in the middle
of an exercise because of a distraction, start over again at the beginning when you are ready to
continue. The exercises are short enough that starting over should only take a little more time, but the
best way to benefit is if you do the exercises long enough to stretch your reading muscles.
You might be concerned that starting an exercise over would distort your speed measurements
because you would already be familiar with the material. It is true that you would most likely read
faster the second time, but that concern misses the main purpose of the practice. Although an accurate
measure of your reading speed may be useful feedback, the primary benefit comes from the practice
itself.
Plus there are other benefits to repeating an exercise. Rather than having an unfair advantage on the
second reading, you will actually be further reinforcing your skills in new ways. You will be able to
practice visualizing concepts faster the second time since it will be easier for you to come up with
visuals, which will therefore allow you to more easily experience the type of reading you want to
have, and to see what it feels like to fly over the words with excellent comprehension.

Practice Exercise #1
The shift into higher reading speeds comes as a result of learning to read with the right brain, reading
whole ideas rather than words. The methods and theories of this technique will be further explored
throughout the book, but in this first practice segment, just pay attention to how the text is segregated
into distinct and independently meaningful chunks of information. Without even trying, you should
begin seeing phrases as whole ideas.
Dont be too concerned about your speed, or about bad habits such as regression or vocalizing. Just
read through the text and let the special formatting guide your eyes to the meaningful phrases.
To determine your reading speed, measure the time it takes from start to finish and then use one of the
formulas below to calculate your words per minute. Since each exercise is exactly one thousand
words long, the calculations will be simple and the results will be easy to compare.
Here are two ways you can calculate your WPM for these exercises:
1. Divide 1,000 by the number of minutes (1,000 / MINUTES)
2. Divide 60,000 by the number of seconds (60,000 / SECONDS)
You can download a simple form for recording your speed results at www.readspeeder.com/readingspeeds.html.
In this first exercise the text will be displayed in slightly shorter units of meaning than in the exercises
that follow. The word-groups in this exercise will be no longer than three words each, to give you an
easier introduction to reading word-groups.
As you begin this first exercise, do not be overly concerned with how you are reading. The black and
gray highlighting should automatically guide you to the larger blocks of information. At this stage, just
get used to seeing text divided into meaningful thought-units.
When you come to the unaided portion of the text, try to continue seeing the words in meaningful
groups on your own. Dont worry about exactly which words you group together, because there are no
perfect groupings. Just try to continue seeing meaningful phrases, regardless of the phrase lengths you
choose. What is most important is that the phrases make sense to you and are easy to imagine.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

The Velveteen Rabbit

There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and
bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and
his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the
Boys stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming.
There were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges and a toy engine, and chocolate almonds and
a clockwork mouse, but the Rabbit was quite the best of all. For at least two hours the Boy loved him,
and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and
unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit
was forgotten.
For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much
about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys
quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon everyone else;
they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through
two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of
referring to his rigging in technical terms.
The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didnt know that real rabbits existed; he
thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite outof-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion,
who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and
pretended he was connected with Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to
feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was
the Skin Horse.
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown
coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been
pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical
toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew
that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange
and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse
understand all about it.
What is REAL?asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery
fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a
stick-out handle?
Real isnt how you are made, said the Skin Horse. Its a thing that happens to you. When a child
loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.
Does it hurt? asked the Rabbit.
Sometimes, said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. When you are Real you dont mind
being hurt.
Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, he asked, or bit by bit?
It doesnt happen all at once, said the Skin Horse. You become. It takes a long time. Thats why it

doesnt happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully
kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop
out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things dont matter at all, because once
you are Real you cant be ugly, except to people who dont understand.
I suppose you are real? said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the
Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.
The Boys Uncle made me Real, he said. That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real
you cant become unreal again. It lasts for always.
The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him.
He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing
his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable
things happening to him.
There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the
playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great
wind and hustled them away in cupboards. She called this tidying up, and the playthings all hated it,
especially the tin ones. The Rabbit didnt mind it so much, for wherever he was thrown he came
down soft.
One evening, when the Boy was going to bed, he couldnt find the china dog that always slept with
him. Nana was in a hurry, and it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime, so she simply
looked about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made a swoop.
Here, she said, take your old Bunny! Hell do to sleep with you! And she dragged the Rabbit out
by one ear, and put him into the Boys arms.
That night, and for many nights after, the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the Boys bed. At first he found it
rather uncomfortable, for the Boy hugged him very tight, and sometimes he rolled over on him, and
sometimes he pushed him so far under the pillow that the Rabbit could scarcely breathe. And he
missed, too, those long moonlight hours in the nursery, when all the house was silent

Chapter 2: How Can You Read Faster?

I dont know, Marge trying is the first step towards failure.
Homer Simpson
Perhaps youve tried all the popular speed reading tricks:
Pushing your speed
Trying not to verbalize
Widening your eye span
Using your finger as a pacer
Ignoring unimportant words
Making fewer eye stops per line
Practicing moving your eyes faster
But these havent worked.
They might have temporarily increased your words per minute as you pushed yourself to read faster,
but this increase was probably accompanied by a loss of comprehension. What good is that? If you
read twice as fast but only understand half as much, you havent gained a thing.
So, what can you do? How can you read faster and also maintain comprehension?
Sometimes the easiest way to find the solution to a problem is to make sure you are asking the right
question to begin with. The right question can often be found by carefully determining what the real
goal is.

What do you really want?

What you really want is to be able to pick up a book and understand what the author is saying in the
least amount of time.
The key word is understand. You are not just trying to finish the book faster; you are trying to
collect ideas, to collect experiences, and to collect information and knowledge.
So the real question is

How can you comprehend faster?

The answer to this question is what makes Reading with the Right Brain different. This book is
based on the principle that comprehension must come first, and therefore, using your right
conceptual brain is key. The point of reading is to comprehend meaning, and the old methods that

push you to see more words per minute miss that important point.
This book aims at a very specific targetthe real act of reading. It is not about pre-reading,
memorizing, or study habits. Instead, this book focuses specifically on what happens between the time
the text enters your eyes as an image and when the information assimilates into your brain as
knowledge.
Other skillssuch as previewing, asking yourself questions, mind mapping, etc.might be useful,
but none of these are really about reading; they are about everything around reading. If you want to
know more about these peripheral skills, there are abundant resources already available.
Reading with the Right Brain is specifically about how to increase the speed of transferring ideas
from the text to your brain. It focuses on how to read across each line of text, lock on to the
information, and comprehend and assimilate this information into knowledge.
This book is NOT about pushing your reading speed, widening your eye-span, or suppressing bad
reading habits. It is not another book of speed reading tips, tricks and secrets. This book IS about
learning to pay more attention to your reading.
Rather than eye exercises, this book focuses on exercising your mental processing, because reading is
essentially a mental activity, not a visual one. Therefore the instructions and exercises in this book
are intended to strengthen your powers of concentration and focus.
The techniques and practice exercises in this book will show you how to read faster by
comprehending faster. The way youll do this is by learning to conceptualize your reading.

What is conceptualizing?
Read the phrase, the big black dog and concentrate on imagining what this group of words means.
Imagine a big black dog, but dont only think of an image; think of what a big black dog means to you.
Is it friendly? Is it scary? Is it beautiful? Is it smart? Do you remember any big black dogs?
Exactly what you imagine is not importantwhatever pops into your head is OK; what is important is
that what comes into your head is an idea, that you instantly imagine the meaning of the phrase. This is
thinking conceptually.
This visual and conceptual concentration causes information to be passed to the right side of your
brain, the side that specializes in the conceptual nature of ideas. It also connects the information to all
the attributesboth visual and abstractyou associate this information with to create a larger, more
complete idea of what the information means. The end result is a big-picture idea, the real essence of
what the information means to you.
The right hemisphere of your brain has no verbal understanding. It can connect words with ideas, but
it doesnt think in words. It does, however, have the powerful ability to imagine whole, complex
ideas at once. This is how the right brain gives you clearer and faster comprehension, by processing
information in larger and more meaningful chunks.

So far, this has been a basic introduction to conceptualizing, and there will be more discussion later
about how to conceptualize different types of information. For now, realize that in order to
conceptualize ideas, youll need to be able to read whole phrases at a time, because there is seldom
enough information in individual words to form meaningful mental concepts.
A short group of words, in the form of a meaningful phrase, can describe a complete, stand-alone
idea. Phrases may be only a few words long, but together these few words can represent distinct
pieces of information which can be easily imagined as whole units of meaning.
These meaningful pieces of text could be called phrases, word-groups, clauses, units of
meaning, or thought-units. But regardless of the label, they consist of any groups of words which
represent whole ideas you can visualize or conceptualize.
Reading whole ideas increases your reading speed in two ways:
1. Concentrating on the bigger picture results in processing more meaningful information.
2. Taking in more words at a time results in reading more words per minute.
Reading whole phrases is like taking larger strides when you run. Switching from walking to running
doesnt mean just moving your legs faster, but also lengthening your stride, thereby covering more
distance with each step. This is basically how conceptualizing helps you read and comprehend faster,
by letting you see a bigger picture and taking in larger blocks of information at a time.
In normal, unaided text, you have to perform both parts of this skill on your own. You have to
concentrate on finding the meaningful word-groups, and at the same time, focus on the larger meaning
of those word-groups. Trying to learn both parts of this skill together can be mentally overwhelming.
It can be difficult to focus on meanings and concepts at the same time you are trying to select the
meaningful word-groups.
But the formatted text in the exercises in this book will eliminate the work of finding phrases,
allowing you to concentrate more attention on imagining the larger concepts. This makes it easy to
practice reading in larger concepts. Then once you become familiar and comfortable with processing
information in larger chunks, you will be able to pick out the phrases automatically on your own in
normal, unformatted text.
Dont confuse reading thought-units with the more common advice to make fewer eye-stops per line.
Reading meaningful phrases is very different than simply trying to read in groups of some arbitrary
number of words at a time. Instead, it is actively seeking conceptual units of information. In fact, it is
this proactive, searching frame of mind which will make these word-groups automatically appear to
you. This is because when you are aware that the information is in larger blocks of text, those blocks
will become easier to recognize. Sentences are not smooth, consistent flows of evenly distributed
information; they are more like clumps of ideas. Knowing this, and looking for these clumps, is what
helps you see them.
As an example, consider this sentence:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
This should not be viewed as just a string of words, ItwasabrightcolddayinApril,
with each word adding just one more additional piece of information.

The sentence is actually better understood as clumps of ideas, It wasa bright cold dayin April,
where each clump adds a specific and meaningful block of information to the sentence.
The exercises in this book identify these blocks of information for you. After practicing with these
exercises, these meaningful phrases will automatically appear to you in regular text as you look for
ideas and concepts. When you scan text for meaningful ideas, you will automatically focus on wordgroups that represent the more complete and meaningful building blocks of the sentencesthe
separate ideas which can be imagined as pictures or concepts.
In the following demonstration, the meaningful phrases are indicated with black text. This example
only shows one way this sentence could be divided; you could divide it differently as long as each
phrase is meaningful to you on its own.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

As shown in this example, the first phrase you might lock onto could be It was. These two words
can be imagined as a complete ideain this case, one that gives you a context of the time this
sentence is describing. So although It was is not something physical that you can actually form a
picture of, it can still be imagined as a conceptual idea.
The next meaningful phrase could be a bright cold day; This time, the words create an idea that
might be imagined as an actual picture.
As you continued across the sentence, you would pick up each of the short, independent ideas, quickly
imagining what it means.
You cant know in advance which words will make up each thought-unit, but by looking for complete
ideas, the meaningful portions will tend to jump out at you like friendly faces in a crowd. Also be
aware that even though some word-groups may be more obvious than others, all these clumps of
information will be easier to see when you are actively seeking ideas to visualize.
One other thing to consider is that this is not a conscious, mechanical process; you wont be thinking,
Look at the next word-groupnow imagine the information. Instead, this will be an internalized,
subconscious function that will take place automatically. You will concentrate only on looking for
and imagining a flow of meaningful ideas, and your eyes and mind will automatically work together to
discover them for you.
In short, the process of reading with the right brain consists of reading each sentence not as a list of
individual words or as a string of sounds, but as a set of larger ideas which can then be linked
together into the complete meaning of the entire sentence; this enables you to focus on the larger
conceptual nature of what you are reading rather than the individual textual components.
More will be discussed later about reading word-groups and also about visualizing physical ideas
versus conceptualizing abstract ideas, but for now just know that you will be focusing on larger, more
meaningful pieces of information, and passing whole ideas to the conceptual right side of your brain
for faster and more efficient processing.
As you practice with the specially formatted exercises in this book, you will experience what reading
with the right brain feels like. You will experience reading and thinking in larger units of meaning and

using the part of your brain which sees patterns and connectionsthe part which categorizes and
understands larger concepts and connects them firmly with your existing knowledge.
Reading with the right brain will move you away from reading words and sounds, to reading ideas.

Practice Exercise #2
As you read the next exercise, look at each highlighted word-group all at once and not as a string of
words. Look at each as a complete unit of meaning all its own. As you do, think of what it means or
what it looks like. Take whatever quick mental snapshot that comes into your head for each phrase.
As you focus on the whole meanings of entire thought-units, you should feel the conceptual ideas
expand into your right brain and float up into your consciousness.
If something is not easy to imagine as an actual picture or scene, at least conceptualize it and think of
what it means. But remember, this is a fast and fleeting process, not a ponderous one. Quickly imagine
each phrase and move on.
But, do not rush your reading. You mostly want to concentrate on involving the powerfully equipped
parallel-processing visual machinery of your right hemisphere, to transfer the reading data from the
wordy left side, through the thick bundle of nerves of the corpus callosum, and over to the right side
for visualizing and conceptualizing. You want to experience what it feels like to see the meaning of
what you read.
At first this may feel like its causing your reading to slow down, but as your right brain starts to
imagine what you are reading, your speed will increase on its own as the result of faster
comprehension.
This next practice exercise will display phrases up to a maximum of four words long, but dont worry
about this increase in the number of words per thought-unit; the reading process is the same, just with
some slightly longer phrases. The actual number of words will be almost irrelevant when you
concentrate on each phrase as a complete idea.
Even though you should be concentrating more on pushing your comprehension than on pushing your
speed, you will still find it helpful to keep track of your words per minute. You will be glad you have
this record for future comparisons.
And once again, do not be concerned with exactly how you group the words in the unaided section of
the text. Just focus on seeing the larger meaningful ideas, and see which word-groups appear to you.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in
want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a
neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered
the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters.
My dear Mr. Bennet, said his lady to him one day, have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at
last?
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
But it is, returned she; for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
Do you not want to know who has taken it? cried his wife impatiently.
You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.
This was invitation enough.
Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large
fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place,
and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take
possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next
week.
What is his name?
Bingley.
Is he married or single?
Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a
fine thing for our girls!
How so? How can it affect them?
My dear Mr. Bennet, replied his wife, how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am
thinking of his marrying one of them.
Is that his design in settling here?
Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of
them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.
I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which
perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the
best of the party.
My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything
extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of
her own beauty.

In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.
But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when he comes into the neighborhood.
It is more than I engage for, I assure you.
But consider your daughters. Only think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir
William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on that account, for in general, you know, they
visit no newcomers. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him if you do not.
You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you; and I will send
a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the
girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.
I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not
half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good-humored as Lydia. But you are always giving her the
preference.
They have none of them much to recommend them, replied he; they are all silly and ignorant like
other girls; but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.
Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me.
You have no compassion for my poor nerves.
You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have
heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.
Ah, you do not know what I suffer.
But I hope you will get over it, and live to see many young men of four thousand a year, come into
the neighborhood.
It will be no use to us, if twenty such should come, since you will not visit them.
Depend upon it, my dear, that when there are twenty, I will visit them all.
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve, and caprice, that the
experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.
Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information,
and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her
life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.
Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always intended to
visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the evening after
the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it. It was then disclosed in the following manner.
Observing his second daughter employed in trimming a hat, he suddenly addressed her with:
I hope Mr. Bingley will like it, Lizzy.
We are not in a way to know what Mr. Bingley likes, said her mother resentfully, since we are not
to visit.
But you forget, Mamma, said Elizabeth, that we shall meet him at the assemblies, and that Mrs.
Long promised to introduce him.
I do not believe Mrs. Long will do any such thing. She has two nieces of her own. She is a selfish,
hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her.

No more have I, said Mr. Bennet; and I am glad to find that you do not depend on her serving you.
Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply, but, unable to contain herself, began scolding one of her
daughters.
Dont keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heavens sake! Have a little compassion

Chapter 3: Your New Reading Experience

Words are flowing out like
Endless rain into a paper cup.
They slither wildly as they slip away
across the universe.
-Across the Universe, the Beatles
There certainly does seem to be an endless flow of words today. Unlike a short time ago, when our
access to words was limited to the space available on our bookshelves or to the amount of time we
could spend in our local library, today we have literally an infinite amount of reading material
available. Its easier than ever to access, and its there for us twenty-four hours a day. Our biggest
challenges now are deciding what to read and how to get through it all.
Today there really is only one limit to the information available, and that limit is us. Our reading
speed is the only limit there is to the many things we can know and the many stories we can
experience.
A superior reading skill can give us greater access to this expanding cornucopia of information, and
access to this information can have a powerful effect on our lives. It can make our lives easier,
happier, and even safer and healthierwhich might even mean longer! Plus, this greater access to
information will also make our lives more interesting, as well as make us more interesting.
In addition to acquiring information, improved reading skills can even physically enhance our brains.
A study in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that older people who read
regularly are two and a half times less likely to have Alzheimers disease. Reading skills also
strengthen our brains by boosting memory, focus, concentration, and analytical thinking.
But wait, theres more! Conceptualizing information and really paying attention to its meaning will
increase your awareness of life. Instead of having a superficial awareness of the things you see, hear,
and readconceptual thinking will make you more aware of the deeper reality of what things actually
mean.

Your Reading Upgrade

Conceptualizing ideas instead of listening to sounds is learning to experience reading in a new way.
This is a major upgrade to those very old reading lessons from your childhood.
Remember when you first learned to read? You learned all the letters and the sounds the letters made,
and then you also learned when the letters made different sounds in different words. It was all pretty
confusing at firsta lot for a little kid to take inbut eventually you learned to read.
Some really helpful tools during that learning process were the special reading books, the Dick and
Jane stories. These books were carefully developed to make learning as easy and interesting as
possible. By practicing with these books, something gradually happenedyou began to recognize

words at a glance without thinking of each letter. At that point, reading became automatic; you could
read words without thinking about how you did it.
Thats about as far as your reading education went; you could read words. Today youre no longer
reading about Dick and Jane. Youve got a lot more to read now, and that reading has gotten a lot
more sophisticated and complicated. But when was your last reading lesson? Fifth grade? Today, are
you reading any better than a fifth grader?
For a lot of people the answer is, sadly, "No." This is not a happy group of people because its
frustrating to have poor reading skills, and its embarrassing, too. Its frustrating to take forever to
read a single book, and its embarrassing to be uninformed about so many of the interesting and fast
changing events in the world.

The Unread Masses

Unfortunately, poor readers arent a lonely bunch; they have a lot more company than good readers
have. There are sadly more and more people who, for one reason or another, have either not
progressed in their reading skills after childhood, or have even regressed through a lack of practice.
Sure they may read their text messages and tweets, and maybe even headlines and picture captions,
but a large number of people shy away from anything more demanding than the TV Guide, and they
restrict the selection of what they read to material with plenty of pictures. At a time when there is
more information than ever easily available to us, we are nonetheless turning into a readerless
society.
Here are some sad reading statistics. Although the numbers are staggering, they are unfortunately not
that shocking.
58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
42% of college students never read another book after college.
80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
70% of US adults have not been to a bookstore in the last five years.
57% of new books are not read to completion.
Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

Benefits

I know the lament: "Whos got time?" Of course were all so busy, and reading takes SO MUCH
TIME! So it comes down to a cost-benefit analysis: How much time will improved reading skills
cost, and how much benefit will be received? The benefit is that you will get more out of your
reading; enjoy it more, be more informed, and have better comprehension and retention. However the
real price is actually free, because with faster reading, your time investment will be continually
refunded.

Time
How much time does it take to read a book? Remember that the average adult reads two hundred
words per minute. Assume this average person wants to read a book which is three hundred pages
long and has approximately four hundred words per page. This book would then have a total of one
hundred twenty thousand words. At two hundred words per minute, this book would take ten hours to
read (120,000 / 200 = 600 minutes or 10 hours). At four hundred words per minute, however, this
book would only take half that timefive hours.
So, how long would it take this average person learn to increase his reading speed from reading two
hundred words per minute to four hundred? Four hundred words per minute is not actually a very
difficult speed to reach. If it took a total of five hours of practice to learn this speed increase, then
those five hours would be saved back after reading only one book. But a reading speed increase is a
gift that keeps on giving, because the faster a person reads, the more books they will want to read and
therefore, the more time they will get back.
Besides this time rebate, what about the benefits side of the equation? The major benefit, of course, is
improved comprehension. This means getting more out of your reading. When someone asks, What
is that book about? you can actually tell him.
But there are even more benefits to gain from improved reading skills.

Power
The mental exercise of reading develops a more powerful mind. The act of reading is one of the most
sophisticated mental achievements of the human mind. The mental exercise this involves strengthens
your intelligence, sharpens your analytical skills, and improves your ability to separate reality from
fiction.
Even more power can be developed by extending your reading to your right brain. One way is by
improving the power of your memory. By conceptualizing thought-units, you are concentrating on
more complex ideas, making your reading more memorable and storing information more efficiently.
You are not just reading new information, but conceptualizing it and associating it with previous
information. Each of these complex memories creates even more association points for future
memories to attach to. The more you know, the easier it becomes to know more. And more knowledge
is more power.

Success
Readingcombined with the ability to understand, recall, and make use of the material you have read
also plays a major role in achieving success in life.
Faster reading and better comprehension have powerful impacts; whether its being better informed in
your job, or having a better understanding of your studies, or simply by being a more well-rounded
and informed conversationalist.
Good reading skills produce many advantages. Its no exaggeration to say that in this modern
interconnected and competitive world, the ability to read, comprehend, and better organize
information into useful knowledge could be considered tantamount to a survival skill, and a
prerequisite to most success.

Uniqueness
By concentrating on concepts, you will be remembering not just the facts, but the real meaning behind
what you read as well. You cant remember every detail you read, but you can remember the
meaning. Your own personal meaning is created by the selection and significance of attributes you
connect to informationthese selections being based primarily on your previous knowledge and
interests.
These conceptual connections are what make each of us unique. Each person has his own
informational combinations, and these combinations and intersections of information create each
persons uniqueness, enabling each person to see information in unique ways with unique
perspectives.
This is true of all kinds of reading. No matter what you read, all reading changes you. In a lot of
ways, we are what we read. We are the sum of these experiences, and many of our experiences come
to us vicariously through reading, from anywhere and from any-when. Regardless of whether it is fact
or fiction, educational or relaxation, all reading adds something to who we are, and to our own
uniqueness.

Innovation
Its the conceptual connections of information which create the real power of human intelligence. The
information itself is cheapthe whole world of information is only a Google search away. The real
power of human intelligence is not in the collection of information, but in the connections of
information. It is at these unique intersections that ideas build upon each other to produce new,
relevant and more valuable ideas. These unique combinations are the real mother of innovation.

Read for Enjoyment

Many people who say they dont have time to read will also say they dont have time to learn to read
faster, but since reading faster could save them time, this seems like a contradiction.
When you are facing a contradiction, check your premises; you will usually find that one of them is
wrong. I believe the mistaken premise here the belief that those people want to read in the first place.
I suspect the real truth is that most people dont want to read simply because its not enjoyable for
them. I hope one benefit of conceptual reading is to make reading more enjoyable. I have found that by
improving my own reading, Ive developed what feels almost like a reading addiction. The more I
read, the more I learn; the more I learn, the more things I discover that I want to read about.
So why not deemphasize the collection of raw data, and instead concentrate on the development of
intelligence by fostering your reasoning ability and creativitywhich are all enhanced through the
connectedness of information and conceptual reading of ideas?

Realistic Expectations
Of course every skill takes practice, but at least this is practice that works. This is not practicing
some so-called secret speed reading trickslike the ones you find in every other book. This is
practicing seeing the ideas behind the words by concentrating on the larger blocks of information.
But lets be realisticthere are a lot of very unbelievable claims being made in the speed reading

industry. Youre probably suspicious of many of them, or you at least suspect they might be too good
to be true.
Instead of filling your head with nonsense, I want to give you something that will truly be of value to
you. Forget all the exercises that focus on eye movement. Instead, focus on thinking conceptually
about what you are reading by employing the right side of your brain to see the big picture, the whole
idea of what you read.
With the explosion of information available through e-readers and the internet, we are likely
witnessing a fundamental transformation of the world. In fact, we are probably at the beginning of an
unprecedented information and knowledge revolutiona quantum leap in the development of human
intelligence and potential. The driver of this change is the worldwide connectedness and
collaboration that has suddenly been made available through the internet.
All of this change, however, depends on reading. A rocket ship is about to take off, headed for the
future, but only those with excellent reading skills will be aboard.

Practice Exercise #3
As you practice this exercise, keep in mind that there is still a speed below which we tend to vocalize
the words, at least internally, just because were bored. If you are careful to read slightly faster while
concentrating on imagining the meaning of what you read, there therefore will be less of a tendency to
say the words.
During this exercise, try to visualize in your imagination what you are reading. Visualizing ideas also
has a powerful effect on silencing your inner voice since its actually difficult to verbalize while
concentrating on visuals. It seems that concentrating on one makes it harder to do the other, so you
dont need to make any special effort to silence that voice; just concentrate on the visuals but avoid
going too slowly.
This, and all remaining exercises, will have a maximum thought-unit phrase length of five words. You
should have no problem picking up these larger phrases because each will still represent only a
single idea. In fact, you may find that you can read even faster with larger phrases because you will
be covering more text per glance. But dont push your speed past your comprehension; focus on
imagining what each phrase means and the speed will come.
Once youve finished reading the exercise, make a note of your speed result for future comparisons.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the
trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate
perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.
From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his
custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and
honey-colored blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the
burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight
flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing
a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of
Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of
swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown
grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine,
seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a
distant organ.
In the center of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of
extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist
himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such
public excitement and gave rise to so many strange conjectures.
As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skillfully mirrored in his art, a smile
of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed about to linger there. But he suddenly started up, and
closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprison within his brain
some curious dream from which he feared he might awake.
It is your best work, Basil, the best thing you have ever done, said Lord Henry languidly. You
must certainly send it next year to the Grosvenor. The Academy is too large and too vulgar. Whenever
I have gone there, there have been either so many people that I have not been able to see the pictures,
which was dreadful, or so many pictures that I have not been able to see the people, which was
worse. The Grosvenor is really the only place.
I dont think I shall send it anywhere, he answered, tossing his head back in that odd way that used
to make his friends laugh at him at Oxford. No, I wont send it anywhere.
Lord Henry elevated his eyebrows and looked at him in amazement through the thin blue wreaths of
smoke that curled up in such fanciful whorls from his heavy, opium-tainted cigarette. Not send it
anywhere? My dear fellow, why? Have you any reason? What odd chaps you painters are! You do
anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it
away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that
is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England,
and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.
I know you will laugh at me, he replied, but I really cant exhibit it. I have put too much of myself
into it.
Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.

Yes, I knew you would; but it is quite true, all the same.
Too much of yourself in it! Upon my word, Basil, I didnt know you were so vain; and I really cant
see any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this
young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves. Why, my dear Basil, he is a
Narcissus, and youwell, of course you have an intellectual expression and all that. But beauty, real
beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and
destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all
forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How
perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they dont think. A
bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen,
and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend,
whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite
sure of that. He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in winter when we
have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our
intelligence. Dont flatter yourself, Basil: you are not in the least like him.
You dont understand me, Harry, answered the artist. Of course I am not like him. I know that
perfectly well. Indeed, I should be sorry to look like him. You shrug your shoulders? I am telling you
the truth. There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that
seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from ones
fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at
the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live
as well as

Chapter 4: The Basics

Many people seem to be looking for a quick and easy way to read fastersome kind of ninja trick or
magic beans. This preference for a magical solution is clearly evidenced by the popularity of books
with titles promising to teach you speed reading in one hour or less.
The hidden truth behind such promises is that when they say Learn to Speed Read in One Hour,
theyre not actually promising to teach you TO READ faster in one hour; theyre only promising to
teach you HOW TO read faster. There is a subtle but important difference; the one hour only refers
to how long it will take you to read their little book! At the end of the hour, you still wont be able to
read any faster; youll just know how (supposedly) to begin learning.
If you only want to know how to read faster, I can tell you in just a few seconds:

3 Mind Tricks to Power-Up Your Reading

1. Read meaningful groups of words at a time.
2. Concentrate on whole ideas instead of words.
3. Conceptualize the meanings of those ideas.
This can even be further shortened to simply: Conceptualize the ideas of meaningful word-groups.
Thats it; the rest takes practice. Simply put, reading faster requires comprehending faster.
Thats how you do it, but of course the only way to turn knowledge into skill is by doing. But although
there is practice required, I promise Im not going to waste your time with a bunch of strange and
impractical exercises. You wont be asked to dwell on things that dont work, dont interest you, and
dont make sense. Instead, the specially formatted practice exercises are a kind of rapid immersion
into reading for ideas.
But please do me a favor
Forget your dreams of becoming the next Kim Peek. Youve probably heard of incredible savants like
Mr. Peek, amazing people who can read thousands of words per minute. Very few people are savants,
and I would think few would want to be. These rare people are not what they may seem. They can
read at astonishing speedsoften even remembering every wordbut the fact is, they usually dont
understand what theyve read. They may be able to recite every word of a book, but they cant
actually have a conversation about it. In this way, they are a bit like human computers: all speed and
memory, but no comprehension.
The goal of this book is not to make you a savant, but to give you something valuable and honest, the
ability to get more out of what you readin less timeby improving your comprehension.
So, how do you improve your comprehension? The answer is surprisingly and almost deceptively
simple: by improving your thinking.
Strangely, the thinking part of reading is often taken for granted. People frequently imagine that

learning to read simply involves learning how to recognize written words, but words are practically
meaningless without the context of their surrounding words.
Not until you think about what whole groups of words mean does text become ideas and raw data
becomes meaningful information. Thinking is what happens when data is conceptualizedwhen it
is classified, categorized, filtered, and evaluated as to what it means to you. When you conceptualize
the ideas of meaningful word-groups, you translate the text from words into information. And when
this information is associated with previous information, it becomes new knowledge by modifying
your existing information.
So lets explore what these three reading tricks mean.
Trick 1 - Read Meaningful Groups of Words at a Time
To understand faster, you will need to read whole groups of words at a time. And in order to
understand word-groups at a glance, these must be groups of words which form independently
meaningful ideas on their own. But you already do this.
Reading multiple words at once is not a new idea. For example, before 1940, the word percent was
more commonly written, and understood, as two words: per and cent.
Today, percent is not only considered one word, but a single, unified idea as well. The two ideas,
per as for each and cent as one hundredth, were combined into a new larger and more complex
idea. After constant and regular use together, the two words gradually became accepted as one word,
percent, with one meaning, for each one hundredth. Joining these words meant more than just
omitting the space between them; it meant actually beginning to think of this word-group as a separate,
uniquely distinct idea of its own.
This is the same way many compound words were createdthey started as separate words and
became meaningful word-groups. The words were combined because it was easier and faster to think
of them as single, complete concepts.
So weve always combined meaningful word-groups. Now, we are taking it to the next level by
combining even more words. Just as you can immediately understand the whole concept of a
compound wordsuch as forever (1890), nearby (1925), or worthwhile (1960)you can
also instantly imagine the concept of a multi-word thought unitsuch as for-a-while, near-myhouse, or worth-your-time.
The point is, it has always been possible to read words together as long as the word-groups formed
meaningful ideas; reading thought-units is just a further extension of this process of thinking and
communicating in larger, more complexand thereby more efficientconceptual ideas.
Trick 2 - Concentrate on Whole Ideas Instead of Words
The only way to be able to understand word-groups at a glance is to think of them as ideas rather than
just words.
You cant say two words at the same time because its not possible to pronounce words
simultaneously, one on top of the other. Even if you could, it would not be possible to understand the
resulting cacophony. Likewise, its also not possible to think of separate words simultaneously.

But it is possible to think of complete and more complex ideassingle thoughts represented by
groups of wordsall at once. In fact, its even easier to imagine the meaning of such word-groups,
because their combined information is more specific. For example, driving rain is more specific
and easier to imagine than just the words driving or rain alone. The single words driving or
rain, without the context of supporting information, are so vague as to make it almost impossible to
know what to imagine. Words have definitions, but real meaning is determined by the way multiple
words are put together.
The information from a single word is so small and vague that it is usually difficult for our minds to
know what to do with it before we connect it with its neighboring words. A meaningful word-group
though is much easier and quicker to imagine and understand.
The larger ideas represented by groups of words are not only easier to imagine, but they are also
easier to connect to our previous knowledge, making for stronger and longer lasting memories. These
word-groups are easier to connect because they have more potential connection points due to the
larger number of attributes each of them contains.
For instance, consider the two words red and cat. Red can connect to our knowledge of colors,
and cat can connect to our knowledge of animals.

But red cat taken as one complete thoughteven though it is only two words longcan connect to
both colors AND animals. These extra connection points make this larger, more complex idea
stickier, which makes it faster to imagine and easier to remember. When you think of red cat, your
mind can associate it with red things as well as with animals.

Of course, this example has been intentionally over-simplified to make a point. There are actually
many possible connections for either red or cat. For example, red can be associated with
bright things or danger. And cat can be associated with furry things or pets. Furthermore, by
considering red cat as a complete thought, you also introduce additional points of contact, such as
unusual cats (because red is an unusual color for a cat) and unusual red things. The larger and more
complex an idea, the more ways you will have to remember it and the more things it will remind you
of.
The main point here is that larger, more complex ideas have many more possible points of contact in
your mind. Think of those stubborn little burrs that get stuck in your socksthe more points they have,
the easier they stick and the longer they hang on.
Trick 3 - Conceptualize the Meaning of These Ideas
This is a simple, yet powerful trick to get your right hemisphere involved. By conceptualizing ideas,
you force your mind into a conceptual thinking mode. When you see a phrasefor example "the fat
blue dog"and you conceptualize this by imagining it as an image, the image will cause several more
neurons to fire than would have if you had only thought of the words and their sounds. Your mind will
also instantly pay more attention because humans are very visual animals and images are what our
brains crave most.
Please note that I will often use the words "conceptualizing" and "visualizing" interchangeably. There
will be more discussion of these terms later, but the basically, visualizing is a subset of

conceptualizing, and because of this relationship, doing one often leads to the other.
Now, although conceptualizing is actually a simple trick, it may not seem so simple to actually sustain
at first, and you may feel yourself going into and out of the conceptualizing zone. Heres why:
When you visualize the meaning of phrases, the ideas will seem to leap off the page and into your
mind as your right brain focuses on the conceptual nature of the information. However, it takes
practice to learn to see ideas as you read, and at first this process may slow your reading. You may
then become impatient and be tempted to return to your old way of readingby simply connecting
text to matching words and sounds. And if you get frustrated and skip visualizing one phrase, it makes
it harder to visualize the next one, and then the next. You will lose your connection with the material,
but you will still be tempted to keep reading along anyway, without visualizing and without
comprehending.
This type of mental blanking out is an important thing to understand. It happens often in reading, and
its necessary to consider the cause in order to prevent it. It isnt that you are not paying enough
attention or concentrating hard enough. The problem is that your chain of comprehension becomes
broken when you skip a piece of information.
Imagine your concentration as an airplane trying to take off. But the engine begins to sputterfirst
once, then a few times. Each time the engine misfires makes it harder to get off the ground, and as long
as this happens, it will never gain enough power to become airborne. If it can gain enough speed to
liftoff, then staying airborne will be relatively easy.
Similarly, each time your concentration misfires, it also loses power. It takes discipline and effort to
conceptually visualize what you are reading, but this visualizing will get your powerful right brain
involved in reading and lift your reading into the higher conceptual comprehension necessary for
faster reading. This participation of your right hemisphere will also make your reading come more
alive as you begin seeing the larger conceptual nature of the ideas you are reading.
The act of using your visual right hemisphere will also cause you to direct additional mental attention
to the information, and it will cause you to filter out more distractions. The text will also become
more meaningful since even attempting to visualize forces you to actually think about what the text
means.
At this point, we have mostly considered visual imagery, but visualizing pictures is only one form of
conceptualizing. We will get more into other types of conceptualizing later, including how to
conceptualize unobservable ideas, but for now at least make sure to actively think about what youre
reading. Instead of your consciousness just sitting back and listening to you read it a story, you will
use conceptual images to wake it up and say, Pay attention. This is important.

Keep These Tips in Mind

Visualize. The brain is wired to notice and react more quickly and emotionally to visuals.
Thought-units are ideas, not sounds; think about what they mean.
Words in thought-units give each other context and become more meaningful. Looking for that
meaning will help you to see those word-groups.

If at times you get stuck and lose concentration, stop focusing on speed. Refocus on ideas by
forcing your brain to visualize. Concentrate on comprehension and the speed will come.
The suggestions in this book may appear unusual to some people, but have you noticed that the other
methods arent working? Learning to read phrases is as simple as it is uncommon; its a simple
uncommon-sense solution to reading more efficiently, effectively, powerfully, and quickly.
Ive already mentioned that this takes practice, but you would be surprised how many people give up
when they discover practice is required. Another group quits when they find it will take longer than
an hour. I wish I could help these people, but the subjects of tenacity and persistence would be a
whole other book. However, with proper practice and technique, you will see positive results. It may
seem difficult at first, but this is really just actively thinking about what you read.

Keywords
Another helpful thing to notice is that the last word is often the key word in each meaningful phrase.
Its like the other words in the phrase were leading up this this word. Focusing on these key words
can make your reading smoother as you more quickly zoom in on the main idea of each phrase.
As you practice reading thought-units, you will develop the right-brained habit of creating visual and
conceptual representations of what you read. This alone will make your reading flow more smoothly,
as you read with a deeper and more conceptual understanding, and you experience the text rather than
just listen to it.
But even though you are conceptualizing each phrase as a meaningful idea, these individual phrases
do not stand alone. Each phrase is still a link within the larger meaning of a whole sentence. As you
conceptualize phrases, you must also link them together as interlocking bricks into the completed
structure of the whole sentence.
Looking at these keywords is one way to pull the phrases together. This does not mean ignoring other
words. It just means paying special attention to words that describe who or what is involved, or what
is happening. For example, here is a sentence divided into thought-units and with possible key words
underlined.
Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and
Aunt Em, who was the farmers wife.
Even though you are reading this sentence in meaningful phrases, there are certain words which
represent the overall direction and framework of the sentence. You cant skip or ignore any words,
but these key words will give you a very good idea of what the sentence is about. Paying special
attention to these will increase your comprehension and reading speed because these words will tie
the thought-units together and add an overall structure to the sentence.
There are no exact rules of grammar for selecting these key words, but they are usually the subjects
and verbs of the sentence. They are alsoas in the example abovequite often the first word of the
sentence and then the last word in each phrase.
However, just as the word-groups you select dont have to be perfect, neither do the keywordsthey
just have to work. You are simply focusing on the words that act as a summary to the sentence.

This may seem like a lot to think about while reading, but it is only another helpful tool for focusing
on ideas versus words. With practice, the habit of seeing text as larger meaningful ideas should
become internalized and unconscious and assist in making the most use of our finite amounts of
cognitive energy.

Practice Exercise #4
As you do the practice exercises, remember that speed is the result of better comprehension. Bring
each thought-unit into clear focus by visualizing or conceptualizing its meaning, and let the speed
increase as a natural result. You dont want to feel like you are pushing your speed, but rather pulling
it along behind your faster, more powerful comprehension.
One more suggestionbesides practicing with the exercises, you should start to apply reading
thought-units to your regular reading. In fact, there is no reason not to apply this method to the regular
text portions of this book. Just remember not to go faster than you can comprehend, and remember to
not include too many words at in each phrase; smaller thought-units are easier to quickly imagine
while you are learning.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

The War of the Worlds

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being
watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than mans and yet as mortal as his own; that as
me n busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps
almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm
and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about
their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria
under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of
human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or
improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most
terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready
to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours
are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth
with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth
century, came the great disillusionment.
The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of
140,000,000 miles, and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by
this world. It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world; and long before
this earth ceased to be molten, life upon its surface must have begun its course. The fact that it is
scarcely one seventh of the volume of the earth must have accelerated its cooling to the temperature at
which life could begin. It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated
existence.
Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth
century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all,
beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with
scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not
only more distant from times beginning but nearer its end.
The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our
neighbor. Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial
region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter. Its air is much more
attenuated than ours, its oceans have shrunk until they cover but a third of its surface, and as its slow
seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and periodically inundate its
temperate zones. That last stage of exhaustion, which to us is still incredibly remote, has become a
present-day problem for the inhabitants of Mars. The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened
their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts. And looking across space with
instruments, and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, they see, at its nearest distance
only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green
with vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility, with glimpses
through its drifting cloud wisps of broad stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded
seas.
And we men, the creatures who inhabit this earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as are
the monkeys and lemurs to us. The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant

struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars. Their
world is far gone in its cooling and this world is still crowded with life, but crowded only with what
they regard as inferior animals. To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, their only escape from the
destruction that, generation after generation, creeps upon them.
And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our
own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon
its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of
existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are
we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?
The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtletytheir mathematical
learning is evidently far in excess of oursand to have carried out their preparations with a wellnigh perfect unanimity. Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far
back in the nineteenth century. Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planetit is odd, by-the-bye,
that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of warbut failed to interpret the fluctuating
appearances of the markings they mapped so well. All that time the Martians must have been getting
ready.
During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the disk, first at the
Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers. English readers heard of it
first in the issue of Nature dated August 2

Chapter 5: Skills
Every skill requires practice, but some strategies exist that can boost any practice to maximum
effectivenessand some of these strategies are especially suited to reading skills. A little
consideration of these strategies before continuing with the exercises will be time well-spent.

Force vs. Technique

Watch students of martial arts, and you will often see them practicing their moves in slow motion. It
doesnt look very powerful because they are moving so slowly, but what they are doing is perfecting
their form and improving their technique. They know that power comes more from technique than
from physical force. This same principle of technique over force applies to reading.

Instead of the brute force method of simply trying to push yourself to read faster, real reading power

can be achieved by concentrating on techniques to learn to read text as a flow of ideas rather than a
string of words. Its mastering this skill that gives power to your reading. If learning a physical skill
like martial arts requires careful attention to technique, then it shouldnt be surprising that this is also
true of something as complex as reading.

Practice
"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."
Vince Lombardi
Practice only creates habits, and these habits can be good, bad, or mediocre. Therefore, the type of
practice you choose to engage in is much more important than the amount.
Consider the skill of typing as an example. When people first learn to type, they usually improve
quickly until they can type without looking at the keys. But after learning to "touch-type," they soon
reach a plateau. No matter how much more they practice, they still dont type any faster. Even if they
type every day for a living, all that practice doesnt continue to result in faster and faster typing.
In the 1960s, psychologists Paul Fitts and Michael Posner described the three stages of acquiring a
new skill. The first phase is the "cognitive stage," wherein you consciously think about the task. The
second phase is the "associative stage," wherein you improve your accuracy and efficiency and the
task requires much less concentration. The third phase is the "autonomous stage," wherein you
basically perform the skill automatically with barely any conscious effort at all.
This third stage isof courseuseful, because you can then pay more attention to what you are
typing instead of how. All repetitive skills eventually reach the stage where you can free your mind to
concentrate on other, more important things. This is true whether the skill is typing, driving, playing a
sport or reading.
But this final automatic stage can also be considered a plateau, because once youre good enough to
no longer think about a skill, the skill no longer improves.
Some people, however, manage to surpass this plateaucontinuing to improve and becoming true
experts in their skill. Somehow these people find a way to avoid the plateau; this way is the
process of deliberate practice.
These top achievers use a strategy to consciously stay away from that third, "good enough" stage. This
strategy consists of three elements:
1. Focusing on technique.
2. Keeping attention on the goal.
3. Getting constant feedback.
By following this strategy, they force themselves to stay in the first cognitive stage.
The secret to reaching higher levels of any skill involves retaining conscious control while practicing
and staying out of autopilot mode. This is why consciously concentrating on technique is so much

more effective than simply putting in more hours of practice.

Maintaining conscious control of your practice works in a similar way to how conceptual reading
works. Just as your comprehension and speed improves by staying consciously mindful of the
concepts you are reading, your reading skill improves by staying consciously mindful of how you are
reading.
All this additional concentration may seem challenging, but think about what youre doingyou are
literally strengthening your brain. New discoveries about the neuroplasticity of the brain have
demonstrated that the brain actually restructures itself to meet new cognitive demands. Training your
brain to handle more information faster actually improves your brains ability to assimilate
information.
If your improvement slows down or plateaus, realize its still all forward progress, and that the
plateau is just something to pass through on the way to your goal.

Consistency
Practice is important, but if you want your mind to get the most return from your practice time, it helps
to remember a few things about how the mind works. Memory storage is based on a web of neurons.
Each new memory alters this web to leave what is called a memory trace. Each repetition of this
memory further reinforces this trace, making it stronger and easier to access. These repetitions create
long-lasting enhancements in the signal transmission capabilities between the neurons in this web. As
a result, the more you practice a skill, the stronger your memory of that skill becomes.
Because repetition is such a powerful force in strengthening memories, consistency is an important
component to learning any new skills. This is particularly true with reading, where you are trying to
reprogram a very engrained habit which may be several years old. If you only work at it sporadically,
your brain wont know youre serious and might try to ignore your attempts to change its way of
thinking.
To maintain consistency, set a goal for yourself and plan the time period you will devote to practice;
this will enable you to make use of the compounding effects of consistent practice.
You should also consider the length of time of each practice session and how far apart to space your
practice. I discovered something unexpected when analyzing students metadata on ReadSpeeder. I
found that speed improvement correlated more closely with words per day of practice, than with days
per week. This seemed counter-intuitive, but by studying the millions of words read by thousands of
students, I found thaton averageit turned out to actually be more productive to cram extra time
into each practice than to practice more often. The results of this analysis showed a sixty-four percent
correlation between reading improvement and minutes per day of practice, but no correlation
(actually a negative 0.4% correlation) between successes and practice days per week.
On reflection, it seems this discovery might be in line with the latest science. According to Nassim
Talebs book Antifragile, the fastest growth of any type, whether physical or mental, occurs when an
organism is prompted to overcompensate for significant stressors; it could be that longer practice
sessions create this productive stress.
This is interesting because cramming more practice into fewer sessions is the opposite of how people

are generally taught to study. I cant be sure this is what will work best for you, but these are the
results Ive found from other students, Id at least like to offer the information for your consideration.
In the end, even though there are plenty of interesting theories and data on how to study, the best thing
to do is to pay attention to what works for you. Pay attention to when and how you make the most
progress, and then try to accommodate your own learning style.

Persistence
Homer: Hey, how come you never play your guitar anymore?
Bart: Ill tell ya the truth, Dad. I wasnt good at it right away, so I quit. I hope youre not mad.
Homer: [sweetly] Son, come here! Heh heh heh [Bart sits on Homers knee] Of course Im not
mad. If somethings hard to do, then its not worth doing! You just stick that guitar in the closet
next to your short-wave radio, your karate outfit, and your unicycle, and well go inside and watch
TV.
Obtaining a basic reading skill is a complex enough task on its own. Although achieving superior
reading skills is even more difficult, the advantages are worth the effort. In the long run, not having
good reading skills will end up costing you more than the effort needed to acquire them. Those
without good reading skills are exiled to a land of ignorancea boring wasteland, isolated from
much of lifes fascinations and excitement.
So how can you persist with the necessary effort to expand this skill? When you work on any goal,
your motivation is bound to rise and fall over time and change with your moods; sometimes you will
feel motivated, and sometimes you wont. But results dont come from motivationthey come from
action.
Sometimes, when you dont feel like doing something that you know you should do, it helps if you
fool yourself into taking action. Tell yourself that you are only going to practice for a few minutes,
just enough to refresh your memory, and that if you feel like quitting after that, youll allow yourself to
go ahead and quit. However, youll often find that once you overcome your initial desire to do nothing
and instead get moving, the law of inertia works both ways; once a body (or a mind) is in motion, it
tends to stay in motion. As a result, you may end up getting more done than you expected.

Patience
Although practice, consistency, and persistence are important ingredients for learning a skill, it can be
a bitter mix without patience. Be patient with your progress. Allow time for your skills to develop.
You may make great progress in the beginning when you first adopt this new perspective on reading,
but dont get impatient when you get stuck. If you never got stuck, then you were probably pursuing a
goal that was too easy.
When you do get stuck, slow down and concentrate more on the meaning of what youre reading. This
change of speed can sometimes break you out of a rut, like rocking a car back and forth to get traction
if youre stuck in a mud hole. This comprehension traction is important, and although it sounds like a

contradiction, it means you will sometimes have to slow down to go faster.

However, if you simply try to push your speed, you will make a lot of comprehension errors, and
these errors will end up slowing your overall speed. But if you back off just a bit and concentrate on
accuracythat is, concentrate on the concepts and ideasyou will reconnect to the information, and
your reading will start to flow more smoothly, resulting in the desired speed increase.
You will also notice that your speed can increase and decrease, from one day to the nextor even
one minute to the next. Sometimes this is due to the changing difficulty of the material, but it can also
be due to your changing mental states. Its easy to slip out of the zone when you are distracted by
other thoughts, and this makes it difficult to maintain a strong mental attachment to the material. Just
be patient, put the book down, and attend to those other issues or distracting thoughts. Then, pick the
book up again when you are ready for it.

Practice Exercise #5
With this exercise, be patient and concentrate on technique. If you are not seeing the ideas as you
read, then youre wasting your time. Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Clear your mind and get
ready to start the next reading practice.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the
whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the
bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in
the year of grace 17 and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow Inn and the
brown old seaman with the saber cut first took up his lodging under our roof.
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following
behind him in a hand-barrowa tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the
shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the saber
cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to
himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:
Fifteen men on the dead mans chestYo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! in the high, old tottering voice
that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit
of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of
rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and
still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.
This is a handy cove, says he at length; and a pleasantly situated grog-shop. Much company,
mate?
My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.
Well, then, said he, this is the berth for me. Here you, matey, he cried to the man who trundled the
barrow; bring up alongside and help up my chest. Ill stay here a bit, he continued. Im a plain
man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you
might call me? You might call me captain. Oh, I see what youre atthere; and he threw down three
or four gold pieces on the threshold. You can tell me when Ive worked through that, says he,
looking as fierce as a commander.
And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man
who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike.
The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the
Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours wellspoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of
residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass
telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlor next to the fire and drank rum and water very
strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through
his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be.
Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the
road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question,
but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral
Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him
through the curtained door before he entered the parlor; and he was always sure to be as silent as a
mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in

a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver four-penny on
the first of every month if I would only keep my weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg
and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round and I
applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, but
before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat
his orders to look out for the seafaring man with one leg.
How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind
shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see
him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at
the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one
leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch
was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly four-penny piece, in the
shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the
captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum
and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild
sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling
company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking
with Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum, all the neighbors joining in for dear life, with the fear of death
upon them, and

Chapter 6: Ancient History

Reading is everywhere we look. It is such a prevalent part of our lives that its difficult to imagine a
world without it. But even the most basic form of written text didnt appear until about five thousand
years ago, and it wasnt until only five hundred years ago that reading became common among the
general population.
A short discussion of the history of reading will make it easier to understand the skill that we seek to
improve. Seeing reading in the context of where it came from, and how it got to where it is now, will
also demonstrate why the way we read now, is not necessarily the final stage in our development of
this amazing ability.
Our species has been sending each other messages for one hundred fifty thousand years, but written
messages are a much more recent innovation.
Its a shame that children arent told the story of reading and instead are left with the erroneous
impression that reading has somehow always existed. Learning to read is more interesting when you
realize that this is a new technology, and that only a few centuries ago it was even considered magic.
Reading developed through a process of trial and error and was created in stages. Each of these
stages was a modification to suit the particular needs of the people at that time.
Reading and writing arent fixed skills that have been passed down to us intacteach generation has
added its own improvements as it saw fit. Reading has always been a dynamic skill; therefore, there
is no reason to believe its development ended when it was handed down to us. People invented
reading, and people are free to continue improving it for as long as they want.

Alphabet
The first written language was developed by the Sumerians and the Egyptians about fifty-four hundred
years ago. They created it as a way to keep track of agricultural trading, and this idea of using
symbols for record keeping is what eventually grew into writing as we know it today.
The Sumerians developed a method of writing using cuneiforms, symbols pressed into clay tablets.

The Egyptians developed a method of using hieroglyphics and pictograms written with charcoal on
papyrus.

Since it was faster and easier to draw pictograms on papyrus than to carve cuneiforms in clay, the
Egyptians began expanding their pictograms to also represent the sounds of consonants. In this way,
besides keeping track of items being traded, they were also able to record names and events.
This recording of consonants was a major turning point in human history; for the first time, the sounds
of actual speech could be saved. With the introduction of consonants, simple record keeping evolved

into actual writing, and human thought could now be communicated over time and distance.
The word "hieroglyph" is Greek for sacred writing. Its easy to understand why it was considered
sacred when you imagine what a magical experience reading must have been. What must people have
thought when they discovered that just by looking at these hieroglyphs, they could hear voices in their
heads? Writing must have seemed almost alive to them.
Around thirty-eight hundred years ago, the Phoenicians, a people of traders and sailors, needed a
faster and simpler system than those currently available to them. Cuneiform and hieroglyphic writings
were comprised of hundreds of symbols and were so complex that they were only reserved for a
small caste of specialists. The Phoenicians created a system of representing sounds (phonics) by
adapting a small set of these hieroglyphic symbols. Because there were fewer symbols, this new
Phoenician alphabet was easy to learn and simple to use.

The Phoenician alphabet, however, was only composed of consonants, so pictures were occasionally
added to remove ambiguities. To clarify this even further, the Greeks modified the Phoenician
alphabet by adding vowels.

This alphabet was then adapted by the Romans about twenty-seven hundred years ago to form the
Latin alphabet. Then Latin was adapted by the English around sixteen hundred years ago to form the
Old English alphabet. The Old English alphabet continued to be modified until around two hundred
years ago when we arrived at the English alphabet used today.

Spaces and Punctuation

Originally there was no punctuation. It wasnt until about twenty-two hundred years ago that the most
basic punctuation marks were invented by Aristophanes of Byzantium, the director of the Library of
Alexandria. This punctuation consisted of a single dot either at the bottom, middle, or top of the line
to let readers know how long to pause between sentences.
Even spaces had to be invented. Until they were, words ran together in an unending stream of capital
letters known as scriptio continua. ASYOUCANSEEITISNOTVERYEASYTOREADLIKETHIS
About thirteen hundred years ago, Irish monks began using spaces to separate words in Latin and, for
the first time ever, we had individual words.
Before spaces, text functioned more like musical notes, and a person reading a scroll was more like a
player piano, translating the scroll into sounds. In fact, well into the Middle Ages, reading was an
activity generally carried out aloud; text was usually spoken as a kind of performance. The
performers would practice and repeat their performances, and the text only had to serve as a
reminder.
But by adding spaces and punctuation, text became more meaningful as ideas instead of just sounds;
and rather than replicating speech, some readers began to read completely in their headsespecially
in the monastery libraries where they had to be very quiet.
Over time, further improvements were added to make written language easier to read. By around
twelve hundred years ago, spacing had become popular and the catalog of punctuation marks had
grown richer. By this time, the page provided enough information for silent reading finally to become
common.

Printing Press
After the printing press appeared in the late 1400s, the popularity of reading absolutely exploded. The
printing press was like the World Wide Web of the day; suddenly, the world was full of information
that had never been available before. As more and more information became available, more and
more people began to read.
Although many could read silently, most reading was still considered simply a form of entertainment,
andjust like television entertainment todaywas best enjoyed when shared. People would read to
each other, and public reading performances were a common form of entertainment. The wealthy even
hired people to read to them at homethe audio book of the time.
But as the amount of reading material available continued to grow, and the time available for reading
remained relatively fixed, the ability to read faster became increasingly desirable.

However since reading was considered a verbal performance, how would it be possible to read
faster than you could speak? Even if you only thought the words internally, how could you think them
faster without it sounding like gibberish? The answer is to concentrate on the whole ideas being
expressed rather than the sounds of the spoken words. This means that it is not enough to just read
silently or even to avoid sub-vocalizing, but to concentrate on imagining what is being communicated
instead of the words used to communicate it.

Practice Exercise #6
As you read the next practice exercise, make sure to see each phrase as a complete, meaningful piece
of information. Just as spaces divide letters into distinct words, phrases divide words into complete
and independent ideas. Concentrate on these ideas rather than the words. You are not performing the
text; you are absorbing ideas.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and
Aunt Em, who was the farmers wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be
carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and
this room contained a rusty looking cook-stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four
chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Emhad a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed
in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellarexcept a small hole dug in the ground,
called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose,
mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the
floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray
prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the
edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little
cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long
blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted,
but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray
as everything else.
When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her,
too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from
her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When
Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the childs laughter
that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothys merry voice reached
her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.
Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.
He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely
spoke.
It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings.
Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled
merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him,
and loved him dearly.
Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at
the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms, and
looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.
From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where
the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling in the air
from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that
direction also.
Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up.
Theres a cyclone coming, Em, he called to his wife. "Ill go look after the stock." Then he ran
toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.

Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand.
Quick, Dorothy! she screamed. Run for the cellar!
Toto jumped out of Dorothys arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em,
badly frightened, threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small,
dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across
the room there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing
and sat down suddenly upon the floor.
Then a strange thing happened.
The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she
were going up in a balloon.
The north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In
the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of
the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it
remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.
It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite
easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if
she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.
Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite
still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.
Once Toto got too near the open trap door, and fell in; and at first the little girl thought she had lost
him. But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure of the air
was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and
dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trap door so that no more accidents could
happen.
Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the
wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she
would be

Chapter 7: Modern History

So, what is speed reading, and where did the idea of speed reading come from? There are almost
as many definitions of what speed reading is as there are courses and books on the subject, and the
history of speed reading is clouded with many myths and misconceptions. However, knowing the real
story of speed reading will further clarify the process and goal of real reading improvement.

Speed Reading
Origins
The speed of normal spoken English is about one hundred fifty words per minute. The way to read
faster than you speak is to do away with this speech and replace it with ideas. Instead of internally
verbalizing the words, why not simply think the thoughts? This would allow more than one word at a
time to be read, and it would omit the necessity of internal verbalizing, because once the idea was
understood, the reading job would be done.
The concept of reading groups of words at a time has been around since 1879, when a French
ophthalmologist, Louis mile Javal, developed a method of photographically recording peoples eye
movements while they read. Until then, everyone simply knew the eyes had to look at each letter in
every word.
The interesting thing is, readers dont move their eyes in a smooth flow, but in small jerking motions
called fixations. Javals photographs recorded these fixations and revealed that while poor readers
perceived just one wordor perhaps only a part of a wordat a time, excellent readers took in
entire groups of words with each eye fixation. After this discovery, instructors began to encourage
students to widen their eye spans and see as many words as they could at each fixation.
The invention of the tachistoscopea machine designed to flash a series of images very rapidly,
sometimes allowing them to appear on the screen for only 1/100th of a second, in order to create
subliminal imprinting in the mindseemed to create an advancement in teaching students to see more
words at a time. This technology, invented by psychologist Dr. Samuel Renshaw, was originally used
to train World War II naval soldiers to rapidly recognize different aircraft and ships.
In 1946, Dr. Renshaw patented the tachistoscope projector and began directing research at Ohio State
University to use the machine to teach speed reading.

With regular training on the machine, most people were able to increase their reading speeds from an
average of two hundred words per minute to an average of four hundred per minutethe difference
between the junior high school student and the post-graduate. However, most students reported that
shortly after their course finished, their reading speeds once again sank to their previous levels.
Only recently have experts realized that the normal range of reading ability is roughly two hundred to
four hundred words per minute, and that most people operate at the lower end of this range. The
increased reading abilities observed during the tachistoscopic courses actually had little to do with
the training; they were mostly due to the students being highly motivated over a period of weeks and
thus being able to reach the top of their normal range.
Although it was gradually recognized that the tachistoscopic method did not provide any lasting
positive results, this approach was still offered as a part of the basic training kit of most speed
reading courses for many years. After all, they had to offer something, and a machine like this made a
good first impression on students.

Recent History
Before the 1920s, reading instruction stressed accurate oral reading. The good reader was one who
could read aloud with expression and fluency.
But then experimenters at the University of Chicago found that students could read faster silently than
they could orally, and they could do it with better comprehension and retention. Research on eye
movement during this time also found that a reader could read faster if he made fewer fixations per
line of text.
However, further research showed that eye movement could not be consciously controlled. Most
authorities concluded that the only way to improve reading would be to improve the readers ability
t o perceive and interpret the material. Therefore, by the 1950s most teachers and colleges were
already skeptical of any courses labeled speed reading.
But then in 1959, a woman named Evelyn Nielsen Wood set up a course in Wilmington, Delaware
called Reading Dynamics. Woods method started with what she called "push-up" drills, wherein
students would read for one minute and then re-read, trying to cover more material each time. The
course also concentrated on exercises meant to widen the eye span in order to see more words at a
time. To eliminate subvocalizing, students were encouraged to push their speeds faster than they
could vocalize.
Even though these courses concentrated on pushing your speed, the basic theory behind Woods
exercises was that students should concentrate on reading thoughts instead of words. She described it
like this: "The reader becomes part of the story. Since the method relies upon the total idea of the
thought rather than the individual words, there is no feeling of hurry or fast motion of speeded
reading. The words go in fast, but they go in only to make the complete picture."
Evelyn Wood considered her work an important crusadeone that would improve student reading
skills across the country. In the fall of 1960, she set out to change the world, opening twenty-five
instruction centers around the United States.
Sadly though, Wood was bankrupt by the following September. She had opened all twenty-five
centers within one month, and although Wood had a zealous commitment towards her schools, she
unfortunately did not have any real business or advertising experience.

She sold her business to George Webster, who promptly fired the original staff and modified the
course and the marketing. He ran a simply worded full-page ad in the newspaper, offering a moneyback guarantee if a student didnt at least triple their reading index. Suddenly, Reading Dynamics
became a huge success, and Wood was hired to make public appearances and open new schools.
The advertised guarantee was a very effective marketing strategy, but unfortunately for students, the
guarantee wasnt really that easy to qualify for.
First, the promise was only to improve the students so-called reading index. This index was
calculated by multiplying the words-per-minute speed by the comprehension score. It was actually
difficult not to improve this index since the final reading exercise was always so much easier than the
first. The final comprehension test was so easy that students could score quite high without even
reading the exercise.
Second, students had to complete the entire course before qualifying for the refund, and most
unsatisfied customers just dropped out, choosing to lose their money rather than more of their time.
In the end, few students actually made the incredible progress that was promised. Over the next
twenty years the public became more and more skeptical, and the speed reading industry was
unable to refute this skepticism with enough student success stories.
This skepticism is unfortunate because there are always ways to improve any skill. But because of the
outlandish promises made by many of these courses, people felt cheated and then ridiculed all speed
reading courses to avoid looking foolish enough to fall for such ridiculous promises. As comedian
Woody Allen described it, I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace in twenty
minutes It involves Russia.

Progress
Although the past century was littered with many courses using all kinds of incredible exercises and
making even more incredible claims, at least the past hundred years saw a huge increase in the
number of people who actually could read.
In the century before that, a lot fewer people could readand most who did, only read aloud, and
only for entertainment. But even as a form of entertainment, reading was probably as fascinating to the
people of that time as any of our entertainment is to us today. Its interesting when you realize that
before there was radio or TV, most people never even heard what people in other places sounded
like. In fact, this is why many books of the 1800sTom Sawyer is a good exampleare so full of
colloquialisms and strangely spelled words. These books were written this way to reproduce the way
people sounded.
Throughout the twentieth century, reading instruction became much more widely available than in
previous eras; however, it was still primarily aimed at reading sounds, not ideas.

Future Reading
Reading has made great progress over the centuries, but that doesnt mean the progress has to stop
now. With the recent erosion in reading skills, there is now even greater room for improvement.
Today half the people read below two hundred words per minute, the vast majority of high school

graduates arent ready for college, and SAT reading scores have plummeted to their lowest level in
four decades. The best path out of this this problem is through improved reading skills. The good
news is that this is something people can do on their own.
Due to the massive and rapidly growing amount of information available since the advent of
computers, the internet, and e-books, reading skills are becoming ever more important. Information is
no longer expensive or difficult to access, and this means that regardless of the issues we may have
with our current educational systems, we seem to be entering a new era of do-it-yourself education
and the only entrance exam or tuition required is the ability to read.
In order to read more, reading needs to evolve beyond text as sound to text as meaning. This is the
same goal Evelyn Wood suggested when she said we needed to "rely more upon the total idea of
thought rather than the individual words."
But now there is an important difference: the order. Comprehension must come first, before speed.
Woods method was basically an improvement on the old tachistoscopesit still focused on pushing
speed and merely hoped for improved comprehension as a result. The reverse, however, is the better
way to read faster. Faster reading wont lead to faster comprehension, but faster comprehension will
naturally lead to faster reading.
There have been many disagreements over methods to teach reading, but when people think of
controversies in reading education, they usually only consider disagreements about word recognition
trainingsuch as the long-standing argument between phonics and sight learning. Both of these
methods only teach how to match text with words, but regardless of which method is used to
recognize words, word recognition is really only the first step of reading.
To be an effective reader, you need to be able to rapidly and accurately process the thoughts behind
the words. The thoughts are what the author wanted to communicate; the words were used only as a
vehicle to communicate them.
The history of writing has gone from simple record-keeping, to sound recording, and then to idea
recording. Reading now has to catch up and advance from sound playback to idea playback. To
handle the more extensive and sophisticated information today, well need to trade in listening to that
old-time radio and switch over to watching a new HD flat screen.

In other words, this is not your parents reading. If reading and writing has changed so much in the
past, it would be incredibly vain of us to think that we, today, were the intended final receivers of this
skill. Likewise, it would be shameful to think we were the first who could not improve it.

Practice Exercise #7
Remember, if you find yourself slipping into old reading habits as you practice, just stop a moment
and then continue by concentrating more on meaning. As you continue, go as slowly as you need to
until you can really get a grasp on the information. Take your time; youre creating something new.

This whole human ability to read may still be on the ground floor, and you are experimenting with
using other parts of your brain to discover a better way of extracting meaning from text.
And if it seems sometimes like youre not quite sure how to conceptualize the ideas you are reading,
and you feel like youre not quite getting it, imagine how earlier readers felt when they first tried
reading in their heads. That probably felt pretty strange too, and Im sure they often felt impelled to
start reading aloud again as they were used to doing. No reading advancements would have occurred
if people werent willing to try something new, so read with an open mind, so you too can be part of
this advancement.
Just as with your previous six exercises, see each word-group in a single glance, imagine the meaning
of each thought-unit, concentrate on pushing your comprehension instead of your speed, and be patient
and focus on the ideas.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

TOM!
No answer.
TOM!
No answer.
Whats gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up
and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked THROUGH themfor so small a thing as a
boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for style, not serviceshe could
have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said,
not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
Well, I lay if I get hold of you Ill
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom,
and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
I never did see the beat of that boy!
She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and jimpson
weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for
distance and shouted:
Y-o-u-u TOM!
There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his
roundabout and arrest his flight.
There! I might a thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?
Nothing.
Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that truck?
I dont know, Aunt.
Well, I know. Its jamthats what it is. Forty times Ive said if you didnt let that jam alone Id
skin you. Hand me that switch.
The switch hovered in the airthe peril was desperate
My! Look behind you, Aunt!
The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant,
scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.
His Aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh.
Hang the boy, cant I never learn anything? Aint he played me tricks enough like that for me to be
looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Cant learn an old dog new
tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to

know whats coming? He pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up,
and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, its all down again and I
cant hit him a lick. I aint doing my duty by that boy, and thats the Lords truth, goodness knows.
Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says. Im a laying up sin and suffering for us both,
I know. Hes full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! Hes my own dead sisters boy, poor thing, and I
aint got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and
every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days
and full of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon its so. Hell play hookey this afternoon, and
Ill just be obleeged to make him work, tomorrow, to punish him. Its mighty hard to make him work
Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more than he hates anything else,
and Ive GOT to do some of my duty by him, or Ill be the ruination of the child.
Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home barely in season to help Jim,
the small colored boy, saw next-days wood and split the kindlings before supperat least he was
there in time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the work. Toms younger
brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his part of the work (picking up chips),
for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity offered, Aunt Polly asked him
questions that were full of guile, and very deepfor she wanted to trap him into damaging
revealments. Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed
with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most transparent
devices as marvels of low cunning. Said she:
Tom, it was middling warm in school, warnt it?
Yesm.
Powerful warm, warnt it?
Yesm.
Didnt you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?
A bit of a scare shot through Toma touch of uncomfortable suspicion. He searched Aunt Pollys
face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
Nomwell, not very much.
The old lady reached out her hand and felt Toms shirt, and said:
But you aint too warm now, though. And it flattered her to reflect that she had discovered that the
shirt was dry without anybody knowing that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her,
Tom knew where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
Some of us pumped on our headsmines damp yet. See?
Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence, and missed a
trick. Then she had a new inspiration:
Tom, you didnt have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to pump on your head, did you?
Unbutton your jacket!
The trouble vanished out of Toms face. He opened his jacket. His shirt collar was securely sewed.

Bother! Well, go long with you. Id made sure youd played hookey and been a-swimming. But I
forgive ye, Tom. I reckon youre a kind of a singed cat, as the saying isbettern you look. THIS
time.
She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient
conduct for once.
But Sidney said:
Well, now

Chapter 8: Texting the Brain

Thinking about how you are reading, while you are reading, can seem counterproductive because the
extra effort required would obviously distract you from your comprehension. You can really only
think of one thing at a time, so thinking about what your brain is doing would interfere with thinking
about what you are reading.
But having an overall concept of how the brain reads will help you practice more effectively. An
overview of what your brain is doing and what you are trying to change, will help you stay on the
right track and stay focused on the techniques that will get your right brain involved in your reading.
Its not necessary to stay consciously aware of this process while you read, but removing some of the
mystery may leave you with a general lay of the land, to make it easier to know where you are going
and make your progress more straightforward.

Mechanics
In basic terms, text is a communication device and the readers mind is a receiver. Just like a text
message sent from one smart phone to another, printed words are sent from the page to your brain. In
both cases, a signal is being sent, received, and decoded.
How does the brain actually accomplish this task? How can you know someones thoughts simply by
looking at squiggles on a page? It seems like some kind of magic that these printed marks are actually
speaking to your brain. How is this possible? Text enters the eyes like any other image, but how do
images of text turn into thoughts? Where and how does real reading take place?
This is not a course on neurolinguisticsand anyone who is an expert in the field is invited to clarify
any essential discrepanciesbut some basic concepts will be useful, so here are a few simple
glimpses under the hood to help conceptualize what is involved.

Like all mental tasks, reading uses a network of modules and systems, each relying on its own
network of neurons. Many areas of the brain work together simultaneously, and while the complete
process is not even entirely understood yet, a general awareness of how reading is accomplished can
give you a deeper respect for the amazing complexity involved, as well as an appreciation of how
and why reading with the right brain boosts your reading effectiveness.
One network of neurons, which many people may not think of as an actual part of the brain, is the eye.
Reading starts with light entering the eye. And even though the whole eye is filled with light, only the
foveaa portion of the retina which occupies about fifteen degrees of the visual fieldis used for
reading.
Signals from the fovea are transferred to the occipital lobe at the back of the brain, where the light
signals are recognized as shapes. From this point on, these shapes are converted into words in a stepby-step process along a path through the left side of the brain.
The recognized shapes are passed from the occipital lobe to the visual recognition area, where
shapes are recognized as letters, then passed further forward to the Wernickes area. This is the area
which understands both written or spoken language. This area recognizes the groups of letters as
words. From here, the information branches off in several more directions.
The words are sent farther forward to the hearing area in the auditory cortex, where they can be
subvocalized, plus along a separate path to Brocas area, where speech production is controlled for
saying words aloud.
At the same time the words are also sent down into the center of the brain to the amygdala, where the
emotional content is determined. It may not seem like emotions would affect reading, but memories
are more likely to stick if they are combined with emotion. This is one reason that having an interest
in a subject makes it easier to remember; being interested in something activates the powerful
emotion of pleasure.
But theres much more to reading than just recognizing words. Real meaning only comes from the way
the words are combined, and in that one fact lies the real secret to reading faster

Think Fast
Quick! Memorize the following letters:
U P S IR S FB IJ FKN A S A N A T O
Not done yet? Fine. Give up then, because it really does take too long.
But lets make it easier by grouping the same string of letters like this:
UPSI RSFB IJF KNA SAN ATO
Easier, right? Just six little words to remember. Nope. Still too hard and still takes too much time.
Well, what if we group the letters like this:
UPS IRS FBI JFK NASA NATO
Wow, what a difference! The letters still make up six words, but these words are so much easier to
remember than the previous ones. Theyre made up of the same letters, in the same order, and in the

same number of words, but only the grouping is different. Now theyre grouped into thoughtunits, with each thought-unit representing a meaningful chunk of information.
This is the key to moving more information through your brain faster: parceling the information into
larger packages. Reading and remembering takes a lot of thinking, and thinking takes time. You cant
really make those neurons fire any faster than they are capable; as smart as they are, they still have
certain physical limits.
I dont mean that neurons are slow, but it just takes an awful lot of firing on their part to accomplish
all the work they have to do as they sort and store information. When theyre resting, neurons fire
about twenty-five times per second. When theyre active, that speed increases to around four hundred
times per second. And when theyre concentrating really hard on something, they max out at about one
thousand firings per second. So yes, you can think faster, but there is still a maximum speed limit.
There are other limits, too. Besides processing speed, our conscious minds can only hold about seven
pieces of information at a time; and at normal reading speeds, these pieces only have about half a
second before the next piece comes through.
But fortunately there is a clever way to bypass both of these limitations. In fact, this solution is a
special talent that, in comparison to all other creatures, puts humans at the head of the pack in the
thinking department. Although humans arent well known for physical strength, speed, or any other
particularly powerful physical abilities, they do excel at consciousness. Human consciousness gives
rise to an amazing ability to handle novel and complex information, which allows humans to invent
new solutions to problems and to make accurate predictions about the future.
This consciousness is not located throughout the whole brain, but resides primarily in the prefrontal
cortex. This is where you pay attention. This is where the real you lives.

This prefrontal cortex is the erasable whiteboard of the brain; here, information is scribbled
temporarily while the consciousness decides what to do with it. Information constantly and rapidly
flows into this area from the senses and is quickly organized, filtered, and chunked together into
larger ideas. And it has to accomplish all this even though it only has room to hold about seven pieces
of information at a time.
But the conscious mind uses a clever trick to keep up with all this information. Although it is limited
to handling only about seven items at a time, each of these items can be immensely complex. Each of
these seven items can be piled high with information, similar to the way we pile food on our plates at
an all-you-can-eat buffet. Chunking of information into larger more complex ideas makes the most of
each conceptual idea before it is sent on to memory.
The key to this process of filtering and combining information is the brains fascination with patterns
and hidden structures. These patterns allow ideas and concepts to be assembled into massively
complex pyramids of information where each thought is attached to many layers of underlying
meaning and associations.
This hunger for patterns is unstoppable. We cant help seeing patterns in everything. The result is
more than just faster thinking, but also richer experiences. By filtering and combining information into
larger patterns, we create the complex context of our consciousness. We dont just see, learn, and
remember informationwe understand it conceptually. To conceptualize information is to become
truly aware of it, and what it means to us.
The process of chunking information into conceptual patterns is not just a neat trick for thinking and
reading fasterthe more we chunk information into concepts, the more truly conscious we become.

Reading Evolution
As amazing as the human mind is, it wasnt specifically designed for the modern world. Our minds
evolved and developed over a period of time continually adapting to our changing needs.
So just like language, our minds are just what we ended up with. Our brains werent designed with
reading in mind. Our early hominid ancestors needed to know things like where food and resources
were, the route home, and which plants were edible or poisonous.
To recognize these types of things, they had to be very good at visual imagery, but they didnt have to
remember things like lists of facts, or names, dates, and numbers. They also didnt need to spend
much time thinking about abstract ideasthe kinds with no visual associations.
Since reading was only developed a few thousand years ago, it certainly hasnt given our brains
enough time for any physical adaptation. In essence, we are still reading with prehistoric brains, yet
somehow there are fixed circuitries of the human brain that seem perfectly attuned to recognizing the
printed word.
What appears to have happened is that somehow humans have very effectively reassigned portions of
their brains to this new task. In other words, reading looks to be just a patch onto an existing, more
primitive brain. But even though this reassignment of brain areas is just a makeshift adaptation, our
reading skills have continued on a constant path of improvement and sophistication. They have
progressed from recognizing cave pictures to rapidly consuming vast amounts of data from a
continuous flow of complex information.

This has been an incredible mental restructuring. A caveman has learned to read. If the brain
developed this amazing skill in such a short time, then once again, it makes one wonder how we could
imagine that our current reading skill is the finished product.

Practice Exercise #8
For the next reading exercise, imagine how your inner caveman brain is going to understand this. This
guy has been around way longer than those shiny, brand new reading skillsand he prefers to think in
pictures! So make sure to give him something that will keep his attention by forming visual images

that will be interesting to the whole brain.

One thing you could try if you are having difficulty thinking in pictures as you read is doodling the
phrases. To prompt your mind to think visually, try this exercise. Get a sheet of paper and make very
quick sketches of what each phrase means to you. These can be absolutely simplistic and maybe only
meaningful to you. Dont take a lot of time, just jot down whatever comes to mind, be it an actual
pictorial view, a metaphorical view, or a symbolic view. These arent pieces of art and should be
created as quickly as possiblejust simple stick figures will do. Think of it as speed Pictionary.
Dont be concerned at all about what your doodles look like; just as our internal singing voice is often
better than what comes out of our mouths, our right brains will internally take care of the real artwork
much better than we can draw. The point is only to give you some practice in seeing ideas as images
and concepts, which can help wake up the visual right brain.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold,
scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet
somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently
human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which
spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of
his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages;
and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an
approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits
involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove.
I incline to Cains heresy, he used to say quaintly: I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.
In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good
influence in the lives of down-going men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his
chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanor.
No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his
friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature. It is the mark of a modest
man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyers
w ay. His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest; his
affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object. Hence, no doubt,
the bond that united him to Mr. Richard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town.
It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find
in common. It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said
nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend. For all
that, the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each
week, and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls of business, that they
might enjoy them uninterrupted.
It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of
London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the week-days.
The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying
out the surplus of their gains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an
air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid
charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy
neighborhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and
general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.
Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court;
and just at that point, a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was
two stories high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower story and a blind forehead of
discolored wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid
negligence. The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and
distained. Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon
the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the moldings; and for close on a generation, no one had
appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.

Mr. Enfield and the lawyer were on the other side of the by-street; but when they came abreast of the
entry, the former lifted up his cane and pointed.
Did you ever remark that door? he asked; and when his companion had replied in the affirmative,
It is connected in my mind, added he, with a very odd story.
Indeed? said Mr. Utterson, with a slight change of voice, and what was that?
Well, it was this way, returned Mr. Enfield: I was coming home from some place at the end of the
world, about three oclock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where
there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps. Street after street; and all the folks asleepstreet
after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a churchtill at last I got into that
state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman. All at
once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the
other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well,
sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the
thing; for the man trampled calmly over the childs body and left her screaming on the ground. It
sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasnt like a man; it was like some damned
Juggernaut. I gave a view-halloa, took to my heels, collared my gentleman, and brought him back to
where there was already quite a group about the screaming

Chapter 9: Reading with the Brain

We now know a little about the physical processes the brain uses to accomplish the task of reading,
but how can we make the most of this ability? What mental processes should we be using to best
convert text into knowledge? Wheres the Users Guide for this reading machine?
As you have probably noticed, there is already plenty of advice available on reading techniques.

In fact, having so much advice can make it difficult to decide which advice is excellent and which is
nonsense. Our previous discussion of how we process text, however, may help you determine which
methods makes more sense.
The last chapter primarily dealt with how the brain converts printed text into words, but this chapter
will concentrate on how these words are turned into meaning. We will cover how words are turned
into the thoughts they came from, and how language becomes ideas. We will also look closer at how
the right brain can enhance this ability.

Perceptual and Conceptual Processing

Once text enters your brain, it is processed in two stages: perceptual and conceptual.
The first processing stage is perceptual; this is when you see text and recognize the characters and
words. As amazing as this ability is, it is actually the simpler and faster of the two stages.
Of course the whole reading process seems incredibly fast when you consider the complexity
involved, but the second stage, the conceptual stage, is by far the slower of the two. A whole phrase
of text can be perceived in about 1/25th of a second. Thats very fastaround seven times faster than
you can blink!
That means a group of words can be flashed on a screen so fast as to be almost invisible, but you can
still perceive the whole phrase. However, conceptualizing the meaning of that phrase takes
considerably longer.
To understand how much longer it takes to actually read and understand text, consider that even
reading at a rapid six hundred words per minute is equivalent to spending an entire half a second on
each phrase. In other words, the thinking part of reading takes over ten times longer than the seeing
part.
This huge difference between the time it takes to perceive text and the time it takes to conceptually
process it should make it abundantly clear why speed reading has nothing to do with seeing text
faster, but everything to do with thinking faster. Speed reading is really speed thinking.
Thats why it is pointless to push the speed of seeing text, regardless if its with eye exercises or by
following a pacer. Eyes are not cameras. The camera is the whole brain, and the eyes are only the
lens of this camera. The eyes are an important component, but useless without the complex
mechanisms required for processing and saving information.
Reading is a complex process involving various operations. The whole process takes visual input,
converts it to lines and shapes, then to letters and words, to language, and then to data. It next filters
and sorts this data into information, and then finally saves it as useful knowledge. The entire process
involves several simultaneous and integrated tasks, working together to generate new thoughts and
memories.
These thoughts and memories are the final result and sole purpose of all this work; a process which
allows you to categorize, organize, store, and recall what you have read. As you can see, the end
result of a system like this is knowledge, not memorization. This means the purpose of reading is not
to remember words, but to assimilate ideas.

The purpose of conceptually understanding information is to make the information useful. The brain is
a predicting and planning machine, and it uses categorizations and connections of stored information
to accomplish those tasks.

Episodic and Semantic Information

There are two types of information: episodic and semantic.
Episodic information is located in time and space. These are concrete thingsthings that are in the
real world and can be observed.
Semantic information is outside of time and space. These are abstract thingsthings you can only
understand as conceptual ideas and things that can only be represented as categories and connections.
Consider the sentence, He was running faster than ever. He was running is episodic information,
and faster than ever is semantic. The first phrase is a concrete image. The second phrase is an
abstract idea.
When conceptualizing what you read, episodic information is somewhat faster and easier to imagine
than semantic information, as it is easier to think of real world things than abstract ideas. Without any
visual image, semantic information requires more imagination and mental effort to process.
But although the processing of semantic information takes more effort, it is one of the abilities which
make us uniquely humanand it beats the opposable thumbs, hands down! Chimps, for example,
cannot effectively process semantic information, meaning they have very little ability to reason about
unobservable things. But semantically thinking humans can understand how the past affects the present
and then how to use this understanding to plan for the future.

Consciousness
Once data is processed into conceptual ideas, it is presented to the conscious mind. Here the data is
quickly filtered by tuning out what is not important, and amplifying what is. This is also where you
become aware of the data as information.
Although the conscious portion of the brain is small, it acts as the boss, delegating tasks and receiving
reports from all the subconscious areas. As information streams through the conscious mind, it is
temporarily placed in the short-term working memory, where it is analyzed, combined, compared, and
evaluated. Although the short- term memory cant hold many items or hold them for longsince each
conscious item can be immensely complexit can still handle a large amount of information. Because
it takes about the same amount of effort to process a large concept as it does an individual word,
concentrating on reading for ideas can maximize the processing speed.
Another way consciousness maximizes its efficiency is by filtering out anything it thinks is irrelevant,
enabling it to concentrate more time and energy on what matters most. You could think of this as a
secretary going through and prioritizing the incoming mail. Not everything that comes in escapes the
wastebasket, but the most important items go to the top of the inbox.
The result of this filtering is that you wont remember everything you readand you wouldnt want

to; thats not how the brain is supposed to work. The brain is more like an index than a book. Its job
is not to simply record its experiences, but to organize and make sense of them.

Memory
After the data has been filtered and evaluated, the information is stored in the long-term memory. This
information is not stored in one place, but distributed throughout a network of associated attributes.
Each of these attributes is like a tag associated with the information and represents a quality or
characteristic inherent in that information.
Instead of being stored as intact bundles, this information is saved as a set of related attributes. Each
piece of information is not stored as a separate block somewhere in the brain, but as a complex web
of connections to all associated information. In this way, we store memories of what information
actually means to us. The result is that unlike a computer, we dont store data"we store
knowledge. In other words, we dont store the exact information or experience, but instead store the
conceptual idea of that information.

This also explains why memories change over time. It is not because we forget them; its because we

never really remembered them in the first place, at least not as exact recordings of facts and events. In
fact, the latest studies on memory have found that memories are actually altered every time they are
recalled, depending on which attributes are connected and which attributes are more strongly
emphasized.
This understanding of memory will increase your reading efficiency by encouraging you to
concentrate on the conceptual thought-units rather than trying to memorize the words and details.
Unless you are trying to memorize something like technical jargon or a poem, you are not
remembering the words, but the ideas. Comprehending text means thinking of what it means.
Heres an example of conceptualizing via attributes. The thought of a red rose creates attribute
connections for red things, roses, flowers, plants, and any other categories you might associate with a
red roseincluding any emotional attachment you might associate with roses. Later on when you
retrieve this information, you arent really retrieving the original memory; you are instead
reconstructing the memory from a distributed network of attributes, where each attribute contributes to
the larger meaning of the idea. When you remember this information, you will recreate this memory as
red + rose + flower + plant, including, excluding, and even replacing many of these puzzle pieces
from all the connections that were originally made.
The point is, each memory is actually distributed throughout a network of connections to many other
memories; these memories will be stronger or weaker based on the number and strength of these
connections, and then will be further affected by the number of times they are accessed.
Over time, the more you know about red roses, the more connection points you will have established
and will be available for similar information to be attached to. Every additional piece of information
you store will make it faster and easier to store new pieces. This will also make information faster
and easier to retrieve since there will be more connection points to access it from. For example, just
thinking of red might remind you of that particular rose and the occasion of that memory.
Another variable that affects the memory process is age. For instance, the reason we dont form longterm memories before the age of three is probably because we dont yet have enough memories to
firmly attach new information to. If an infant sees a table for the first time and then later sees a chair,
the chair will not remind him of the previous table because no conceptual connections have been
made between these two items yet. The table will be easily forgotten, as well as the chair and any
other memories associated with either of these items.
But by the time we have accumulated about three years of experiences, we will have created enough
associations to begin to make connections strong enough to possibly last for years.
Then later, after a certain age, the brain begins to suffer a slowdown in processing speed. But due to
neuroplasticity, the brain can compensate for some of this slowdown by making use of the many more
connection points available, the larger vocabulary, and the sharper language skills developed by that
time.
Regardless of age, though, the more you read, the more you exercise your brain. Furthermore, the
more you put into your brain, the richer life becomes.

Concentration and Focus

Knowing how the brain reads and how to improve its functioning is important, but this knowledge is
useless until put into practice. Knowledge is not powerit is only potential power. Power requires
effort. All reading and comprehension takes mental effort, and trying to read and comprehend faster
will obviously require an increased effort. Most of this additional effort will be directed to paying
more attention; which involves an increase in concentration and focus.
Concentration is applying more mental resources to your reading, its thinking more about what the
information means. Increased concentration is like shining a brighter light on a subject. In this way,
concentrating on your reading makes the information clearer and easier to see.
Focus is tuning out internal or external distractions in order to narrow your attention to the material
at hand. Focus increases your mental efficiency by minimizing the waste of resources. Increased focus
is like looking at the subject through a magnifying glass, as it strengthens attention on the information
being read and reduces attention to distractions.

One way to maximize the overall mental energy you have available for these tasks, is to be sure your
brain is operating in top condition. A good way to do this is by providing your brain with adequate
fuel and it uses lots of fuel. Amazingly, although the brain only makes up two percent of the bodys
total weight, it uses twenty-five percent of the bodys oxygen and seventy percent of its glucose. The
best way to ensure a good fuel supply is through good health; so for maximum efficiency, its very
helpful if you get proper physical exercise, nutrition, and rest.
Even though there are limits to the improvements that can be made to your brain, you can still
strengthen it with mental exercise. In fact, practicing to enhance your reading abilities has a powerful
impact, not only on your reading skills, but on your physical brain itself.
Besides increased effort, it also takes time to develop better reading skills. You should also be aware
that reading whole phrases and concentrating on conceptual ideas as you read is going to feel strange

at first; changing old habits usually feels a bit uncomfortable. But if it doesnt feel strange, then you
probably arent doing anything different. So accept that it will take time for your mind to adjust to
conceptual reading.
Concentrating on whole thoughts and visualizing and conceptualizing whole ideas uses more of your
brain. It spreads these communication tasks over a broader portion of the brain than simply decoding
text into words would do. The visual, big-picture area of the right brain specializes in this complex,
conceptual type of thinking.

Reading with the Right Brain

Most of the areas of the brain typically associated with reading are on the left side, and this is
actually the area we are most familiar with. But the area this book is primarily concerned with is way
over on the right. Textual information arrives on the right side via the corpus callosuma wide, flat
bundle of neural fibers connecting the two brain halves.
When you study how the brain reads, you will see a lot of information about processes and areas of
the left brain. Over on the right side, its much more of an unexplored frontier. In fact, this side seems
to get a lot less attention overall. For example, if you do a Google search for pictures of the brain,
youll see that almost all the images are of the left side.
The left hemisphere is where our language center is locatedthis is the side that talks to us. Maybe
thats the reason its so much easier to get to know than the silent right side.
But the right side actually has a major role in effective comprehension. The right side is where
concepts and visual images are formed.
The difference between the two hemispheres was first discovered when patients had their corpora
callosa severed in attempts to eliminate severe epileptic seizures. Doctors found that when these
people were shown words to the left sides of their brains (paradoxically, through their right eyes), the
signals were unable to cross to the right sides, and these patients were unable to identify pictures that
matched the words. Likewise, if a picture was presented to the right sides of their brains, they were
unable to produce the matching words. This lack of communication is what proved to neurologists
that the separate hemispheres actually had very different functions.
The right side of the brain thinks by looking at information as complete patterns. Unlike the left side,
which processes information in a step-by-step fashion, the right side looks at whole images or whole
ideas together and sees the overall patterns and connections of the information.
This unique talent allows the right side to handle the higher order cognitive processing, which means
it can interpret information faster, more holistically, and recognize the big picture. This holistic
ability is why the right side excels at things like imagination, intuition, facial recognition, and artistry,
while the left side can balance a checkbook.

Both sides have their own important specialties, but reading only with the left brain is like squeezing
information through a straw, compared to the wide river of information that the right brain can
process simultaneously.
After the left and right side process data, it is sent to the prefrontal cortex. This is the seat of
consciousness, an area which regulates information, modulates impulses, and coordinates data
coming from other brain centers. This area enables you to form plans, make decisions, spot errors,
and break habits. It is also where working memorythe mental desktopresides.
While the prefrontal cortexs job is to process data into meaningful information, there are aspects of
information which could affect processing capabilitiesemotion, for one thing. Dopamine, the
neurotransmitter associated with joy and pleasure, primes the prefrontal cortex for action and
strengthens its informational signals. Also assisting the prefrontal cortex in its processing are
repeated, rhythmic, structured, and easily visualized informationall of which make information
easier to remember.

Practice Exercise #9
As you read this exercise, be aware of what your mind is doing. Reading words may be automatic for
you, but this doesnt mean the rest of your brain and consciousness will automatically be involved.
In order for you to get anything lasting out of your reading, it helps to understand how your brain
works and which form of information it works with best. This means paying attention to the real
conceptual meaning of information, whether it is concrete or abstract. If you want your consciousness
to stay involved and store this information into your long-term memory, you must concentrate, focus,
and conceptualize.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
White Fang by Jack London

White Fang
Dark spruce forest frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a
recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and
ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation;
lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There
was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadnessa laughter that was
mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of
infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life
and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.
But there was life, abroad in the land and defiant. Down the frozen waterway toiled a string of
wolfish dogs. Their bristly fur was rimed with frost. Their breath froze in the air as it left their
mouths, spouting forth in spumes of vapor that settled upon the hair of their bodies and formed into
crystals of frost. Leather harness was on the dogs, and leather traces attached them to a sled which
dragged along behind. The sled was without runners. It was made of stout birch-bark, and its full
surface rested on the snow. The front end of the sled was turned up, like a scroll, in order to force
down and under the bore of soft snow that surged like a wave before it. On the sled, securely lashed,
was a long and narrow oblong box. There were other things on the sledblankets, an axe, and a
coffee-pot and frying-pan; but prominent, occupying most of the space, was the long and narrow
oblong box.
In advance of the dogs, on wide snowshoes, toiled a man. At the rear of the sled toiled a second man.
On the sled, in the box, lay a third man whose toil was overa man whom the Wild had conquered
and beaten down until he would never move nor struggle again. It is not the way of the Wild to like
movement. Life is an offence to it, for life is movement; and the Wild aims always to destroy
movement. It freezes the water to prevent it running to the sea; it drives the sap out of the trees till
they are frozen to their mighty hearts; and most ferociously and terribly of all does the Wild harry and
crush into submission manman who is the most restless of life, ever in revolt against the dictum that
all movement must in the end come to the cessation of movement.
But at front and rear, unawed and indomitable, toiled the two men who were not yet dead. Their
bodies were covered with fur and soft-tanned leather. Eyelashes and cheeks and lips were so coated
with the crystals from their frozen breath that their faces were not discernible. This gave them the
seeming of ghostly masques, undertakers in a spectral world at the funeral of some ghost. But under it
all they were men, penetrating the land of desolation and mockery and silence, puny adventurers bent
o n colossal adventure, pitting themselves against the might of a world as remote and alien and
pulseless as the abysses of space.
They traveled on without speech, saving their breath for the work of their bodies. On every side was
the silence, pressing upon them with a tangible presence. It affected their minds as the many
atmospheres of deep water affect the body of the diver. It crushed them with the weight of unending
vastness and unalterable decree. It crushed them into the remotest recesses of their own minds,
pressing out of them, like juices from the grape, all the false ardors and exaltations and undue selfvalues of the human soul, until they perceived themselves finite and small, specks and motes, moving
with weak cunning and little wisdom amidst the play and inter-play of the great blind elements and
forces.

An hour went by, and a second hour. The pale light of the short sunless day was beginning to fade,
when a faint far cry arose on the still air. It soared upward with a swift rush, till it reached its
topmost note, where it persisted, palpitant and tense, and then slowly died away. It might have been a
lost soul wailing, had it not been invested with a certain sad fierceness and hungry eagerness. The
front man turned his head until his eyes met the eyes of the man behind. And then, across the narrow
oblong box, each nodded to the other.
A second cry arose, piercing the silence with needle-like shrillness. Both men located the sound. It
was to the rear, somewhere in the snow expanse they had just traversed. A third and answering cry
arose, also to the rear and to the left of the second cry.
Theyre after us, Bill, said the man at the front.
His voice sounded hoarse and unreal, and he had spoken with apparent effort.
Meat is scarce, answered his comrade. I aint seen a rabbit sign for days.
Thereafter they spoke no more, though their ears were keen for the hunting-cries that continued to rise
behind them.
At the fall of darkness they swung the dogs into a cluster of spruce trees on the edge of the waterway
and made a camp. The coffin, at the side of the fire, served for seat and table. The wolf-dogs,
clustered on the far side of the fire, snarled and bickered among themselves, but evinced no
inclination to stray off into the darkness.
Seems to me, Henry, theyre stayin remarkable close to camp, Bill commented.
Henry, squatting over the fire and settling the pot of coffee with a piece of ice, nodded. Nor did he
speak till he had taken his seat on the coffin and begun to eat. They know

Chapter 10: Mindset

The proper mindset for effective reading requires both, paying more attention, and knowing what to
pay attention to. You must also treat your attention like the precious and finite resource it is, and
direct it at the real purpose of readingcomprehension.

Attention
It might seem that there is something mystical or magical about speed reading, or that its some
awesome ability only a few lucky geniuses have. If this is what you think, then be prepared to go from
being amazed to thinking, Whats the big deal? Its only about paying more attention.
And thats the truth; it is only about paying attention. But paying attention is really huge. Attention is
your conscious mind. If you had zero attention, you would be comatosebarely alive. Having more
attention is being more alive. Attention is the you in your brain. More attention means more you.
You might think that naturally you are paying attention, but attention is variable. Attention is not stuck
at one level, and its not simply an on and off switch; its more like a dimmer switch that can be
adjusted anywhere between very bright and very dim, and this adjustment varies throughout each day.
The power of attention also varies among different people. Just like any part of the physical body,
each persons mental processes can also be stronger or weaker than those of others. You could even
conclude that some people are more conscious than others.
But believe it or not, the conscious mind can be strengthened with exercise. With regular reading
exercise and good technique, you can stretch your memory, tighten your attention, and strengthen your
intelligence. You can also learn to make more efficient use of the working memory of your conscious
mind, maintain better concentration and focus, and suppress external and internal distractions.
Heres a simple trick that will increase attention: pretend the reason you are reading something, is to
explain it to someone else. Think, How can I make this information clear? What is the gist of this
material? How do the different parts fit together? How could I defend this idea if someone were to
disagree with it? But this really isnt just a trick, because you are going to explain it to someone else
your future self.
Improving attention depends a lot on your mindset. In order to make good progress, your mind must be
rested, fit, and positive. Imagine if you were at the gym. The first thing you would do is stretch to
prepare your muscles and get them warmed up. Likewise, your brain should also be prepared before
exercise so it can be in the right frame of mind, ready to concentrate and focus on the job at hand.

Relaxation
Prepare your brain for reading and learning by relaxing your mind and body. Relaxation clears your
working memory, erasing that mental white board. Relaxation also calms the amygdala and prefrontal
cortex, your emotional and conscious areas. These two areas work closely together and will
communicate better when they are undistracted and uncluttered.

The amygdala is the hub of emotional responses and can produce a stimulating effect on the prefrontal
cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the seat of executive function; it regulates your thoughts, actions, and
emotions. There is a strong connection between these two regions and distractions in one will affect
the other. Relaxing your mind clears the communication channel between them.

If youre not sure how to relax and clear your mind, then try this. Close your eyes, and think of nothing
but your breathing. Then, picture in your mind each letter of the words READ FASTER. Picture them
one at a time, and imagine each one inflating and then deflating as you breathe in and then out. This
exercise will accomplish two things: it will clear your mind of extraneous distractions, and it will
also warm up the visualizing areas of your brain.
Another very easy trick is smiling! Strangely enough, the physical act of putting a smile on your face
actually creates a positive mood, and a positive mood produces a relaxed and receptive mind. A
positive mood even improves your vision, because happy and positive thoughts cause your pupils to
dilate, letting in more light.

Purpose
It is also helpful to keep your goals in mind when deciding to read something. Any journey comes
with some measure of apprehension. You may wonder: How long will it take me? Will it be worth
it? How will I feel if I fail to achieve this goal?
Before investing in any goal, we want to know if its worth the effort by deciding how much effort it
will take, what will be gained if we succeed, and what will be lost if we fail. But before we can
know how much effort a reading task is worth, we need to be clear about the reading goals.
Having a clear goal will help any reading, regardless whether the goal is to hunt down specific
knowledge or just indulge in recreation. Realize what you want, what it is worth, what it will cost
you, and what you would be giving up if you forfeited it. Being clear about your goal will clear the
road ahead, enabling you to focus undistracted attention on your reading, regardless of whether youre
reading a difficult textbook or a trashy novel.
All reading has a purpose because it all adds knowledgeeither knowledge of the world as it exists,
or of its possibilitieseither increasing your intelligence, or your empathy. And all knowledge
changes you, because you literally become more of what you read. So decide on your reason for
reading and read with motivation. Then read aggressively by actively seeking the information, not just
waiting for it to occur to you.

Patience
Its also important to be patient with yourself. Dont be overly concerned about how long its taking
you to finish reading something. Your attention is limited, so pay attention to what you are doing right
now rather than how far you are from the end. Youve set your course, now keep your eyes on the
road directly in front of you. Ignore the little voice in the back of your mind asking, Are we there
yet? Are we there yet? Worrying about your progress only leads to performance anxiety. You know
where youre going; you know how to get there. Now, relax and enjoy the scenery. Be patient. Your
goal is to read and understand the material, so concentrate on visualizing the information, and you
will get there faster.
You should also accept that you still may not always understand everything you read. But when you
come across something that is troublesome, stop and see if you can figure out why it is giving you a

problem. If it is still not clear, then make note of it, continue reading, and see if it becomes clear later.

Practice Exercise #10

As you read this next practice exercise, relax, be patient, and concentrate on imagining what you are
reading. Attention, relaxation, purpose, and patience are important ingredients, although these should
not require your conscious effort. By concentrating on the conceptual nature of what you read, you
will automatically be paying more attention, be more relaxed and read with purpose and patience.
You will be filling your mind with conceptual ideas, and therefore will just naturally avoid
distractions, tension, confusion, and impatience.
Once again, remember to time your reading and record your words per minute on your progress form.
Even though you are concentrating more on comprehension than speed, your speed is still a helpful
indirect indication of your progress.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

I am afraid, Watson, that I shall have to go, said Holmes, as we sat down together to our breakfast
one morning.
Go! Where to?
To Dartmoor; to Kings Pyland.
I was not surprised. Indeed, my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed up in this
extraordinary case, which was the one topic of conversation through the length and breadth of
England. For a whole day my companion had rambled about the room with his chin upon his chest and
his brows knitted, charging and recharging his pipe with the strongest black tobacco, and absolutely
deaf to any of my questions or remarks. Fresh editions of every paper had been sent up by our news
agent, only to be glanced over and tossed down into a corner. Yet, silent as he was, I knew perfectly
well what it was over which he was brooding. There was but one problem before the public which
could challenge his powers of analysis, and that was the singular disappearance of the favorite for the
Wessex Cup, and the tragic murder of its trainer. When, therefore, he suddenly announced his
intention of setting out for the scene of the drama it was only what I had both expected and hoped for.
I should be most happy to go down with you if I should not be in the way, said I.
My dear Watson, you would confer a great favor upon me by coming. And I think that your time will
not be misspent, for there are points about the case which promise to make it an absolutely unique
one. We have, I think, just time to catch our train at Paddington, and I will go further into the matter
upon our journey. You would oblige me by bringing with you your very excellent field-glass.
And so it happened that an hour or so later I found myself in the corner of a first-class carriage flying
along en route for Exeter, while Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp, eager face framed in his earflapped travelling-cap, dipped rapidly into the bundle of fresh papers which he had procured at
Paddington. We had left Reading far behind us before he thrust the last one of them under the seat, and
offered me his cigar-case.
We are going well, said he, looking out the window and glancing at his watch. Our rate at present
is fifty-three and a half miles an hour.
I have not observed the quarter-mile posts, said I.
Nor have I. But the telegraph posts upon this line are sixty yards apart, and the calculation is a
simple one. I presume that you have looked into this matter of the murder of John Straker and the
disappearance of Silver Blaze?
I have seen what the Telegraph and the Chronicle have to say.
It is one of those cases where the art of the reasoner should be used rather for the sifting of details
than for the acquiring of fresh evidence. The tragedy has been so uncommon, so complete and of such
personal importance to so many people, that we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture,
and hypothesis. The difficulty is to detach the framework of factof absolute undeniable factfrom
the embellishments of theorists and reporters. Then, having established ourselves upon this sound
basis, it is our duty to see what inferences may be drawn and what are the special points upon which
the whole mystery turns. On Tuesday evening I received telegrams from both Colonel Ross, the owner

of the horse, and from Inspector Gregory, who is looking after the case, inviting my cooperation.
Tuesday evening! I exclaimed. And this is Thursday morning. Why didnt you go down
yesterday?
Because I made a blunder, my dear Watsonwhich is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than
any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs. The fact is that I could not believe it
possible that the most remarkable horse in England could long remain concealed, especially in so
sparsely inhabited a place as the north of Dartmoor. From hour to hour yesterday I expected to hear
that he had been found, and that his abductor was the murderer of John Straker. When, however,
another morning had come, and I found that beyond the arrest of young Fitzroy Simpson nothing had
been done, I felt that it was time for me to take action. Yet in some ways I feel that yesterday has not
been wasted.
You have formed a theory, then?
At least I have got a grip of the essential facts of the case. I shall enumerate them to you, for nothing
clears up a case so much as stating it to another person, and I can hardly expect your co-operation if I
do not show you the position from which we start.
I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar, while Holmes, leaning forward, with his long, thin
forefinger checking off the points upon the palm of his left hand, gave me a sketch of the events which
had led to our journey.
Silver Blaze, said he, is from the Somomy stock, and holds as brilliant a record as his famous
ancestor. He is now in his fifth year, and has brought in turn each of the prizes of the turf to Colonel
Ross, his fortunate owner. Up to the time of the catastrophe he was the first favorite for the Wessex
Cup, the betting being three to one on him. He has always, however, been a prime favorite with the
racing public, and has never yet disappointed them, so that even at those odds enormous sums of
money have been laid upon him. It is obvious, therefore, that there were many people who had the
strongest interest in preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the fall of the flag next Tuesday.
The fact was, of course, appreciated at Kings Pyland, where the Colonels training-stable is
situated. Every precaution was taken to guard

Chapter 11: Comprehension

I dont know why, but few people seem to recognize that we are not trying to read WORDSwe are
trying to read IDEAS.
Reading is all about comprehension. Reading without comprehension is like reading with your eyes
closed. Comprehension means more than just understanding words and definitions; it means
understanding the ideas being communicated.
Comprehension depends on the writer and the reader; it is a connection between two minds, and good
comprehension depends on both ends of this connection.
Since comprehension is the purpose of text, it would be helpful to consider what comprehension is,
what affects it, and how to maximize it.

Reading IS Comprehension
Sure, we all know comprehension is important. We want to read faster while maintaining good
comprehension. But this is looking at the process completely backwards. Comprehension is the goal
of reading and the only reason for reading. It is not a part of reading to be simply maintained. What
you really want to have is good comprehension and then also have fast reading.
Even though it seems obvious to everyone that comprehension is important, most reading
improvement courses not only ignore comprehension, but even actively discourage it. We are told we
can ignore comprehension while pressing ahead with our reading speed. We are told that after we
develop the habit of seeing words faster, our comprehension will somehow catch up. Im afraid it just
doesnt work like that, as you have probably discovered for yourself.
Pushing your speed and expecting your comprehension to catch up is like flooring the accelerator on
your car and expecting your driving skills to catch up. Your car would soon crash as certainly as your
comprehension would.
Comprehension is a skill, a complex mental skill that doesnt improve on its own. Like most skills,
you have to master proper technique before you can perform the skill faster. Improved comprehension
is what leads to speed, not vice versa.
Not only does comprehension fail to automatically improve with faster reading, it is also possible to
read words and have absolutely no comprehension at all. How often have you read an entire page
with your mind on autopilot, only to discover that you didnt remember a thing?
Heres another example of reading without understanding. Even though I do not understand
Spanish, the phonetic rules of the language are logical enough that I could probably say all the words.
This means I could read a Spanish book aloud and most Spanish speaking people would understand
what I was saying. But just because I could say the words wouldnt mean I was actually reading them.
I would only be decoding written symbols into their associated sounds. In the end, I am not taking
away any information, just sounds. This is the same if I were to read English while ignoring
comprehension. Comprehension must come firstwithout it, you arent really reading at all.
The path to faster reading is improving comprehension by conceptualizing meaning. By following

this path, your reading speed will increase automaticallya natural result of faster understanding.
With more effective comprehension, youll not only read faster, but youll have more to show for it.

Information Density
The information density of a piece of text depends on how much new information is contained within
that text, and this can have a huge effect on comprehension. Data that contains no new information is
the easiest to read because most of this empty data will be simply discarded by the prefrontal cortex.
But after this filtering, data that includes new information is going to go through additional processing
to be sorted, prioritized, and finally connected to previous knowledge through shared attributes.
During this process, some of the knowledge may be deemed interesting enough to require further
contemplation, in which case you may even halt your reading momentarily to ponder and examine this
important discovery and make further mental attachments.
Imagine your reading to be like walking through a museum. You move quickly past displays youve
seen before, slow down to consider those new and interesting items, and then sometimes stop and
stare at the most surprising finds.

Information density also affects your ability to stay connected with the material and to prevent your
mind from wandering. Since the prefrontal cortex tries to be energy efficient, it attempts to ignore low
density information.
When information density is too low, you will have a tendency to begin skimming the text, which will
make it harder to keep your mind firmly connected with it. However, when information density is too
high, you may be forced to slow down so much that it can become difficult to keep the larger picture
of the information in your mind.
Being aware of how information density changes and affects your comprehension will help you
accommodate these changes by accepting a constantly changing reading speed.

Information Attachment
Conceptualizing information is still not the very end of the reading process. Information that is not
attached to previous knowledge will quickly evaporate and disappear. Information attachment takes
place via attributes the new information shares with existing information. Do you enjoy a sport or a
hobby? If you do, you will easily remember a new record or achievement in that field.
Your current personal knowledge base was built out of those things you found interesting in the past.
This existing knowledge is what supplies attachment points for new related information. Your interest
in a subject will improve your comprehension because you will have many other pieces of related
information with which to quickly associate and attach new information. It is literally true to describe
an interest as an attachment to the subject, because new information about the subject will easily
find more attachments to your existing knowledge.
Furthermore, if you have a larger number of interests, there will be more subjects that will be easier
and more interesting to read about. This actually creates a virtuous circle: the more you know about
each subject, the more interesting it becomes; and then the more interesting it becomes, the more
youll want to know about it. This is a terrific cure for boredom. In fact, when something seems
boring, its often not the material thats boringits us.
Developing more interest in a subject will also change your reading from passive to aggressive. You
will find that you will tend to aggressively seek information as you read about these subjects, rather
than passively wait for ideas to occur to you.

Thought-Unit Attachment
Another form of information attachment is the attachment between the thought-units in each sentence.
Each of these meaningful phrases will attach to the prior and next phrases, and your comprehension
will depend on these bonds. Although its easier and faster to comprehend words in meaningful
groups than one at a time, these groups also become more meaningful in the context of their
neighboring groups.
For example, you will notice that when you first start reading something, your comprehension may
start off feeling weak and tenuous, but then it begins to strengthen as you continue reading. This is
because each thought-unit you encounter is assisting those around it by supplying additional

supporting context. Each new piece of information elaborates on the preceding piece and then
narrows the possibilities of whats coming next.
This takes effect, whether you are starting a book, a chapter, a page, a paragraph, or even a sentence.
It takes a bit of effort to get traction as you encounter each new idea. Lets walk part way through a
sentence to demonstrate this. Consider this sentence:
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had
expected.
Dividing this into thought-units could look like this:
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had
expected.
When you come across the first thought-unit, Now, it would appear that this is likely some kind of
exclamatory statement, but otherwise the meaning would still be pretty vague.
But the next phrase, as it turned out, adds to the meaning of Now, which now appears to indicate
when something turned out. And not only does the second phrase add to the meaning of the first, it
also gives a clue as to what the next phrase might be about. It doesnt tell you what the next phrase is
going to be, but it narrows the list of likely possibilities. This makes the third phrase easier to
understand because you know it will be limited to something that will make sense in the context of the
previous phrase.
Next, when you come to the Rebellion, the same principle applies. This phrase clarifies the
information of the preceding phrase and again narrows the possibilities of the following phrase. We
now know, as it turned out, refers to some rebellion; additionally, we know that the upcoming
phrase will probably describe something about the rebellion.
While this has been a rather long-winded description, the whole process occurs in microseconds. The
mental process of attaching thought-units to one another is so fast as to be almost unconscious, but its
important to understand that the thought-units and ideas are parts of a chain. Reading should be a
smooth stream of comprehension, with each piece fitting into its neighbors in a continuous flow of
information in context. Therefore, your comprehension will usually start out slower as you collect this
context and then accelerate as the information becomes more meaningful and the larger ideas emerge.
A good metaphor for this process is thoughts connected by a string. First, you have to be sure you
have a firm grip on the string; then, you can gradually start to pull, and the rest of the string will come
along. But if you yank too hard or too quickly, your mental string will break and your comprehension
will slip away. Also, some sections of a string may be more fragile than others, which means you will
have to pull more slowly and carefully to maintain comprehension.
Since it takes a bit of reading to first develop a context for the material and to understand what it is
about, its important that you are willing to let your reading be slower at first and then speed up on its
own as the larger ideas materialize around this context.

Flow
Another thing that affects reading comprehension is writing style. Writing that flows well, that just

seems more natural, is always a lot easier to understand. If the authors words have a natural rhythm
and they flow well, it will take less mental energy for you to translate the writing back into ideas,
leaving you more energy left for processing those ideas.
Good writing flow is an important factor in reading comprehension. Good flow probably has more
impact on comprehension than sentence length or vocabulary. Unfortunately, good flow is not easily
achievable for writers; few excel at creating it. Below are two sentences to compare. Both are
examples of good writing, taken from famous novels; but one flows better than the other.
From The Velveteen Rabbit:
For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a
great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the
new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.
From The Jungle Book:
Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the
moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived.
Although both examples contain good writing, you will probably notice that the first one seems to
flow betterits somehow just a little easier to understand. This is true even though the first sentence
is longer, and its words are no shorter or easier than the second sentence.
The difference here is flow. Flow has to do with the flow of ideaseither through time or from big
picture to detail. Good writing flow progresses logically, the way we think. It is easier to understand
a sentence that describes a period of time if it moves from past to future, rather than backwards as a
series of flashbacks. It is also easier to understand a sentence that describes a scene if it starts with
the overall image and then zooms in on the details, rather than focusing on multiple minutiae and
making us wait to see what they add up to.
The first example above flows from one moment in time to the next in a logical fashion, making it
easy for us to understand where the ideas are going.
The second example moves through spaceinstead of timebut from detail to big picture, rather
than vice versa; so that we need to hold the details in mind until the whole picture emerges.
The result of good flow is that it takes the reader carefully through the information, ensuring the shortterm memory is never overburdened with unsupported moments in time or unattached fragments of a
scene. With good flow, each new piece of information is easily and logically associated with the
prior piece, and the reader is not required to wait to assemble the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle at the
conclusion of the sentence.
Being aware of density, attachment, and flow means actively maintaining a balance between speed
and comprehension. A lot of things can affect your comprehension. Allowing your speed to fluctuate
not only allows for better comprehension, but it even helps maintain your attention. If you read at a
constant, mechanical, unchanging speed, it can be like listening to a boring, monotone speaker. So mix
it up. Slow your pace when necessary, and be ready to sprint when you can.

Practice Exercise #11

Read this next exercise, making sure that you are concentrating on comprehension. See each idea

because this is key to getting the right brain involved. The right brain doesnt understand words, it
understands ideas. But feed it ideas only as fast as it can handle themno faster, but no slower.
Remember, its your comprehension speed that you want to maximize, not just words per minute.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle

My name was Tommy Stubbins, son of Jacob Stubbins, the cobbler of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh; and I
was nine and a half years old. At that time Puddleby was only quite a small town. A river ran through
the middle of it; and over this river there was a very old stone bridge, called Kingsbridge, which led
you from the market-place on one side to the churchyard on the other.
Sailing-ships came up this river from the sea and anchored near the bridge. I used to go down and
watch the sailors unloading the ships upon the river-wall. The sailors sang strange songs as they
pulled upon the ropes; and I learned these songs by heart. And I would sit on the river-wall with my
feet dangling over the water and sing with the men, pretending to myself that I too was a sailor.
For I longed always to sail away with those brave ships when they turned their backs on Puddleby
Church and went creeping down the river again, across the wide lonely marshes to the sea. I longed to
go with them out into the world to seek my fortune in foreign landsAfrica, India, China and Peru!
When they got round the bend in the river and the water was hidden from view, you could still see
their huge brown sails towering over the roofs of the town, moving onward slowlylike some gentle
giants that walked among the houses without noise. What strange things would they have seen, I
wondered, when next they came back to anchor at Kingsbridge! And, dreaming of the lands I had
never seen, Id sit on there, watching till they were out of sight.
Three great friends I had in Puddleby in those days. One was Joe, the mussel-man, who lived in a tiny
hut by the edge of the water under the bridge. This old man was simply marvelous at making things. I
never saw a man so clever with his hands. He used to mend my toy ships for me, which I sailed upon
the river; he built windmills out of packing-cases and barrel-staves; and he could make the most
wonderful kites from old umbrellas.
Joe would sometimes take me in his mussel-boat, and when the tide was running out we would paddle
down the river as far as the edge of the sea to get mussels and lobsters to sell. And out there on the
cold lonely marshes we would see wild geese flying, and curlews and redshanks and many other
kinds of seabirds that live among the samphire and the long grass of the great salt fen. And as we
crept up the river in the evening, when the tide had turned, we would see the lights on Kingsbridge
twinkle in the dusk, reminding us of tea-time and warm fires.
Another friend I had was Matthew Mugg, the cats-meat-man. He was a funny old person with a bad
squint. He looked rather awful but he was really quite nice to talk to. He knew everybody in
Puddleby; and he knew all the dogs and all the cats. In those times being a cats-meat-man was a
regular business. And you could see one nearly any day going through the streets with a wooden tray
full of pieces of meat stuck on skewers crying, Meat! M-E-A-T! People paid him to give this meat
to their cats and dogs instead of feeding them on dog-biscuits or the scraps from the table.
I enjoyed going round with old Matthew and seeing the cats and dogs come running to the gardengates whenever they heard his call. Sometimes he let me give the meat to the animals myself; and I
thought this was great fun. He knew a lot about dogs and he would tell me the names of the different
kinds as we went through the town. He had several dogs of his own; one, a whippet, was a very fast
runner, and Matthew used to win prizes with her at the Saturday coursing races; another, a terrier,
was a fine ratter. The cats-meat-man used to make a business of rat-catching for the millers and
farmers as well as his other trade of selling cats-meat.

My third great friend was Luke the Hermit. But of him I will tell you more later on.
I did not go to school; because my father was not rich enough to send me. But I was extremely fond of
animals. So I used to spend my time collecting birds eggs and butterflies, fishing in the river,
rambling through the countryside after blackberries and mushrooms and helping the mussel-man mend
his nets.
Yes, it was a very pleasant life I lived in those days long agothough of course I did not think so
then. I was nine and a half years old; and, like all boys, I wanted to grow upnot knowing how well
off I was with no cares and nothing to worry me. Always I longed for the time when I should be
allowed to leave my fathers house, to take passage in one of those brave ships, to sail down the river
through the misty marshes to the seaout into the world to seek my fortune.
One early morning in the springtime, when I was wandering among the hills at the back of the town, I
happened to come upon a hawk with a squirrel in its claws. It was standing on a rock and the squirrel
was fighting very hard for its life. The hawk was so frightened when I came upon it suddenly like this,
that it dropped the poor creature and flew away. I picked the squirrel up and found that two of its legs
were badly hurt. So I carried it in my arms back to the town.
When I came to the bridge I went into the musselmans hut and asked him if he could do anything for
it. Joe put on his spectacles and examined it carefully. Then he shook his head.
Yon critturs got a broken leg, he saidand another badly cut an all. I can mend you your boats,
Tom, but I havent the tools nor the learning to make broken squirrel seaworthy. This is a job for a
surgeonand for a right smart one an all. There be only

Chapter 12: Habits

Do you think bad habits are causing you to be a slow reader?
Do you think your reading would improve if you could stop those bad habits?
What are these habits?
Subvocalizing?
Regression?
Mind-wandering?
Of course these things are associated with slow reading, but are they the cause?
Or are they just symptoms?

Subvocalizing
Subvocalizing is the internal speech that we often do when reading. Even when not making a sound,
or even moving our lips, there is often a tendency to still at least say the words in our heads.
But why do we subvocalize? Is it really true that its just a habit we picked up in third grade when our
teachers asked us to read aloud? Maybe it started out that way, but Im sure there are plenty of habits
from third grade we, thankfully, no longer have. So why would we still have this one?
First of all, subvocalizing is only a symptom of poor comprehension, but it also develops into a habit.
Its more than just a habit though; we hang on to subvocalization because its a useful habit! This is
because its an effective way of increasing comprehension. When something is difficult to
understand, it can be a big help to verbalize it internallyor even out loud. This verbalizing
accomplishes two things:
1. The additional sensation of sound makes information stick in our minds better.
2. Verbalizing automatically adds intonations that divide information into meaningful packets.
Both of these are very helpful for improving comprehension.
The additional sensation of sound (even internally) makes a stronger impression on our conscious
mind and short-term memory. Our conscious mind pays more attention when it hears something, and
spoken words also seem to stick around longer in our short-term memory.
Sounding out text also helps you listen for subtle changes in pitch that we normally use in speech.
When we speak, we involuntarily add vocal inflections to our words. Changes in pitch are
automatically used to indicate where each segment of thought begins. These intonations are done so
naturally that we are usually unaware of themthey just happen as we speak sentences the way we
think they ought to sound.
As an example, verbalize the following sentence:

Listen carefullyto the first wordof each phrase.

This is not the only way you could divide this sentence, but however you divide it, you will verbally
indicate where you want each phrase to begin, by slightly lowering your pitch on the first word of the
phrase. Lowering your pitch does not mean speaking more quietly or with less stress, but simply
dropping your pitch to a lower note.
On a musical scale, the intonation would rise and fall something like this:

The lower tone of the underlined words indicates to the listener that this is the beginning of a new
piece of information, a new thought-unit. These audio clues are obviously not available in text, so we
have a tendency to verbalize to ourselves when we read so that we can then listen for them. This
process helps us break sentences into bite-size, meaningful phrases, to make the sentences easier to
understand.
So subvocalizing is actually a tool, more than a habit. Or in this case, since it also slows us down,
this tool could be considered more of a crutch.
But youll find the more you visualize and focus on the real meaning of what you read, the less you
will want to subvocalize. You wont even have to try not toyou just wont need it. Its hard to know
for sure if subvocalizing completely goes away or if you just dont notice it anymore, but youll begin
ignoring sounds and even words. They will be banished as irrelevant thoughts. The sounds will fade
away, the words will become invisible, and you will only be aware of ideas and concepts.
Of course, verbalizing will still remain an occasional part of your readingin some reading more
than others. For example, verbalizing is always useful when learning new words. When you first
learned to read, all the words were new, but of course you are no longer just recognizing words
youre now recognizing ideas.

Regression
Regression is simply going back and rereading. There are two types of regression:
1. Backward saccades
2. Mind-wandering
Saccades are just eye movements. The eyes do not move smoothly over text, but in imperceptibly
quick little jerking motions. These are saccades. A backward saccade is when the eyes, which

normally move from left to right, jump back to the left again. With an average reader, about one out of
four saccades is a jump backward. Its an automatic response to try to make more sense of a current
piece of text by jumping back to reconnect it within the context of prior text.
The second type of regression is when you go back even further, several words or sentences. You do
this because you either didnt clearly understand something, or your mind temporarily found
something more interesting to think about, or you just noticed the text was no longer registeringyour
mind blanked out. When this happens, you need to go back far enough to pick up the thread of the
topic again.
You cant just blame your disobedient mind for regression. Maybe your mind had nothing to do and
simply got bored. Your mind is made for thinking; its all it does. If you give it nonsense, something it
doesnt understand, or something repetitive or boring, it will likely look for something else to think
about.
If you are reading with poor comprehension, you simply cant expect your mind to continue paying
attention. If your reading is all sound and no content, what can you expect? Who could pay attention to
blah, blah, blah without falling asleep or wandering off?
Just like verbalizing, both types of regression are also only symptoms. Regression is no more a habit
than bending down to pick up a dropped wallet. You bend down and pick up the wallet only because
you previously dropped it. Rather than trying to break the habit of bending down, you would try to
stop dropping the wallet in the first place.
To stop regressing, you must stop your reason for doing it. And what causes regression is reading
without comprehension. Regression will stop automatically when you conceptually understand the
ideas and make meaningful connections to the information you are reading.
Concentrate on concepts and ideas. Read with purpose and curiosity. Its up to you to make your
reading interesting enough for your mind to pay attention to it.

Replace Bad Habits

Its always difficult to concentrate on NOT doing something. Dont yawn. Dont itch. Dont look
down. Dont think of a blue elephant. Trying to not do something often has the opposite affect by
drawing more attention to the thing youre trying not to do.
When I was learning to ride a motorcycle, I discovered how riders tend to steer with their eyes.
For example, if you see a road hazard you want to avoid, you have a natural tendency to stare at it.
Its obviously dangerous, so you dont want to let it out of your sight. The problem is that staring at it
will actually make you steer towards it. I learned to always look where I wanted to go, not where I
didnt want to go, and the motorcycle would automatically take me where I was looking. This led to a
more effective way to steer on twisting mountain roads. I would keep my eye on a section of road
ahead, and that is where the bike would go.
Your mind follows your attention, whether its positive or negative. Thinking about your bad habits
only strengthens them. Instead of thinking about what you dont want to do, think about what you do
want to do.
Concentrating on stopping bad habits is also distracting because its one more thing to think about.

You cant really think of two things at the same time. You are either thinking about what you are
reading or thinking about stopping a habit.
Focus on the ideas and that is where your mind will go. Try to visualize and imagine what you read.
Picture the ideas and conceptualize what the text is saying. Think about what it means. This will make
the ideas behind the text more meaningful and easier and faster to understand. It will make it almost
unavoidable to read faster.
So far weve discussed skills, history, and the brain. This big picture, conceptual understanding of
how and why reading with the right brain works should give you a meaningful context for the
techniques to be discussed in the next two chapters.
But you dont need to really think about all these things while you are reading. That is one of the
beauties of reading for meaning. You dont need to concentrate on a lot of rules, tricks, and tips. You
only need to concentrate on imagining the ideas you are reading. Concentrate on seeing the meaning,
and your mind will do the rest.

Practice Exercise #12

In this next practice exercise, instead of thinking about eliminating bad habits, think about creating
new habits. No concentration should be wasted. Just think about seeing the meaning of what youre
reading, and let all the rest naturally take care of itself. Relax, ignore the bad habits, and let them go
away on their own.
Imagine an airplane racing down the runway. You hear the rumbling noise of the wheels on the
ground, but this wheel noise stops as soon as the plane leaves the ground. Concentrate on the ideas,
and the sound will stop when your reading takes off.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and
leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose
relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, nay we
call ourselves, and write our name Crusoe, and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in
Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near
Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than my
father or mother did know what was become of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with
rambling thoughts: my father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as
far as house education and a country free-school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I
would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against
the will, nay the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother
and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propension of nature tending directly
to the life of misery which was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was
my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and
expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons more than a mere
wandering inclination I had for leaving my fathers house and my native country, where I might be
well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of
ease and pleasure. He told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring
superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make
themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all
either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called
the upper station of low life, which he had found by long experience was the best state in the world,
the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and
sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and
envy of the upper part of mankind, he told me, I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one
thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently
lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wish they had been placed in
the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony
to this as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the calamities of life were shared among the
upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not
exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected
to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were, who by vicious
living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labor, want of necessaries, and mean or
insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of
their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of

enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance,
moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the
blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the
world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands or of the head, not sold
to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of
peace, and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition
for great things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the
sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every days
experience to know it more sensibly.
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not
to precipitate myself into miseries which nature and the station of life I was born in seemed to have
provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me,
and endeavor to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had been just recommending to me;
and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must
hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me
against measures which he knew would be to my hurt: in a word, that as he would do very kind things
for me if

Chapter 13: Visualizing

The Key
Its not possible to think of two things at the same time. You cant concentrate on how you are
reading, while also concentrating on what you are reading.
The recommended techniques discussed so far may seem obvious, maybe even platitudinous. Sure, it
would be helpful if we read groups of words at a time and yes, better comprehension could avoid
verbalizing and regression. And few would disagree with trying to conceptualize or see the big
picture and true meaning of what you read. But you cant possibly think of all these things while also
thinking about what you are reading.
The key to these reading techniques is visualizing.
Visualizing is not just one of the techniquesit is the key to engaging these other techniques while
you are reading. Visualizing doesnt interfere with thinking about what you are reading, because it IS
thinking about what you are reading. Visualizing is just thinking about it with your right brain, the
parallel-processing hemisphere that has its own very effective way of rapidly understanding large
amounts of information.
Whenever you try to visualize information, you are asking your right brain to take a look at it. This is
the reason that visualizing is the key to the other techniques; it leads your right brain to automatically
do the following:
1. Conceptualize ideas.
2. See the big picture.
3. Read in phrases.
4. Recognize the real meaning.
5. Read in silence.
6. Move forward without regression.
7. Filter out internal and external distractions.
8. Notice connections between new and existing knowledge.
9. Save information in the long-term memory.
10. Comprehend faster.
11. Increase reading speed.
Visualizing is actually a method of staying tuned in to and making stronger connections to your
reading. Visualizing is not always easynor is it always perfectbut the more you visualize, the
more the other effective habits will follow. Visualizing is what tips over the first domino as you start
reading with the right brain.

Focusing on visualizing automatically involves the right brain, because this is the part of your brain
that handles visualizing. It sees pictures as whole ideas, not just strings of information like your left
brain does. These big-picture ideas are the larger, more meaningful representations of information.
Visualizing with the right brain is when the real mind-meld takes place, linking your mind to the
authors. Its when you see the authors thoughts. The information that started as a concept in the
authors mind now becomes a concept in yours.

Types of Visualizing
Words, letters, spelling, and phonics are simply communication tools. They are symbols and devices
used to send ideas from one mind to another. Actual communication occurs only after ideas are
transmitted, received and then finally connected to related ideas in the receiving mind.
Visualizing helps you move beyond communication symbols to concentrating on the actual content of
the communications. To visualize the content, you must concentrate on meaning.
This does not mean stopping to mentally draw a beautifully detailed image of the meaning of each
idea. Instead, think more in terms of rapid movie frames flashing through your mind, each idea going
by in an instant. Some are simple; some are vague. Some are clear; some are complex. Some may be
mere ghosts of an idea, and some may be realistic. And some may not be images at all.
You can easily imagine a picture of an object, but what about ideas you cant imagine as a picture?
What about abstract ideas?
There are two ways to handle abstract ideas:
1. Metaphorical Visualizing
2. Conceptual Visualizing

Some ideas, although abstract, can sometimes be visualized as images metaphorically. An example
would be imagining a heart to represent an abstract phrase like fell in love.
But visualizing can also mean simply imagining the idea itself that is, visualizing its concept. In
this case, you wouldnt see any real picture at all, but instead just imagine the meaning. Rather than
seeing images, this type of visualizing would be more like what you do when you say, I see what you
mean.
An image is only one part of a concept. Some concepts can include both pictorial and abstract
information, while others can be completely abstract with no pictorial images at all. For these
abstract ideas, you would be visualizing concepts.

Visualizing Concepts
To understand visualizing concepts, you first need to be clear what is meant by concepts and what is
meant by visualizing.
Here are some dictionary definitions of concept:
1. A general notion or idea.
2. An idea of something formed mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars.
3. A directly conceived or intuited object of thought.
So you could combine these definitions to say a concept is a general ideaformed by combining all
its characteristicsinto an object of thought.
To conceptualize something is to mentally combine all of its characteristics. These characteristics are
the attributes of the idea, its distinguishing traits, qualities, and properties. Considered together, these
attributes represent the essence of the thing or idea.
For example, the concept of the word dog is a mental model including all the things that make
something doggish. To conceptualize dog, you could imagine something with the attributes of fur,
four legs, and a tail.

But concepts are not limited to physical attributes. Your concept of dog could also include canine
behaviors and dogs youve known, as well as what you think of dogs. Basically, the concept of dog
is everything dog means to you. And your concept of dog, although probably similar to the

concept held by most people, is uniquely your own; it is based on your very own life experiences and
ideas.
So when you read dog, you can instantly imagine your concept of a dog. Since a dog is a physical
thing, your concept might also still include an actual image of a dog.
But what about the concept of pet? The concept of pet is more abstract than dog. There are
many types of pets, so which pet should you picture? You could select an arbitrary pet to imagine, or
else a group of many types of pets together, but the real concept of pet is actually any pet, not one
or a group.
To visualize the concept of pet, you would need to imagine something pet-like, a generic, nondescript concept which includes all the attributesfriendly, docile, loyal, etc.that make something
pet-like to you.
But it will be difficult to create a real mental picture of pet. This is how conceptualizing an abstract
idea is different than merely visualizing a mental picture. For the more abstract concepts, you dont
picture the idea, because there is no picture; instead, you imagine all the attributes that, in your mind,
contribute to the concept.
Now for one step further into abstraction. How would you conceptualize friendly? The idea of
dog might at least have a generic image, and pet may possibly have too many images, but
friendly has no physical image at all. You cant draw a picture of friendly, but you can still
imagine all the attributes (helpful, trusting, pleasant, etc.) common to all the other friendly things
you know.
What you are doing is considering the essence of what things are, whether this includes physical
attributes or abstract. Thats why considering the essence of ideas is more than just a reading
technique, but a way of thinking. Visualizing what you read is thinking conceptually. This type of
thinking is what lifts your reading to another levelto right brain reading.

Whats In a Name?
Now that weve put physical images in their place as just one type of attribute, what about the name
attribute?
The name attribute is the actual word or words used to describe the information, such as the words
dog, pet, or friendly. The name is one attribute of the concept, but it is not even necessary for
conceptual understanding. In fact, its quite possible to conceptualize something before you even
know what it is called.
Heres a food Id never seen until recently.

I didnt know its name, but I could still conceptualize it as a food, a plant, probably a fruit, and as
something very strange looking to me.
It could have had a sign over it, describing it like this:

After seeing this sign, the next time I wanted to find one of these items, I could look for it by name
by looking for this sign. But I would be reading the sign without saying the word, because I
wouldnt know the sound of the word since I dont know Chinese.
The point here is that it is possible to read and understand words without thinking of the words or
their sounds. I could simply look at this word and this would lead me to conceptualize this food.
I wouldnt have to know that this was pronounced fat-sau-gam in order to conceptualize the meaning
of the word. But even knowing one of the English namesfingered citron, Buddhas hand, or
bergamotwould really add nothing to my understanding. No matter what the name is, the ideathe
conceptwould still be the same, and the name would still be irrelevant.
The same goes for more familiar items. This
could be described as
or as apple. Either
name, written or verbal, is still just a symbol. You could conceptualize this item as a group of several
attributes, such as taste, shape, color, food group, texture, and name, but the name is just one attribute
one that is only required for communication, not conceptual understanding.

An apple by any other nameor no name at allis still an apple.

Visually imagining ideas as you read, involves using faster and broader information pathways.
Complex information processing is the most special of all human talents. As primarily visual animals,
visualizing ideas is simply applying our special mental talents to the important task of information
processing.
Visualizing is more than just a reading trick. You could consider it the foundation of speed reading.
To read faster than speech, you need to switch to reading ideas, whether physical or metaphorical
images, or abstract concepts.
Visualizing creates a strong mental conduit between the text and our conscious mind by adapting the
information to the type of brain we havea powerful, visual, pattern recognizing machine. The act of
visualizing also forces us to pay more attention to our reading; thinking of the ideas rather than just
listening to ourselves read the words. Visualizing forces us to form a conceptual idea of the
information and ask the important question of, What does this mean to me?
Visualizing harnesses the full range of the cortical skills of your right brain: the imagery, the
conceptualizing, the big-picture and essence of information, and all the instant connections those
larger ideas initiate in your mind. This type of massive parallel processing is what allows your mind
to move more information at a time. A mental picture truly is worth a thousand mental words.

Practice Exercise #13

Ready for another exercise? Then tip that first domino by focusing your attention on visualizing what
you are reading. You can see pictures or simply imagine ideas, but get that right brain involved and
forget about the words and sounds. Each phrase has a meaningful idea behind it; look at this idea.
Your high-speed right brain will then begin to quickly process information in these larger, unified
units of meaning.
And remember that you only want to see the ideas. The words are only the silent messengers
transferring those ideas to your brain. When you look at a meaningful word-group and see what it
means, skip the words and sounds. Quickly imagine the idea and move on.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift

Gullivers Travels
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel
College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to
my studies; but the charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great
for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with
whom I continued four years. My father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them
out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I
always believed it would be, sometime or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down
to my father: where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty
pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I studied physic two
years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon
to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannel, commander; with whom I continued three years and a half,
making a voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle
in London; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several
patients. I took part of a small house in the Old Jewry; and being advised to alter my condition, I
married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate-street, with
whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.
But my good master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to
fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my
brethren. Having therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go
again to sea. I was surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the
East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in
reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books;
and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning
their language; wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at
home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to
Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not turn to account. After three years
expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard,
master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4,
1699, and our voyage was at first very prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures
in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were
driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemens Land. By an observation, we found
ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by
immoderate labor and ill food; the rest were in a very weak condition.
On the 5th of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very
hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cables length of the ship; but the wind was so strong, that
we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having
let down the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and the rock. We rowed, by my

computation, about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with labor
while we were in the ship.
We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was
overset by a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my companions in the boat, as well as of
those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they were all
lost.
For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often
let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom; but when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no
longer, I found myself within my depth; and by this time the storm was much abated. The declivity
was so small, that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight
oclock in the evening.
I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at
least I was in so weak a condition, that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that,
and the heat of the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I found
myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept
sounder than ever I remembered to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for
when I awaked, it was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to
lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my
hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender
ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs

Chapter 14: Conceptualizing

Conceptual Thinking
Not only are wordswritten or verbalirrelevant after they are used to communicate, but words can
actually interfere with conceptual understanding. Sometimes we mentally replace the real idea with
its symbol or name. This is not thinking, but simply memorizing. Memorizing is not conceptualizing,
but the more primitive perceptualizingthe kind of thinking animals do, and the kind of thinking we
do as children. Memorizing is an important skill, but just collecting facts wont make you any smarter
than inanimate objects such as books or computers.
Sometimes it seems like we wouldnt be able think if it werent for words. When we think about
thinking, we generally think about self-talk. For this reason, the power of conceptual thinking is often
overlooked, and people frequently mistake thinking with speaking. But it is just as possible to think
without speaking, as it is to speak without thinking.
The right brain may be silent, but it is actually where the higher order cognitions of conceptualizing
and pattern recognition take place. It does not have verbal abilities, so we dont get to hear what its
doing, but this also means it is not confused by communication symbols.
As an example of conceptual versus perceptual thinking, here is how I taught my son Jason his
numbers. Instead of showing him the symbols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, I made up flash cards that
looked kind of like dominoes, and each number was represented by a distinct pattern of dots like this:

So, instead of thinking 2 + 3 = 5, he would think:

The result was that all his later arithmetic lessons made more sense to him; he was thinking of the
concept of numbers rather than their memorized perceptual names. By learning his numbers
conceptually rather than perceptually, he was able to quickly learn to add up strings of three-digit
numbers in his head before he even started kindergarten. Im embarrassed to sound like I am bragging
here, but this is one of the best examples I can think of to demonstrate the power of conceptual
thinking.
As you can tell, conceptual thinking goes beyond reading. Even when listening to someone speaking,
you will find that you can listen more deeply if you conceptualize the things being said. With practice,
you will get into the habit of noticing and appreciating real concepts during all types of
communication.
I hope I dont appear to be overdoing this idea of conceptualizing, but the understanding of concepts
is very important, and if it is unclear, the rest of this method could be difficult to follow. Its either
going to sound like Im only stating the obvious, that you should simply think about what you are
reading, or its just not going to work for you, and you wont know why.

Conceptual Reading
Hopefully all this is somewhat interesting to you, but Im sure this might also seem like a lot to think
about while trying to read. However, all of this is just background, an attempt to be sure we are
talking about the same thing. While actually reading, you are only going to get quick flashes in your
mind of what each concept is.
The important point is that these are going to be flashes of what the ideas mean to you, rather than just
listening to what the words sound like. You might be surprised at how much information you can pass
to your mind in an instant when your right brain is conceptualizing information as whole ideas.

For example, when you read the word elephant, a lot of information moves from your eyes, through
the various parts of your mind, and on to the many areas of your brain representing all the things this
word means to you; and all of this happens virtually instantaneously. It sounds impossible, but so
does the act of reaching your hand out to accurately intercept the trajectory of a ball without
consciously performing any differential calculus. You dont have to completely understand how
visualizing concepts works; you just need to recognize that it does work and how to take advantage of
it.
Not only does conceptualizing create more meaningful connections to information, but simply the fact
that you are paying more attention increases comprehension. So regardless of how many or how few
attributes you associate with a concept, just applying this type of concentrationconceptual
concentrationwill make a big difference in the level of comprehension you experience. This is
because the act of trying to visualize forces you to remain more involved with the material, and
encourages you to think more about what you are reading. The ideas you read will become more real,
will make more mental connections, and these connections will be made quicker and stronger than
they would be from decoding the mere sound of words.

Conceptual Practice
As you practice, you will need to apply your imagination in order to visualize ideas. This means you
may have to go slower at first, glancing at a phrase and then thinking of an image of the idea. If you
read, The man, you might picture a man. Then if you read, lived in a house, you may picture the
man in his house. And if you next read, in the Northeast, you might picture the house in the top-right
corner of a map.

The first two images would be physical images and the third a metaphorical representation. Anything
will do, but just try to quickly visualize the meaning.
If no good images instantly come to mind, then conceptualize the ideathat is, think about what it
means to you. For example, for a long time is more of an abstract idea, but you would conceptualize
what this means to you; it could mean consistency, waiting, many years, or a large part of your life.
Or, instead of an abstract concept, it could also be a metaphor, such as the image of a calendar.
Everyone will do this differently because ideas mean slightly different things to each person. The only
important thing is to practice actively thinking and imagining the meaning of what you are reading.
This may seem difficult at first. Reading with the right brain is almost like learning to write with your
other hand. The left brain will always be where the text is converted into words, and it will take
practice to develop the habit of passing this data to the right side, to recognize whole phrases as
complete conceptual ideas.
But practice will make this skill quick and automatic, and the task of visualizing will no longer
compete so much for mental resources. Until you reach that point, however, it will take more energy
to visualize an idea than to simply continue to decipher words into sounds and definitions. For that
reason, you may have to slow down at first while you learn to see the ideas.
Like any skill, someone can show you how, but you still have to do it yourself. Instruction is nothing
without construction. Someone can give you instruction, but only you can complete the construction.

Although proper instruction is important, you need to supply the practice. For example, simply
reading about how to swim wouldnt prevent you from drowning. You have to jump in and practice
on your own to form new habits. But once conceptualizing does becomes a habit, the ideas will seem
to float off the page directly into your consciousness.
Learn to swim, and then swim.
-John Lennon when asked, Whats the meaning of life?

Practice Exercise #14

Read the next practice exercise with your attention on the conceptual meaning of each phrase. Think
about its real essence. Look through the words at the meaning behind them. Allow this to slow you
down at first if necessary, but make sure to imagine the ideas and then allow this clearer
comprehension to lift your reading speed. Conceptualize ideas and read with your whole mind.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon,
which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumors which agitated the maritime
population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were
particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and
America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several States on the two continents,
were deeply interested in the matter.
For some time past vessels had been met by an enormous thing, a long object, spindle-shaped,
occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale.
The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the
shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power
of locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a whale, it surpassed in
size all those hitherto classified in science. Taking into consideration the mean of observations made
at divers timesrejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length of two
hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it down as a mile in width and three in
lengthwe might fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensions admitted
by the learned ones of the day, if it existed at all. And that it DID existwas an undeniable fact; and,
with that tendency which disposes the human mind in favor of the marvelous, we can understand the
excitement produced in the entire world by this supernatural apparition. As to classing it in the list of
fables, the idea was out of the question.
O n the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, o f the Calcutta and Burnach Steam
Navigation Company, had met this moving mass five miles off the east coast of Australia. Captain
Baker thought at first that he was in the presence of an unknown sandbank; he even prepared to
determine its exact position when two columns of water, projected by the mysterious object, shot with
a hissing noise a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted
to the intermittent eruption of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had to do neither more nor less than
with an aquatic mammal, unknown till then, which threw up from its blow-holes columns of water
mixed with air and vapor.
Similar facts were observed on the 23rd of July in the same year, in the Pacific Ocean, by the
Columbus, of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company. But this extraordinary creature
could transport itself from one place to another with surprising velocity; as, in an interval of three
days, the Governor Higginson and the Columbus had observed it at two different points of the chart,
separated by a distance of more than seven hundred nautical leagues.
Fifteen days later, two thousand miles farther off, the Helvetia, of the Compagnie-Nationale, and the
Shannon, of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, sailing to windward in that portion of the Atlantic
lying between the United States and Europe, respectively signaled the monster to each other in 42
15 N. latitude and 60 35 W. longitude. In these simultaneous observations they thought themselves
justified in estimating the minimum length of the mammal at more than three hundred and fifty feet, as
the Shannon and Helvetia were of smaller dimensions than it, though they measured three hundred feet
over all.
Now the largest whales, those which frequent those parts of the sea round the Aleutian, Kulammak,

and Umgullich Islands, have never exceeded the length of sixty yards, if they attain that.
In every place of great resort the monster was the fashion. They sang of it in the cafes, ridiculed it in
the papers, and represented it on the stage. All kinds of stories were circulated regarding it. There
appeared in the papers caricatures of every gigantic and imaginary creature, from the white whale, the
terrible Moby Dick of sub-arctic regions, to the immense kraken, whose tentacles could entangle a
ship of five hundred tons and hurry it into the abyss of the ocean. The legends of ancient times were
even revived.
Then burst forth the unending argument between the believers and the unbelievers in the societies of
the wise and the scientific journals. The question of the monster inflamed all minds. Editors of
scientific journals, quarrelling with believers in the supernatural, spilled seas of ink during this
memorable campaign, some even drawing blood; for from the sea-serpent they came to direct
personalities.
During the first months of the year 1867 the question seemed buried, never to revive, when new facts
were brought before the public. It was then no longer a scientific problem to be solved, but a real
danger seriously to be avoided. The question took quite another shape. The monster became a small
island, a rock, a reef, but a reef of indefinite and shifting proportions.
On the 5th of March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Montreal Ocean Company, finding herself during the
night in 27 30 latitude and 72 15 longitude, struck on her starboard quarter a rock, marked in no
chart for that part of the sea. Under the combined efforts of the wind and its four hundred horse
power, it was going at the rate of thirteen knots. Had it not been for the superior strength of the hull of
the Moravian, she would have been broken

Chapter 15: Reading Speeds

Averages
What reading speed would you like to achieve?
Although the average reading speed is two hundred fifty words per minute, more than half of the
people read below that speed. If it seems like a discrepancy that more than half read below average,
its only because those very rare, really fast readers are pulling up the overall average of everyone
else.
For example, if in a group of eight people, seven people read at 200 WPM and one person reads at
600 WPM, then the average for all eight people would be 250 WPM, because (200 x 7 + 600) / 8 =
250. So in this example, even though the average is two hundred fifty, most people are still reading
below average, at only two hundred words per minute.
The chart below gives you an approximate idea of the distribution of adult reading speeds.

As you can see, half the readers (the left half of the chart) are reading below two hundred words per
minute. And although there is a gradual increase in faster readers to the right, there are only a very
few who are reading above four hundred words per minute, fewer still who read above six hundred
(the generally accepted speed reading level), and an absolutely microscopic number of people who
reach one thousand words per minute.
For college students, the average speed is slightly higher at three hundred words per minute, with
most students reading between two hundred and four hundred words per minute. But only one in
twenty college students reads faster than four hundred words per minute.
Of course were talking here about real reading, reading for content and comprehension. Other types
of text consumption and their associated average college-level speeds are below:
Scanning: 600 WPM
Skimming: 450 WPM
Reading: 300 WPM
Learning: 200 WPM
Memorizing: 130 WPM
In fact, for real reading, the upper limits are usually much lower than most people are aware
(especially compared to the inflated claims of many speed reading courses).
Ronald Carver, author of the 1990 book The Causes of High and Low Reading Achievement, has
done extensive testing of readers and reading speeds, thoroughly examining the various speed reading
techniques and actual improvements likely to be gained. One test he completed pitted four groups of
the fastest readers he could find against each other. The groups consisted of champion speed readers,
fast college readers, successful professionals whose jobs required a lot of reading, and students who
had scored highest on speed reading tests. Carver found that of his superstars, none could read faster
than six hundred words per minute with more than a seventy-five percent retention rate.
Even though the claims of most speed reading courses offer more hype than hope, there is still plenty
of room for honest and impressive improvement. For most people, this means they are very possibly
able to double or triple their reading speed. If your reading rate falls in the middle of the average
reading speeds, and you double your speed from two hundred to four hundred words per minute, this
could be life-changing, because reading quickly is a very different experience than reading slowly.
Faster reading is much more interesting, more memorable, and less frustrating.
And just consider the time savings. If someone who read two hundred words per minute picked up an
average novel of eighty thousand words, it would take that person six hours and forty minutes of
reading time to reach the end of the novelthats spending most of a whole day reading. But at four
hundred words per minute, it would only take three hours and twenty minutes to finish that same book,
leaving the rest of the day free for anything else.
What if you didnt want to finish the book in one sitting, though? How about reading one chapter?
Assuming an average page of three hundred words and an average chapter of twenty pages, the
chapter would take either a half an hour or fifteen minutes if you read two hundred or four hundred
words per minute. Or you could look at it is the difference between reading forty pages per hour

versus eighty pages per hour.

OK, thats a lot of numbers, but hopefully they give you an idea of what even a modest speed increase
can do for you. If you think about the ability to read eighty pages per hour, you will realize that you
will read more, not just because you are saving time, but because a lot more reading will be worth
your effort with that lower time requirement.
Also, note that all of these figures are average numbers. Average people are not reading thought-units.
Most fast reading is done simply by pushing the reading speeds, basically applying brute force to the
task. Reading phrases is about training your mind to read in your imagination instead of in your ears,
learning to use a different part of your brain and use it in a different way. But learning to do this takes
a completely different way of looking at reading and a different way of thinking about the process. So
even though the averages may be slower than many people realize, using a different approach to
reading will make it easier to reach the higher speeds of those rare speed readers.
But still, please remember that increased reading speed can only come as a result of faster
comprehension. If you forget this, you will concentrate on the wrong thing. To learn to read faster, you
must learn to comprehend faster.

Flexibility
As mentioned in chapter nine, conceptual processing is the part of reading which takes the most time.
This is the weakest link in reading and is also where the largest variations in speed occur.
Most of this speed variation is due to the difficulty ofor your preexisting knowledge aboutthe
material. A useful analogy is to imagine riding a bicycle over a changing terrain.
If you were riding over a nice, smooth, level, and familiar terrain, you could switch into a higher gear
and ride much faster. Similar to this, when you are reading easy or more familiar text, you can take in
larger word-groups at a time and at higher speeds.
When you encounter harder or unfamiliar material, you need to automatically slow down and also
read shorter word-groups, just as you would switch to a lower gear and cover less distance with each
rotation of your bicycle pedal.
Writing style can also slow you down. A text that is strangely worded or full of unusual words may
require you to slow way down, as you would when riding on an uneven or bumpy road.
And then there are the occasional unknown words or even grammatical errors where you must slow
down and be even more careful, like riding over an old rutted dirt road.
In fact there are many reading situations which will constantly impact your speed:
Lists
Names
Dialogue
Narration
New words

Convoluted sentences
Spelling or grammar errors
Passive versus active sentences
Beginnings of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters
You can never read at a constant static speed and expect your comprehension to adjust. Instead you
must let comprehension take the lead, and allow your speed adjust.

Contextual Reading
One tip that will help you find your comprehension speed is to make sure you have a firm grasp on
what you are reading as you get started. Regardless of the reading terrain, you should always start off
slow, in first gear. This gives you time to get your balance and to establish traction while you get a
firm grip on the subject and context of what you are reading.
Starting off slowly is helpful, but it can also be awfully hard to remember because we can be so
anxious to read fast that we kind of forget why we are reading (to understand the text, right?). But
each time you start reading, you usually need to go slow for a bit until you pick up the thread of the
ideas. This can also be useful, to a lesser degree, at the beginning of paragraphs and sentences.
So, if you concentrate on the ideas and not on your speed, you will find your speed will increase
when its ready. Of course, concentration on visualization and conceptualization will go a long way
to automatically accommodate these changes; the information itself determines the time it takes for
you to visualize and conceptualize and will therefore automatically control your reading speed.
By allowing yourself time to make a connection with your reading, you will start to see the ideas
and your reading will begin to flow. Forcing the speed too quickly will only leave you skimming over
the material without comprehension. This can be a difficult habit to overcome, because you will want
to push your speed, but you have to get connected, and stay connected, to the material before you can
read fast.
Maintaining this contextual connection while reading can have a major effect on what the text means
to you. For example, look at how the first phrase changes your perception of the second in these two
combinations:
1. Wash dishes. Polish silverware.
2. German dishes. Polish silverware.
"Polish silverware" means something quite different in example two than it does in example one. This
is why taking a little more time when you first start to read will give you a strong enough context to
better anticipate the proper meaning.

Thinking Ahead

Similar to contextual reading; is anticipatory reading. Anticipatory reading lets you get in sync with
the material to more easily anticipate upcoming phrases. When you do this, you can fly past those
anticipated phrases as you merely need to verify your predictions.
This also makes your reading smoother. Thinking ahead while you are reading is like looking farther
down the road instead of at the pavement right in front of you. This makes it much easier to go faster
as there are fewer course corrections necessary; comprehension is increased due to the contextual
clues of the preceding text.
Thinking ahead and anticipating what the text will say will also help you stay in the zone by avoiding
surprises. Like when you ride a bicycle, youre a lot less wobbly when you look ahead rather than
down at the ground beneath you.
Anticipatory reading is reading aggressively, looking ahead and anticipating where the author is
going. Everything you read will therefore be more firmly attached to what has gone before and what
lies ahead.

Speed Minimums
Although comprehension will determine your speed, it is a good idea to try still to maintain a certain
minimum speed if possible. Just as riding a bike too slowly can make it difficult to maintain your
balance, reading too slowly makes it difficult to take in larger ideas at a time and to avoid slipping
into the old habit of verbalizing.
Of course, it will still be necessary to read very slowly at times, but unless the situation demands it, a
slightly faster speed will usually be helpful. You dont want to read faster than your comprehension,
but reading fast enough can also help comprehension by maintaining your reading momentum. Its a
balancing act, and sometimes you will even lose your balance, but just be flexible and do your best.
Another way to apply the bicycle analogy is by comparing the black and gray text used in this book to
training wheels. It is a tool which helps you by removing one of the tasksbalancing the bike or
finding the phraseswhile you practice and get comfortable with the rest of the skills you need to
acquirepedaling and steering or reading whole ideas and visualizing.

I hope I didnt stretch this analogy too far, but analogies can be very powerful aids to understanding
concepts. In fact, analogies are actually quite conceptual in their very nature because they work by
attaching new ideas to familiar ones via the attributes they have in common.
But no matter how fast or slow you read, any speed is better than reading without comprehension. As
much as you would love to read faster and no matter what your current capabilities are, there is no
reading at all if you do not understand what you read. So even if you think reading conceptually is
slowing you down at first, it may be that your old faster speed wasnt really reading at all, but
merely recognizing the words.
Everyone learning to improve their reading, starts at a different place and with different strengths and
weaknesses. Since this book is designed to help people read better, the more help you need, the more
help this book will be able to offer. Some people will make more gains than others, and no one really
knows what their potential is until they reach it. But all practice is good and never a waste of time.
The only wasted time is the time wasted before deciding to start improving your reading.

Practice Exercise #15

As your read the next practice exercise, remember that speed will only come from more powerful
comprehension. Read for the ideas; if you visualize it, the speed will come.
The two main things to remember about reading faster are to concentrate on comprehension, and be
flexible. Speed will be the reward of this comprehension and flexibility.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, in which the author of
ROMANCE OF THE ROSE
was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the
Huguenots had just made a second La Rochelle of it. Many citizens, seeing the women flying toward
the High Street, leaving their children crying at the open doors, hastened to don the cuirass, and
supporting their somewhat uncertain courage with a musket or a partisan, directed their steps toward
the hostelry of the Jolly Miller, before which was gathered, increasing every minute, a compact
group, vociferous and full of curiosity.
In those times panics were common, and few days passed without some city or other registering in its
archives an event of this kind. There were nobles, who made war against each other; there was the
king, who made war against the cardinal; there was Spain, which made war against the king. Then, in
addition to these concealed or public, secret or open wars, there were robbers, mendicants,
Huguenots, wolves, and scoundrels, who made war upon everybody. The citizens always took up
arms readily against thieves, wolves or scoundrels, often against nobles or Huguenots, sometimes
against the king, but never against cardinal or Spain. It resulted, then, from this habit that on the said
first Monday of April, 1625, the citizens, on hearing the clamor, and seeing neither the red-andyellow standard nor the livery of the Duc de Richelieu, rushed toward the hostel of the Jolly Miller.
When arrived there, the cause of the hubbub was apparent to all.
A young manwe can sketch his portrait at a dash. Imagine to yourself a Don Quixote of eighteen; a
Don Quixote without his corselet, without his coat of mail, without his cuisses; a Don Quixote clothed
in a woolen doublet, the blue color of which had faded into a nameless shade between lees of wine
and a heavenly azure; face long and brown; high cheek bones, a sign of sagacity; the maxillary
muscles enormously developed, an infallible sign by which a Gascon may always be detected, even
without his capand our young man wore a cap set off with a sort of feather; the eye open and
intelligent; the nose hooked, but finely chiseled. Too big for a youth, too small for a grown man, an
experienced eye might have taken him for a farmers son upon a journey had it not been for the long
sword which, dangling from a leather baldric, hit against the calves of its owner as he walked, and
against the rough side of his steed when he was on horseback.
For our young man had a steed which was the observed of all observers. It was a Bearn pony, from
twelve to fourteen years old, yellow in his hide, without a hair in his tail, but not without windgalls
on his legs, which, though going with his head lower than his knees, rendering a martingale quite
unnecessary, contrived nevertheless to perform his eight leagues a day. Unfortunately, the qualities of
this horse were so well concealed under his strange-colored hide and his unaccountable gait, that at a
time when everybody was a connoisseur in horseflesh, the appearance of the aforesaid pony at Meung
which place he had entered about a quarter of an hour before, by the gate of Beaugencyproduced
an unfavorable feeling, which extended to his rider.
And this feeling had been more painfully perceived by young dArtagnanfor so was the Don
Quixote of this second Rosinante namedfrom his not being able to conceal from himself the
ridiculous appearance that such a steed gave him, good horseman as he was. He had sighed deeply,
therefore, when accepting the gift of the pony from M. dArtagnan the elder. He was not ignorant that
such a beast was worth at least twenty livres; and the words which had accompanied the present were
above all price.

My son, said the old Gascon gentleman, in that pure Bearn PATOIS of which Henry IV could never
rid himself, this horse was born in the house of your father about thirteen years ago, and has
remained in it ever since, which ought to make you love it. Never sell it; allow it to die tranquilly and
honorably of old age, and if you make a campaign with it, take as much care of it as you would of an
old servant. At court, provided you have ever the honor to go there, continued M. dArtagnan the
elder, an honor to which, remember, your ancient nobility gives you the rightsustain worthily
your name of gentleman, which has been worthily borne by your ancestors for five hundred years,
both for your own sake and the sake of those who belong to you. By the latter I mean your relatives
and friends. Endure nothing from anyone except Monsieur the Cardinal and the king. It is by his
courage, please observe, by his courage alone, that a gentleman can make his way nowadays.
Whoever hesitates for a second perhaps allows the bait to escape which during that exact second
fortune held out to him. You are young. You ought to be brave for two reasons: the first is that you are
a Gascon, and the second is that you are my son. Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures. I have
taught you how to handle a sword; you have thews of iron, a wrist of steel. Fight on all occasions.
Fight the more for duels being forbidden, since consequently there is twice as much courage in
fighting. I have nothing to give you, my son, but fifteen crowns, my horse, and the counsels you have
just heard. Your mother will add to them a recipe for a certain balsam, which she had from a
Bohemian and which has the miraculous virtue of curing all the wounds

Chapter 16: Comprehension Speeds

Information Speed
Information speed is the speed at which information enters your mind. If this could be measured, it
would be more meaningful than words per minute. In fact, words per minute is actually pretty
meaningless without considering information speed.
Since real reading is comprehension, the speed of your real reading is the speed in which you are
collecting information. Instead of words per minute (WPM), it would be more useful to think in terms
of information per minute (IPM). IPM would be the speedometer that tells you how fast you are
actually traveling, whereas WPM would be the tachometer that only tells you how fast your engine is
spinning.

In other words, sometimes you would be reading at a high WPM over easy material, and at other
times slowing down to a lower WPM to conceptualize a new idea. But your real IPM speed would
actually be much more constant with a consistent flow of information per minute continually reaching
your brain. The reason IPM is more stable is because it is generally determined by the speed your
brain can process ideas.
But there is another factor which can affect WPMlanguage density. Not only does the amount of
information in text vary, but the length of text needed to express this same information can also be
longer or shorter.
An author can choose longer or shorter words to say roughly the same thing. He can use a "five dollar
word rather than a fifty-cent word," as Mark Twain put it.
For example, an author could use the word "accomplish" when the word "do" would do, use the word
"expenditure" for "cost," or use "fundamental" for "basic." When measuring pages per minute or
standard word length per minute, it would seem that you were reading faster when longer words were
used. However, you would really only be pedaling faster, not making any additional progress since
your true information speed would be unchanged.
This is not to say whether longer or shorter words are better, since this depends on the authors style
and vocabulary. This is only to demonstrate that information speed is quite separate from reading
speed and that even when your words per minute rate slows down, you are not necessarily reading
any slower.

Language Speed
Another indication that information speed is more constant than word speed is the impact that
different languages have on speaking speed. Each language has its own natural speed. When you listen
to some languages, people often sound as if they are speaking very fast. This is because most
languages are less dense than English, which means they require more syllables to communicate the
same ideas.
French researchers at Lyon University constructed an interesting comparison of language density.

They measured the total length of time and number of syllables per second it takes people speaking
different languages to express the same sentences translated into their own languages.
The research study found that the average Spanish speaker speaks twenty-five percent more syllables
per second than the average English speaker. But the same translated sentences still took about the
same overall time to speak in each language. The Spanish language used more syllables to say the
same thing, but they still communicated roughly the same amount of information per minute.
If youve ever listened to someone speaking Spanish, you may have thought they were speaking faster
than what you are accustomed to hearing in English. They are but still they arent communicating
any faster.
For example, compare the following sentences in English and Spanish.
This is an example of text in English and Spanish. You can see how much longer Spanish is than
English.
Este es un ejemplo de texto en Ingls y Espaol. Se puede ver cunto tiempo ms el espaol es de
Ingls.
Each sentence says the same thing, and although the written sentences are similar in length (due to the
strangeness of English spelling), the number of syllables is 30% longer in Spanish (35 syllables in
Spanish vs. 27 in English). But each native speaker would still take about the same length of time to
say the sentence.
Each language studied showed the same patternlanguages that used more syllables to express the
same ideas were spoken at a higher rate of syllables per minute and higher density languages were
spoken at a slower rate.
Two conclusions can be made from this:
1. Comprehension speed is more constant than language speed (IPM is more constant than WPM).
2. Comprehension determines speednot only in reading but even in speech.
We apparently have a certain speed that we can comprehend information, and its that speed limit
which determines both how fast we speak and how fast we read. This is just more evidence that to
read faster, you must comprehend faster.

Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

Heres a common lament: "Why would I want to read fiction faster? Wouldnt I want to read it slowly
in order to savor it?" Or theres this: "How could I possibly read non-fiction faster? Wouldnt I need
to go slow in order to understand or remember it?" From these two comments, it seems like you can
only read fast, if the book is not fiction and not non-fiction!
As to fiction, yes, you may want to read this slower if you wish to savor the sounds of the language. In
this case, you are more interested in reading as a performancelike reading poetry. If, however, you
are reading to enjoy a story, then it wouldnt make any more sense to read this story slowly than it
would to savor a movie in slow-motion!

"But wait," I hear you saying, "I only want to read it at regular speed!" Oh? Are yousure your
current speed is regular and other speeds are not? There is no right speed. As long as you
understand what you are reading, then you are reading at the right speed. Its the speed of thought, not
the speed of the clock, which determines your comprehension speed.
For example, have you ever noticed that what might have seemed like a long dream when you were
sleeping actually occurred over a very short time? This is because time is relative, and the faster you
think, the slower time appears to be. When you were dreaming, you were thinking faster and the
dream events were happening faster than in real time. This shows not only that the experience of
time is relative, but also that you are actually capable of much faster thinking than you may have
realized.
The truth is, you can enjoy a book at faster speeds. In fact, faster speeds are even more enjoyable in
some ways. This is because when you get to the middle of the book, you will still remember the
beginning, and the whole book will tie together better.
Now, non-fiction. Yes, it is very true that you must often slow down to read non-fiction. In fact, you
often need to come to a complete stop while you consider something fascinating that you have never
considered before. But this is not reading; this is ponderinga very enjoyable activity on its own, but
a special side benefit of non-fiction. Stopping to consider something is not reading; its more like
sightseeing.
The one other step involved in reading non-fiction is the extra memory processing. If you are reading
to learn something, then you need to do more than just understand it; you need to place it firmly in
your memory where you can easily find it again. This is where information becomes knowledge. This
step often takes time while you consider the different effects this new information has on your existing
knowledge. What are all the connections and relationships to be considered? This too is not really a
part of reading, but of organizing ideas after you read them and connecting them in new ways to create
your own new ideas.
Not everything about non-fiction makes it slower to read though. There are some things about nonfiction which actually help you read faster. For one, non-fiction authors are often trying to convince
you of something. This means an author will generally make a special effort to make his case
logically and systematically, and extra effort put into the explanation can make it faster and easier to
consume.
If you have the ability to read faster, you can always decide on your own what speed you prefer for
fiction or non-fiction, but at least you will have the choice. The best reading speed is the fastest speed
you can understand. Theres no way to go faster and no need to go slower than comprehension speed.

Internal Factors
There are factors other than the material itself which will affect your comprehension speed, and these
must also be accommodated. These are internal speed variationsthings that are unique to you and
your current situation.
Your own mental processing abilities will change based on things such as the time of day, your mood,
or external and internal distractions. Although these factors come from within you, you dont really

have much control over them except to recognize them and take them into account.
The best you can do is to be patient with yourself. You must allow yourself to be able to assimilate
the information you read. If you are finding this difficult to do, then you must slow down. You almost
have to be Zen-like in your reading, letting the information come to you. This does not mean reading
words and just seeing what ideas come along. It means to visualize, and focus on conceptualizing, and
let the text choose the speed. Relax and engage your imagination, forgetting about speed and
immersing yourself in the information.
In my experience, this is the hardest part of reading fasterto stop concentrating on speed. It is
natural to want to push your speed, and in fact this is what most speed reading courses recommend,
that you push your speed as fast as you can. They even give you eye exercises to speed up your
eyeballs, enabling them to bounce back and forth at maximum frequency.
But reading for ideas requires you to do the exact opposite; you must force yourself to slow down to
the speed of comprehension and to make sure you have grasped a conceptual understanding of each
piece of information before going to the next. Of course, this better grasp of the information will lead
to faster reading, but in the meantime it can feel like you are forcing yourself to slow down. All you
are really doing, however, is forcing yourself to remain connected to your real readingyour reading
comprehension.
No matter how difficult it is to hold your reading speed to your comprehension speed, it is imperative
that you let the speed come to you rather than chase after it. Its really a balancing act wherein on the
one hand you have to be willing to let go of the words and move on as soon as you get it, while on
the other hand, not allow your speed to run away on you.
The takeaway is that to learn speed reading, you need to learn speed comprehension, because speed
depends on comprehension and not vice versa. If you push your speed beyond your comprehension, it
will be like Lucy and Ethel working at that chocolate-wrapping conveyer belt, with chocolates flying
everywhere and very little getting wrapped.

Practice Exercise #16

As you read this next practice exercise, relax, be patient, and concentrate on imagining what you are
reading. And instead of thinking about reading faster, just concentrate on meaning.
Also, remember to time your reading and record your words per minute in the chart you printed or in
some other convenient place.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Moby Dick
Call me Ishmael. Some years agonever mind how long preciselyhaving little or no money in my
purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the
watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in
my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the
rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it
requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and
methodically knocking peoples hats offthen, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his
sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men
in their degree, sometime or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral
reefscommerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its
extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes,
which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip,
and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see? Posted like silent sentinels all around
the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against
the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China;
some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all
landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plastertied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to
desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?
But look! Here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive.
Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of
yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can
without falling in. And there they standmiles of themleagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes
and alleys, streets and avenuesnorth, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the
magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?
Once more. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please,
and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is
magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveriesstand that man on
his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that
region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan
happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water
are wedded forever.
But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of
romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. What is the chief element he employs? There stand
his trees, each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within; and here sleeps his
meadow, and there sleep his cattle; and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke. Deep into
distant woodlands winds a mazy way, reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hill-

side blue. But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like
leaves upon this shepherds head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherds eye were fixed upon the
magic stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores on scores of miles you wade
knee-deep among Tiger-lilieswhat is the one charm wanting? Waterthere is not a drop of water
there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it? Why did
the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy
him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why
is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go
to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration,
when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold
the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is
not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could
not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that
same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of
life; and this is the key to it all.
Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin to grow hazy about the eyes,
and begin to be over conscious of my lungs, I do not mean to have it inferred that

Chapter 17: Techniques

What techniques can keep your mind from slipping into its old reading habits and keep your attention
on conceptualizing? Sometimes having the proper perspective of what you are doing will help.
Here is one analogy I find helpful in keeping my mind on the conceptual track. I imagine my reading
like slot car racing. Those toy cars have small pins extending from the bottom which fit into a slot in
the track. The little pin is what keeps the car on course. However, this pin can slip out of the slot, and
if that happens, the car will suddenly go flying off the track. Of course this happens whenever you go
too fast around a sharp corner. The trick to slot car racing then is to go as fast as you can while
keeping that little pin in the slot.
Reading is like this. Speeding along through simple and familiar reading material is like racing down
a straightaway. But coming into more difficult material or complex writing style means youve got to
slow down, otherwise youll find you are reading along, when all of a sudden nothing more is
entering your mind. This is because you lost comprehension and slid off the track. This requires you
to stop and go back to where you lost comprehension. Plus, each time you restart, you will then need
to avoid the temptation to immediately lurch back to full speed; which would only cause you to lose
traction, spin your wheels, and get nowhere.
Just like in racing slot cars, pushing your speed in reading can be counterproductive. The only way to
read faster is to concentrate on technique by doing the following:
Maintain concentration (pin firmly in the slot).
Vary your speed depending on reading material (track conditions).
Avoid mind wandering (flying off the track).
Avoid regression (needing to put the car back).
Gain speed gradually while you develop context (get traction).

So, are there any techniques to help you get the most speed at all times, in all types of reading? Are
there any specific tacticsas opposed to general strategiessome kind of reading tricks that will
keep you focused and concentrated on what you are reading?
Yes, there are some techniques which can be of assistance when trying to read and comprehend
faster. I mention them here not as stand-alone gimmicks for faster reading, but as things to try in
context with reading phrases and concentrating on whole ideas. The most important thing is still to be
totally focused on conceptualizing ideas, but these techniques can be helpful in maintaining that focus.

The Only Finger Pacer

Although most of the wacky finger waving methods so popular in many speed reading courses are
laughable, it can be helpful to run your finger down the right-hand side of each page or column of text
as you read. Doing this appears to be a helpful reminder as to which line your eyes should line up on
next, and it also keeps you moving ahead. Try it, and see if it works for you. This does not mean
forcing yourself to try to keep up with your handthe hand is quicker than the brainbut use it as a
gentle guide and prompt to keep your place and keep you moving forward. I personally find this one
of the most helpful tricks for starting off and getting into the material.
And although, as Ill explain in the next chapter, the famous Evelyn Wood never recommended any of
the odd-ball finger waving patterns so common in many of todays speed reading courses, she did
apparently advocate this simple finger pacer technique, as evidenced in a rare occurrence she made
on the Whats My Line television game show on June 29th, 1961. You can see it here in this short clip
on YouTube: http://youtu.be/zyyh9o08FW4

Skipping Line Ends

As your eyes approach the end of each line of text, try jumping back to the start of the next line just
before your focus actually gets all the way to the last letter of the line. This doesnt mean not to read
the whole line, but to trust your peripheral vision to pick it all up so that you can be processing the
very end of the line during the time your eyes are moving down and across to the next line
When reading whole phrases at a time, your focus point is usually aimed somewhere near the middle
of each word-group, but there can still be the tendency to continue moving your eyes to the very end
of each line even after you have read the last phrase. This can be tricky, as you cant afford to
distract yourself by mentally thinking about doing this, but you just have to be willing to let your eyes
move back a bit sooner than normal.

Focusing Ahead
Focus your attention slightly ahead of each phrase. As you are processing one phrase, already be
moving your focus to the next. Of course you cant go forward until you understand the previous
phrase, but you can start to move your eyes slightly sooner if you think youve got it. This will tend to
happen automatically when you get in the zone; your reading will begin to flow more smoothly

because you will already be anticipating the next phrase.

Slowing at the Start

Start off reading slowly, being sure to imagine what you are reading in order to establish mental
traction while you pick up the thread of the subject matter. Do this by spending a few nanoseconds
longer on the first phrase of each sentence than those that follow. This may be too small a time period
to be even consciously aware of, but you must make sure you conceptually understand what the first
phrase means in order to have a better connection to where the sentence is going. This slowing
down may ironically result in faster reading overall due to the stronger conceptual connection.

Speeding at the End

Likewise, at the end of each sentence, spend a few nanoseconds less reading it than you did the
thought-units before it. If you are reading in an anticipatory mode, you will likely already have
predicted what the last phrase will be anyway. All you need to do is verify your suspicion and move
on. You can spend that extra time picking up the thread of the next sentence. One way to do this is to
mentally focus on locating the first words of sentences as you read. This will have the effect of
jumping you ahead and putting a few extra nanoseconds onto these initial words.
Most of these speed adjustments are actually too tiny to consciously measure though. What you are
really doing is concentrating on imagining the meaning of what you are reading and giving yourself
permission to slow down or speed up as needed. In the end, you are primarily trying to avoid the
staccato, mechanical, fixed rate of reading.

Reading Distance
Hold the reading material at a comfortable distanceclose enough to be clear but also far enough to
reduce unnecessary eye movement between phrases. Youll see what distance works best. This seems
simple, but you will be surprised how effective proper distance is.

Stop When Necessary

Be careful not to stumble over unknown words, phrases, or ideas because these can derail your
attention. Your mind will instantly respond to these mental potholes by blanking out, and nothing else
will register in the text that follows.
This is one of the major sources of mental blank-out and one of the main things to look out for. Many
times when you find yourself reading empty words, you will discover that if you look back a bit, you
will see something in the text which was not clear to you. If you dont understand something, stop and
figure it out before going on.

Relaxing
Relaxing is not actually a trick but is still a very important ingredient. Relaxing relates back to not
allowing yourself to start pushing your speed. As much as you might want to read fast, this pressure
will only serve to sabotage your efforts. It will be like trying to pull your fingers apart in those
Chinese finger traps. Relax and let your speed occur as a natural result of clearer understanding for a
more comfortable and enjoyable type of fast reading.
All you want to do is get the information. All reading and all writing are different. All readers are
different, too. Even each time you read the same text can be different depending on many internal and
external factors. In fact, because of these factors, you can never really read the same book twice.

Practice Exercise #17

In this exercise, let your speed vary as necessary to maintain maximum comprehension. This natural
variation in speed is like an automatic transmission, where a higher or lower rpm is selected
depending on changing driving conditions. Similarly, be flexible with your reading and let the content
automatically choose the speed. This can mean slowing, speeding, or stopping. It can even mean
going back to pick up the trail if necessary.
Also, try some of the techniques discussed in this chapter and see how they work for you. But
remember, these techniques are just suggestions. If you find they work for you, great, but your primary
focus should remain pursuing the ideas and letting the speed come to you.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein
Letter 1
To Mrs. Saville, England
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which
you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I arrived here yesterday, and my first task is to assure
my dear sister of my welfare and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking.
I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a cold northern
breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with delight. Do you understand
this feeling? This breeze, which has traveled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives
me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more
fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever
presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is
forever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendor. Therefor
with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigatorsthere snow and frost are
banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in
beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Its productions and features may be
without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered
solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? I may there discover the wondrous
power which attracts the needle and may regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only
this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity
with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted
by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or
death and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks
in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But
supposing all these conjectures to be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall
confer on all mankind, to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those
countries, to reach at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the
magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine.
These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow
with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the
mind as a steady purposea point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This expedition has
been the favorite dream of my early years. I have read with ardor the accounts of the various voyages
which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which
surround the pole. You may remember that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of
discovery composed the whole of our good Uncle Thomas library. My education was neglected, yet I
was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night, and my familiarity
with them increased that regret which I had felt, as a child, on learning that my fathers dying
injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life.
These visions faded when I perused, for the first time, those poets whose effusions entranced my soul
and lifted it to heaven. I also became a poet and for one year lived in a paradise of my own creation; I

imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare
are consecrated. You are well acquainted with my failure and how heavily I bore the disappointment.
But just at that time I inherited the fortune of my cousin, and my thoughts were turned into the channel
of their earlier bent.
Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now, remember the
hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced by inuring my body to
hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily
endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during
the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches
of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage.
Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler,
and acquitted myself to admiration. I must own I felt a little proud when my captain offered me the
second dignity in the vessel and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness, so valuable did
he consider my services. And now, dear Margaret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great
purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every enticement
that wealth placed in my path. Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative! My
courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed. I am
about to proceed on a long and difficult voyage, the emergencies of which will demand all my
fortitude: I am required not only to raise the spirits of others, but sometimes to sustain

Chapter 18: Mythical Exercises

The field of speed reading, and by extension much of the whole arena of reading improvement, has
been somewhat tarnished by several misconceptions and misrepresentations. I would prefer not to be
critical, but without addressing these myths, I am concerned that the information in this booksince it
departs from many of these accepted practicesmay result in questions, confusions, or
misunderstandings.
Here are some of the most persistent myths which should be debunked in order to begin making real
progress in your reading improvement.

Push Your Speed

Pushing your speed is the main thrust of most speed reading courses. Its presented as a habit to
develop. Some suggest that once you develop the habit of seeing words faster, your comprehension
will adapt to this higher speed and improve on its own.
You are told that you can reach any reading speed you wish this way, particularly if you increase in
small increments at a time. Some examples suggest that a mechanical metronome is all that is needed
to teach yourself to read faster. Simply find your possible reading speed, increase the metronome
by one beat per minute at each reading, and voila! Youre reading faster.
After all, its just one beat per minute; how hard could it be, right? Well then, by this logic, you could
use a metronome to learn to do anything faster. At just one more beat at a time, a runner could go
from jogging along at a leisurely pace to breaking the land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
The truth is, whenever you push your speedno matter how incrementally you do ityou wont even
be reading, but merely waving your eyes back and forth. Pushing your speed beyond your
comprehension leads to nothing more than exhaustion and frustration.

Finger Waving Patterns

This myth is a classic. It comes from the story of Evelyn Wood, who supposedly threw her book on
the ground in frustration at her inability to learn to read as fast as the incredible speeds of a professor
she knew. Then, as the story goes, after collecting her composure and picking up the book, she
brushed off the dirt that had gathered on the open page and suddenly had an epiphany and the secret of
speed reading was born! They say that by waving her hand across the page, Evelyn suddenly began to
read at supersonic speeds.
However, none of this is true. According to a friend of hers whom I spoke with, Mrs. Wood herself
said it was baloney, made up by the folks she sold her company to. As further proof, this incredible
story doesnt even appear in Evelyns own 1958 book, Reading Skills, in which she mentions nothing
about any of the now classic finger waving patterns.

However, if you look in The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program,
written in 1990 by Stanley D. Frank, ED.D, you will find plenty of descriptions of The Famous

and fundamentalEvelyn Wood speed-reading hand motions, with illustrative diagrams. In chapter
five, you not only learn the Underlining Hand Motion, but then move on to the S Hand Motion,
the Question Mark, the X Hand Motion, the Loop Hand Motion, the L Hand Motion, as
well as a brief discussion of the Horseshoe, the U Hand Motion, the Brush, and the HalfMoon.
Of course, Woods original hand-waving pattern was supposedly the Brush (brushing off the book). If
you have trouble making this one work, perhaps you need to try it with the book she was reading at
the timeGreen Mansions. Maybe it only worked with that book. Or maybe you only need to try
some of the other patterns, like the Zigzag, the Vertical Wave, the Double Margin, or the Lazy
S.
The reason Evelyn Wood never mentioned any of these patterns in her own book is because she never
recommended them as a way to read faster. Unfortunately, as a paid spokesperson for the new owners
of her Reading Dynamics company, she never publically disclaimed them, either, and so they entered
speed reading lore as a sort of speed reading creation myth.

Eye Exercises
Following Javals discovery in 1879that faster readers made fewer saccades as their eyes moved
across each line of textinstructors began striving to train everyone to change their eye movements.
Students were told over and over that they must widen the eye span and were put through a wide
variety of exercises to do so. They would intensely strain to widen their fields of vision, forcing their
eyes to almost bulge out of their sockets. But the only result of these exercises (besides possibly a
severe headache) was that they could barely concentrate on what they were reading.
The same was true of the many exercises meant to train the eyes to move faster. The eyes have always
been quicker than the mind. Regardless of how wide your eye span is, or how fast you move your
eyes, there is nothing to see until your mind sees it.
The fallacy of trying to change the physical movement of the eyes is a classic case of treating the
symptom rather than the cause. Eye movements in reading are simply the symptoms of the mental
processes the person uses while reading. The eyes are only servants of the mind. Concentrate on
seeing whole ideas, and the eyes will comply by automatically fixing on the appropriate sets of
words.
Dont concentrate on the symptom; focus on the mental process of seeing ideas and let your eyes do
their job on their own.

Subvocalization Distractions
Verbalizing or subvocalizing is often considered the bane of reading improvement. How wonderful if
we could eliminate this one most destructive habit! And how easy it is to do according to several
speed reading coursesjust distract yourself. Believe it or not, it is common to suggest that if you
were to repeat nonsense sounds aloud while you read, then you would not be able to internally hear
the sounds of the words you were reading.

For example, one course recommends reciting the vowels while you read a book; say, A E I O U
over and over while you follow your finger across each line of text. I couldnt even understand what I
was reading if someone else were standing in the room reciting vowels, let alone if I were doing it
myself. Where is the common sense?
If you want to read faster, you need all the concentration you can muster. You arent going to help
things if you are distracting yourself with verbal gibberish.

Skipping Unimportant Words

One suggestion to read faster is to simply read fewer words; this is accomplished by skipping all
those unimportant words. But if you are going to skip any words at all, you first have to know
which words you are going to skip. That means you have to check each word to see if its
unimportant. This seems to defeat the purpose, since you have to at least peek at each word to see if
you can ignore it.
Not only is this method unworkable, but even attempting to concentrate on this word filtering process
would subtract a lot of mental energy that could be used for comprehension. Plus, there is a good
chance that you might skip some words that were actually very important to the texts meaning
words that could completely alter the essence of what you read.
And besides, if it were really possible to speak or write with fewer words, Im sure we would be
speaking and writing that way alreadywhy would we continue to waste our time with all those
worthless and avoidable, unimportant words?

PhotoReading
PhotoReading was developed by Paul Scheele in 1993 and claims to teach you how to read with only
a quick glance at each page. It sounds like this would be wonderful, but so would the ability to fly
with only the help of a Superman cape.
Some people have shown they have the ability to read this fast. The most famous was Kim Peek, who
read and remembered more than nine thousand books at a speed of about ten seconds per page, with
each eye scanning its own page independently! But Kim was a savant. Savant syndrome is a rare but
extraordinary condition in which persons with serious mental disabilities, including autism, have
some island of genius which stands out from the general population. There have probably been
fewer than one hundred real savants in the past century. Even though savants appear to have
incredible reading skills, they are reading without reckoning.
There is one interesting fact about savants which might have a strange bearing on reading with the
right brain. A few people have actually become savants later in life, often after suffering damage to
the brains left hemisphere. It seems, perhaps, that shutting off certain left-brain activities might have
somehow liberated previously latent right-brain skills. This means that those exceptional skills may
lie dormant, to some degree, in all of us, so perhaps by purposefully applying our imagination and
visual skills, we are activating those very areas which savants are using. (This is just a thought, but
please dont give yourself a brain injury to try this.)

PhotoReading among the non-savant population, however, has never been proven. In fact,
PhotoReading was specifically studied by the NASA Ames Research Center and researchers came to
the following conclusion:
These results clearly indicate that there is no benefit to using the PhotoReading technique. The
extremely rapid reading rates claimed by PhotoReaders were not observed; indeed the reading rates
were generally comparable to those for normal reading. Moreover, the PhotoReading experts showed
an increase in reading time with the PhotoReading technique in comparison to normal reading. This
increase in reading time was accompanied by a decrease in text comprehension. These results were
found for two standardized tests of text comprehension and for three matched sets of expository
texts.
In the end, as a course of study for improving your reading, I would suggest that pursuing better
comprehension is going to lead to a lot more success than trying to become a savant.

Practice Exercise #18

I really wish there were some secret magical ways to instantly read faster and avoid the necessity of
exercise and practice, but gimmicks only waste the little precious time we have available for making
real improvement. Instead, exercise your comprehension skills by concentrating on meaning in order
to improve your real reading speed.
Practice with this next exercise and continue to focus your attention on imagining the meaning of each
thought-unit. Faster reading comes from broadening that information channel, widening it from the
narrow word-by-word method to passing along whole concepts and ideas at a time.
Note: The following exercise, although taken from a fascinating and popular novel, may not be
suitable for children due to the nature of the subject matter. It was included here because it is a
compelling piece of literature that does a good job of keeping the readers attention.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel

PARIS: SEPTEMBER, 1792
A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear
they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of
hate. The hour, some little time before sunset, and the place, the West Barricade, at the very spot
where, a decade later, a proud tyrant raised an undying monument to the nations glory and his own
vanity.
During the greater part of the day guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that France had
boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for
liberty and for fraternity. The carnage had only ceased at this late hour of the day because there were
other more interesting sights for the people to witness, a little while before the final closing of the
barricades for the night.
And so the crowd rushed away from the Place de la Greve and made for the various barricades in
order to watch this interesting and amusing sight.
It was to be seen every day, for those aristos were such fools! They were traitors to the people of
course, all of them, men, women, and children, who happened to be descendants of the great men who
since the Crusades had made the glory of France: her old NOBLESSE. Their ancestors had oppressed
the people, had crushed them under the scarlet heels of their dainty buckled shoes, and now the
people had become the rulers of France and crushed their former mastersnot beneath their heel, for
they went shoeless mostly in these daysbut a more effectual weight, the knife of the guillotine.
And daily, hourly, the hideous instrument of torture claimed its many victimsold men, young
women, tiny children until the day when it would finally demand the head of a King and of a beautiful
young Queen.
But this was as it should be: were not the people now the rulers of France? Every aristocrat was a
traitor, as his ancestors had been before him: for two hundred years now the people had sweated, and
toiled, and starved, to keep a lustful court in lavish extravagance; now the descendants of those who
had helped to make those courts brilliant had to hide for their livesto fly, if they wished to avoid
the tardy vengeance of the people.
And they did try to hide, and tried to fly: that was just the fun of the whole thing. Every afternoon
before the gates closed and the market carts went out in procession by the various barricades, some
fool of an aristo endeavored to evade the clutches of the Committee of Public Safety. In various
disguises, under various pretexts, they tried to slip through the barriers, which were so well guarded
by citizen soldiers of the Republic. Men in womens clothes, women in male attire, children
disguised in beggars rags: there were some of all sorts: CI-DEVANT counts, marquises, even dukes,
who wanted to fly from France, reach England or some other equally accursed country, and there try
to rouse foreign feelings against the glorious Revolution, or to raise an army in order to liberate the
wretched prisoners in the Temple, who had once called themselves sovereigns of France.
But they were nearly always caught at the barricades, Sergeant Bibot especially at the West Gate had
a wonderful nose for scenting an aristo in the most perfect disguise. Then, of course, the fun began.
Bibot would look at his prey as a cat looks upon the mouse, play with him, sometimes for quite a

quarter of an hour, pretend to be hoodwinked by the disguise, by the wigs and other bits of theatrical
make-up which hid the identity of a CI-DEVANT noble marquise or count.
Oh! Bibot had a keen sense of humor, and it was well worth hanging round that West Barricade, in
order to see him catch an aristo in the very act of trying to flee from the vengeance of the people.
Sometimes Bibot would let his prey actually out by the gates, allowing him to think for the space of
two minutes at least that he really had escaped out of Paris, and might even manage to reach the coast
of England in safety, but Bibot would let the unfortunate wretch walk about ten meters towards the
open country, then he would send two men after him and bring him back, stripped of his disguise.
Oh! That was extremely funny, for as often as not the fugitive would prove to be a woman, some
proud marchioness, who looked terribly comical when she found herself in Bibots clutches after all,
and knew that a summary trial would await her the next day and after that, the fond embrace of
Madame la Guillotine.
No wonder that on this fine afternoon in September the crowd round Bibots gate was eager and
excited. The lust of blood grows with its satisfaction, there is no satiety: the crowd had seen a
hundred noble heads fall beneath the guillotine today, it wanted to make sure that it would see another
hundred fall on the morrow.
Bibot was sitting on an overturned and empty cask close by the gate of the barricade; a small
detachment of citizen soldiers was under his command. The work had been very hot lately. Those
cursed aristos were becoming terrified and tried their hardest to slip out of Paris: men, women and
children, whose ancestors, even in remote ages, had served those traitorous Bourbons, were all
traitors themselves and right food for the guillotine. Every day Bibot had had the satisfaction of
unmasking some fugitive royalists and sending them back to be tried by the Committee of Public
Safety, presided over by that good patriot, Citoyen Foucquier-Tinville.
Robespierre and Danton

Chapter 19: Mythical Stories

There are so many amazing stories about speed reading, in fact about reading in general. That is one
reason this book includes a discussion about what reading is and how it works, to help to demonstrate
why these stories are so preposterous.
Reading is a more complex mental task then many people realize. Its actually pretty amazing that its
possible at all.
At the same time, reading faster is also a lot simpler than is often expected. Its not learned by a
bunch of bizarre exercises, but by simply learning to focus your attention on the meaning of what you
read.
Lets go over some of the popular speed reading stories and see why they dont make sense.

Thousands of Words per Minute

Its unfortunate that the business of helping people improve their reading skills has been hijacked by
so many charlatans. The myth that we can learn to read at freakishly fast speeds is continually
perpetrated in order to sell the maximum number of books and courses.
For example, here is a sample claim from one speed reading book: Read at any speed you wish to
from 1 to 20,000 words per minute, dependent entirely upon your reading goals.
"Entirely upon your goals"? Well then you wouldnt need the book, would you? All you need is the
goal! Choose the goal and youre done. And then, what about that low range of ONE word per
minute? That actually sounds more difficult than the twenty thousand (and I also suppose twenty
thousand and one would be completely out of the question).
As proof of how successful their methods are, the same book lists the Worlds Top Ten Speed
Readers. Their listed speeds range between 1,560 and 3,850 words per minute (not 20,000 though).
However, none of these names show up on a Google search, making it sound like these top ten
amazing readers were only known to the author of that book.
It is not necessary to name this book because these claims are not unusual, and you would have no
problem confirming this with your own research.
The biggest problem with claims like these is that they become the common expectation of people
when they think of speed reading. These types of results are not true, and they end up costing people
in lost time and money and in their unfortunate feelings of frustration.
When people learn that its not possible to read thousands of words per minute, they figure, Why
bother trying to improve at all?
Well, think of it like this. Imagine you have a painful limp and any walking is a frustrating and
difficult chore. In fact, everywhere you go, you have to resort to using crutches just to keep from
falling down.
Then, a therapist tells you she can help. She can show you some exercises that will cure you. With
these exercises, you will be able to walk with ease, go wherever you want, explore all the places that

were out of reach beforeand even run if you wishwithout pain. You could throw those crutches
away.
It would be a dream come true, but you would turn her down. You would say, Walking is not fast
enough. I want to run at super-human speeds like the Flash in the DC comic books! I want to run so
fast that my friends will be amazed. And besides, Ive heard that I could learn to do this in sixty
minutes with just a few secret running tricks.
So you hobble out of the therapists office, taking your crutches with you.
Well, where are all these Flashes? Where are all these people whose only reading limit is how fast
they can flip pages?
Give up your belief in comics. Instead, throw away the crutches of subvocalizing and regression, and
begin to enjoy your reading. Explore all the information out there waiting to be discovered without
the pain of exhaustion and frustration.
Real speed reading is six hundred to one thousand words per minute, and most people find four
hundred words per minute a stubborn hurtle. But why continue stumbling along at less than two
hundred words per minute, and with poor comprehension, if there is a way to make reading a joy
rather than a chore?
And who knows? Maybe you can be one of those who reach the thousand words per minute mark. If
so, you still have to pass four hundred first. To do that, you need to put on the coveralls and do the
work. But regardless of your ultimate achievement, any improvement in your reading speed and
comprehension can have a powerful effect on many aspects of your life.
The truth may be a disappointment to some, but in the end, reality is always easier to handle than
delusion.

Comprehension Follows Speed

This is actually pretty amazing when you think about it, but doesnt it seem like hardly anybody is
concentrating on teaching readers to comprehend better? Instead, they usually suggest that your
comprehension will magically improve after you learn to read faster.
Heres a passage from a popular speed reading book: "If you have difficulty with concentration and
comprehension go faster rather than more slowly, and you may find a great improvement."
In the same book, it instructs, "Practice as fast as you can for 1 minute, not worrying about
comprehension."
In another book, the author says, "Research is increasingly showing that the faster you read, the
better your comprehension."
And then another shouts, DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION.
Actually, this is the overwhelming advice in speed reading books and courses.
But does this make sense to anyone? Whose research is this? Research could also show that faster
racecar drivers had better skills, but which came first? Wouldnt it make more sense that skill led to
speed, rather than vice versa?

Comprehension Tests
Most speed reading courses will include comprehension tests. They have you read a passage and then
ask you to answer questions about the passage. But these comprehension tests are ineffective. They
are not only a waste of time, they are often used to fool students into thinking they have improved their
reading.

Ineffective
It would certainly be important to know whether or not you understood what you have read. How
awful to spend hours reading a book and, only after finishing it, find out that you didnt understand
anything. What a waste of time! But just as when Im listening to somebody talk, when Im reading, I
generally know if Im getting it or notin real time, not after I take some test.
The main problem with comprehension tests is that they are really testing other things besides
comprehensionthings such as memory and even test-taking skills.
Comprehension tests generally consist of a list of multiple choice or true-false questions at the end of
a reading assignment. The problem with such tests is that so much depends on your previous
knowledge of the content. And nearly as much depends on your ability to guess which facts you
should probably remember for the test.
And not all people would pay attention to the exact same things. For example, an article about 3D
printers would be viewed very differently by an engineer, a salesman, and an investor. Each would
pay attention to and remember, either, how it works, who would buy one, or what its business growth
potential was.
However even though each of us reads for our own reasons, we all know while we are reading
whether or not we are grasping the information thats important to us.

Deceptive
Not only are comprehension tests poor indicators of comprehension, but they are sometimes used to
deceive students into thinking they have improved when they havent.
The trick is to make the initial test more difficult than the final one, giving the indication that the
students comprehension has improved.
For example, the first reading test is often loaded with names, numbers, and lists; whereas the final
test can be of a more general nature, resulting in the kinds of questions you could likely answer
correctly even if you didnt read the article.
Again, Ill use an example from a popular speed reading book. There are ten reading tests throughout
this particular book.
The article for the first test is nineteen hundred words long and contains:
43 numbers
32 proper names
2 bulleted lists (twenty and seven items long)
11 comma-delimited lists (i.e. to problem solve, to analyze, to prioritize, to create and to

communicate) with up to eleven items on each list

Not only is the article difficult, but many of the questions are misleading. For example, question one
on the first test reads, True or false? The top eighty percent of British companies invest
considerable money and time in training."
The correct answer is false, but take a look at the text from the article: " of the top 10% of
British companies, 80% invested considerable money and time in training".
It says eighty percent of the top ten percent! That is a sneaky trap. And also notice that the number
80 is used in the text, but the word eighty is used in the question.
Additionally, the suggestion before taking that first test is, "Dont worry about getting low scores in
either speed or comprehension." So a student would obviously show improvement on the last test
because before reading the last article, students are instructed to Just trust yourself and read as fast
as you possibly can.
Plus, this last article is easier to read and has easier questions. The last article is only fourteen
hundred words long (three-quarters the length of the first), much more general in nature, and only
contains:
5 numbers
2 proper names
No lists
And the questions are absolute softballs. This trick of unequal tests is used by many speed reading
courses. They multiply your reading speed by your comprehension percent to establish your
effective speed. By making the last test easier than the first, they make is seem as if you have made
a miraculous improvement during the course!
Whats worse is that this improvement is quite often used to disqualify you for any refund, the
wording of which typically sounds something like, Double your effective reading speed or your
money back.

JFK the Speed Reader

Its amazing that this popular speed reading myth has gone on so long. Many speed reading books and
courses tell the story of how President Kennedy took the Evelyn Wood course and learned to read
twelve hundred words per minute. This success story has been used as proof that You can do it,
too!
The story of JFKs reading prowess fit with the popular narrative of the timethat our new president
was young, handsome, and cleverso the reading story spread quickly. The bandwagon didnt even
have to slow down for dozens of other speed reading courses to hop on and quote this fact.
But President Kennedy never read twelve hundred words per minute. This figure was only an off-thecuff answer he gave when a reporter questioned him about his reading speed.
Its true he took the Evelyn Wood course, but he never finished it, and so he never tested his final
speed. I doubt JFK was being intentionally dishonest; this may have been the speed at which he could

skim to get the gist of material. But according to The Causes of High And Low Reading Achievement
by Ronald P. Carver, JFKs reading speed was probably five to six hundred words per minute, an
excellent reading speed but not one that belongs in the annals of speed reading legends.

The Phonics Method Causes Subvocalizing

There has long been controversy over how best to teach reading to young children. There is particular
contention between the whole-word people and the phonics people. One of the aspersions cast upon
the phonics folks is that by teaching kids to sound out words, they are condemning them to a life of
vocalizing while they read.
One problem with that logic is that its never been shown that whole-word students read without
vocalizing. And you could also wonder that if the habits of adults are cast in stone as children, then
why arent we saying each letter too? Because after all, they taught us the alphabet before they taught
us phonics.
Besides all that logic stuff, it just so happens that vocalizing helps comprehensionplain and simple.
You do it every time you try to decipher anything complicated. Its natural to vocalize to make things
easier to understand.
Although subvocalizing does supply a comprehension benefit, it is still a very strong habit. However,
its definitely easier to replace this habit than suppress it, and you replace it by applying your visual
and imagining skills. Subvocalizing is a crutch, and you will stop using it when it is no longer needed.

Reading vs. Skimming and Scanning

If you want to learn how to read faster, you wont do it by practicing the piano or learning to dance.
Skimming and scanning are excellent and very helpful skills to have, but they are not reading.
Too many speed reading courses intentionally confuse these skills with reading. When you push
your speed and ignore your comprehension, you are skimmingnot reading. When you search the text
for a pertinent piece of information, you are scanningnot reading.
Yes, learn to do these things, but dont walk away thinking you were speed reading.

Practice Exercise #19

Continue to practice real speed reading through speed comprehension. Forget all the speed reading
fables, and create your own true reading success story by involving and strengthening that powerful
and often ignored silent partner on your right side.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women
Christmas wont be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
Its so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
I dont think its fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,
added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
Weve got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened
again as Jo said sadly, We havent got Father, and shall not have him for a long time. She didnt say
perhaps never, but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.
Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, You know the reason Mother proposed
not having any presents this Christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and
she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army. We
cant do much, but we can make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I
dont, and Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.
But I dont think the little we should spend would do any good. Weve each got a dollar, and the
army wouldnt be much helped by our giving that. I agree not to expect anything from Mother or you,
but I do want to buy Undine and Sintran for myself. Ive wanted it so long, said Jo, who was a
bookworm.
I planned to spend mine in new music, said Beth, with a little sigh, which no one heard but the
hearth brush and kettle-holder.
I shall get a nice box of Fabers drawing pencils; I really need them, said Amy decidedly.
Mother didnt say anything about our money, and she wont wish us to give up everything. Lets each
buy what we want, and have a little fun; Im sure we work hard enough to earn it, cried Jo,
examining the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner.
I know I doteaching those tiresome children nearly all day, when Im longing to enjoy myself at
home, began Meg, in the complaining tone again.
You dont have half such a hard time as I do, said Jo. How would you like to be shut up for hours
with a nervous, fussy old lady, who keeps you trotting, is never satisfied, and worries you till youre
ready to fly out the window or cry?
Its naughty to fret, but I do think washing dishes and keeping things tidy is the worst work in the
world. It makes me cross, and my hands get so stiff, I cant practice well at all. And Beth looked at
her rough hands with a sigh that anyone could hear that time.
I dont believe any of you suffer as I do, cried Amy, for you dont have to go to school with
impertinent girls, who plague you if you dont know your lessons, and laugh at your dresses, and label
your father if he isnt rich, and insult you when your nose isnt nice.
If you mean libel, Id say so, and not talk about labels, as if Papa was a pickle bottle, advised Jo,
laughing.
I know what I mean, and you neednt be statirical about it. Its proper to use good words, and

improve your vocabilary, returned Amy, with dignity.

"Dont peck at one another, children. Dont you wish we had the money Papa lost when we were
little, Jo? Dear me! How happy and good wed be, if we had no worries! said Meg, who could
remember better times.
You said the other day you thought we were a deal happier than the King children, for they were
fighting and fretting all the time, in spite of their money.
So I did, Beth. Well, I think we are. For though we do have to work, we make fun of ourselves, and
are a pretty jolly set, as Jo would say."
Jo does use such slang words! observed Amy, with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on
the rug.
Jo immediately sat up, put her hands in her pockets, and began to whistle.
Dont, Jo. Its so boyish!
Thats why I do it."
I detest rude, unladylike girls!
I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!
Birds in their little nests agree, sang Beth, the peacemaker, with such a funny face that both sharp
voices softened to a laugh, and the "pecking ended for that time.
"Really, girls, you are both to be blamed, said Meg, beginning to lecture in her elder-sisterly
fashion. You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine. It didnt
matter so much when you were a little girl, but now you are so tall, and turn up your hair, you should
remember that you are a young lady.
Im not! And if turning up my hair makes me one, Ill wear it in two tails till Im twenty, cried Jo,
pulling off her net, and shaking down a chestnut mane. I hate to think Ive got to grow up, and be
Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China Aster! Its bad enough to be a girl,
anyway, when I like boys games and work and manners! I cant get over my disappointment in not
being a boy. And its worse than ever now, for Im dying to go and fight with Papa. And I can only
stay home and knit, like a poky old woman!
And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across
the room.
Poor Jo! Its too bad, but it cant be helped. So you must try to be contented with making your name
boyish, and playing brother to us girls, said Beth, stroking the rough head with a hand that all the
dish washing and dusting in the world could not make ungentle in its touch.
As for you, Amy, continued Meg, you are altogether too particular and prim. Your airs are funny
now, but youll grow

Chapter 20: Reading on Your Own

The phrase-highlighted practice text in this book gives you an excellent opportunity to experience
reading whole phrases and to practice visualizing and conceptualizing the ideas while you read. The
final goal, however, is to be able to use this skill to read regular text, without assistance. So, what
happens when you remove the training wheels and read on your own?

Practice with Normal Text

Practice reading with normal text whenever you can. This will help you transfer the skill to your
regular reading. Scanning normal text for phrases will help you learn what works best for you.
Plus, you want to discover what special challenges are faced when you are in charge of both steps;
not only conceptualizing whole word-groups at a glance, but simultaneously picking out those wordgroups on your own.
The most common question about picking out word-groups is, How do you know which words to put
together? And the second most popular question is, How can you select the word-groups fast
enough while also concentrating on your reading? The answer to both is the same, and is similar to
the answer on how to stop subvocalization and regression: by visualizing!
Remember that you can only concentrate on one thing at a time, and while youre reading, that one
thing should only be: comprehending the text. Just as you use visualizing for replacing, rather than
suppressing, bad habits, you can use visualizing for finding the phrases.
It may seem impossible at first, but when you look for meaningful ideas that you can visualize, your
mind will automatically zoom in on the phrases for you.
Heres an example. As you read the following sentence, dont worry about your speed, but
concentrate on looking for images and ideas.
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to
remember to shut the popholes.
Read it over if you need to in order to come up with something to imagine for each separately
meaningful piece of the sentence. Youre just looking at the sentence and thinking, What could I
imagine here?
Different readers may group the words together differently, but here is one way the sentence could be
read. Each line represents the words your eyes might see at a glance, but the dark text represents the
part which your mind might pick out as a separate visual idea. This is an idea you could instantly
imagine and conceptualize. Read each dark phrase and look at the suggested image.

As shown here, there isnt really a rigid fixation on each phrase, but a general focus on larger
portions of the sentence. You will be aware of the surrounding text but the units of meaning will stand
out as imaginable ideas when you are looking for ideas to visualize.
The generic images above are only samples of what you might imagine; any attention paid to
imagining the meaning will work, though. And remember again, not every idea has an easy to imagine
picture; paying attention to just the conceptual ideas will also work.
The word-groups chosen in this example are also subjective. There is no perfect grouping, although
this particular grouping may possibly be close to what many people would come up with, depending
on the number of words at a time they are comfortable with. But which words you group and which
images or ideas you imagine are much less important than the effort to see the groups of words as
ideas. Just scan the text and look for ideas.
If you concentrate on seeing ideas, the words will clump together in the only way they make sense.
Its a little bit like looking for all the blue sky pieces when you are making a jigsaw puzzle; you are
more likely to see something if its in the forefront of your mind and you are looking for it.
Just look for each meaningful chunk of information and you will feel your right-brain say, Aha, as it
recognizes the meaning of the phrase.

Cautions
One thing you must look out for while reading normal text is excessive speeding. Reading without the
assistance of highlighted phrases is going to be slower as you obviously have more to do now. But at
the same time, there will probably be an overwhelming urge to push your speed as fast as you can go.
Instead, slow down and pay attention to each phrase. You must make comprehension your main, no,
your only pursuit. Chasing after speed is chasing your shadow. Slow down if necessary, because if
you arent comprehending, you arent reading! Make sure you are looking at the ideas and
concentrating on their images and meaning; this is when the speed will come.
Another temptationprobably made even stronger when reading regular textis to take in too many
words at once. It will seem to be an easy way to read faster, by simply reading larger phrases, but
you need to let the visualizing right brain decide where the ideas are, even if you end up only picking
one or two words at times. Yes, I said even one word, because the goal is to visualize ideas as you
read, and multi-word phrases are used only because they are easier to visualize. But sometimes even
a single word can represent a separate distinct thought. Just be flexible and patient and look for the
conceptual ideas while you read.
Lastly, you may find it difficult to enforce phrase-reading, and instead may try to flow through the text
in a steady stream of individual words. Its true that the more you concentrate on ideas of whole
word-groups, the more you will get into the zonewhere the ideas will become a smooth flow
but in order to do that, you must be looking at the text in distinct phrases. Be sure to focus your
attention on those meaningful phrases that you can imagine as visual, conceptual ideas. Even if this is
strangely difficult to adhere to, you must correct yourself if you notice that you are running individual
words together in a steady string. Isolating the distinct phrases is just as important to comprehension
speed as is having spaces between words. Dont ignore the phrasesthey are like the cogs in the
comprehension gears.

Types of Reading
So what kinds of reading can you apply this to? Well, its probably not for reading small items like
street signs or product ingredients. But the more continuous the flow of ideas, the more reading for
ideas will help you see the bigger picture. And although this can be used for many types of reading,
each type may still require a somewhat different approach.

Educational
Reading educational material requires a higher degree of flexibility than most reading. The very
nature of educational reading is meant to be one of discovery. All of this type of reading must be new
to you in order for it to even be educational.
Any type of non-fiction reading is going to include frequent stops to ponder what you have read. This
stop-and-go reading is naturally going to increase the time it takes to finish such a book, but you are
doing more than just reading; you are also stopping to consider what you have read. Regardless of the
overall speed, reading in thought-units can make any complicated material easier to understand by
breaking it up into meaningful, bite-size pieces of information.
Just remember to stop when necessary to carefully consider something you have learned. Also, make
sure to start off slowly when you begin again, ensuring you are paying attention to the new material
rather than the old.

Current Events
Keeping up with the news can involve a lot more skimming than reading. There is so much news
available that you have to be very selective. Glance at headlines and skim articles that look
interesting, reading only the few that merit deeper understanding. Even then, you should always be
ready to drop it and move on.

Personal Interest
Personal interest reading could include most pastime reading, such as hobbies, sports, or
entertainment. Even more than with current events, this type of reading needs a ruthless filtering
because much of it you will already knowor at least suspect. This type of reading is more like a
treasure hunt. Skim until you find the nuggets of novelty, and dont hesitate to put the material down if
you decide it is not offering you anything new or helpful.

Stories
This is where you can lose yourself in your reading. Whether its fiction or non-fiction, reading a
story is like watching a movie. This is where its easiest to get into the zone, a mental place where the
rest of the world simply falls away. You can tune out everything and enter this new world. Here is
where reading with your right brain will turn listening to a story into living it.
Your imagination and visualized ideas will make you a part of the story, and your faster reading will
make the story move along more fluidly. You wont be pushing your speed; your speed will increase
as you are being pulled through the story.

Comics
How could you speed read a comic book, and why would you? Its a funny thing about reading in
phrases, but it becomes a habit. And when faced with a small balloon of text, it is often natural to see
it as a whole idea and read it all at once. I was surprised when I first noticed this, but I suppose the
word bubbles in comics are already more like thought-units than long dissertations. And then, if
youre not in a rush, you could use the extra time to enjoy the pictures.

Last Words
And finally, a few last words to keep in mind. Realize that reading for ideas wont always work
perfectly. It is not magic. It is a tool to help you focus and concentrate on ideas rather than words. As
such, it will be a much more effective way of reading than concentrating on the words and the sounds
they make. Look for the ideas and they will appear; realize that a lot depends on the type of text, the
type of writer, and even (maybe especially) your own frame of mind. Reading for ideas is the path to
better and faster comprehension, and the more you take this path, the smoother it will become.
Two other things that can be helpful while you practice are to set small reading goals and take regular
breaks. Pick up a book and decide how many pages you are going to read. Put a bookmark at that
ending page and then stop when you get therebut not until you get there. Dont stop and dont let
any other thoughts interfere with your reading until you reach that bookmark. Train yourself during
these short sprints to only think of what you are reading. Do as many sprints as you want in one
sitting, but allow yourself a breather between each. Make it a habit to only read while you read.
Make the action of picking up a book an automatic switch that toggles your mind into its reader mode.
And again, remember also to be patient with yourself. It is self-defeating to criticize your
performance because you are only reinforcing those negative ideas. Being impatient also increases
the urge to push your speed beyond of your comprehension.
It is good to critique yourself, if that means to honestly appraise your strengths and weaknesses, but if
you find yourself being overly self-critical, then stop reading and do something else until you can
approach your reading practice with a more productive attitude.
Also, realize that you are not responsible for all your reading success. It is a tango between you and
the author. It is an unfortunate truth, but many authors do not write as fluently as we might like. As
Nathaniel Hawthorne put it, Easy reading is damn hard writing. No matter how hard you try, some
text is just slower to understand and read. And today, with so much writing and so many writers,
thanks to the internet and self-publishing, Im sure youve noticed that there are surprising amounts of
poor spelling, poor grammar, and even typing errors.
But thats the way it is. Do the best with what you have. Some of these texts, littered with grammatical
land mines, may still contain enough amazing gems of information to make the effort worthwhile. Just
be patient and flexible.
You will succeed because success is simply being on the right path. If you know what you need to do,
then you only have to do it. What you need to do is read text as ideas by visualizing whole units of
meaning. Thats it. The rest is practice.
I hope this book has given you some new tools as well as a new perspective on reading. All reading

takes place in our brains, not our eyes. Our eyes are only tools for delivering the text to our brains,
the same way our hands are tools for holding the book. Real reading only takes place when
information is integrated into our existing knowledge base. This internal process of information
assimilation is where all real reading improvement has to take place, not in any external changes like
the speed at which we move our eyes or the width of our eye span.
Reading IS comprehension. That means comprehension is not just a part of reading, it is all that
reading is. If we read text with fifty percent comprehension, then we are only reading fifty percent of
the text. The rest of the text is only looked atand maybe sounded outbut not read.
Once that text enters the brain, its not inside some mysterious black box where we have no control of
how it is processed. Much of what goes on in our brains may be outside our conscious view; what
goes on may be mysterious, but its not out of our control. We might not be able to control exactly
how our brains process text, but we can steer them in more productive directions, the same way a
rider directs a horse. The rider doesnt have to know what the horse is thinking, but by understanding
the horses capabilities and by using proper techniques, he can cause the horse to do his bidding. By
understanding reading and understanding your brain, you can read for ideas by reading with the right
brain.

Practice Exercise #20

We now arrive at our last practice exercise, but remember, there is still a lot of skill to gain by going
back over the exercises and reapplying your improved reading habits.
When youre ready, begin reading the first thousand words of
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys house. The wife had discovered that the husband was
carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had
announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him. This position of
affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members
of their family and household, were painfully conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there
was no sense in their living together, and that the stray people brought together by chance in any inn
had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the
Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days.
The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and
wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked off the
day before just at dinner time; the kitchen-maid, and the coachman had given warning.
Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch OblonskyStiva, as he was called in the
fashionable worldwoke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight oclock in the morning, not in his
wifes bedroom, but on the leather-covered sofa in his study. He turned over his stout, well-cared-for
person on the springy sofa, as though he would sink into a long sleep again; he vigorously embraced
the pillow on the other side and buried his face in it; but all at once he jumped up, sat up on the sofa,
and opened his eyes.
Yes, yes, how was it now? he thought, going over his dream. Now, how was it? To be sure!
Alabin was giving a dinner at Darmstadt; no, not Darmstadt, but something American. Yes, but then,
Darmstadt was in America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on glass tables, and the tables sang, Il
mio tesoronot Il mio tesoro though, but something better, and there were some sort of little
decanters on the table, and they were women, too, he remembered.
Stepan Arkadyevitchs eyes twinkled gaily, and he pondered with a smile. "Yes, it was nice, very
nice. There was a great deal more that was delightful, only theres no putting it into words, or even
expressing it in ones thoughts awake. And noticing a gleam of light peeping in beside one of the
serge curtains, he cheerfully dropped his feet over the edge of the sofa, and felt about with them for
his slippers, a present on his last birthday, worked for him by his wife on gold-colored morocco.
And, as he had done every day for the last nine years, he stretched out his hand, without getting up,
towards the place where his dressing-gown always hung in his bedroom. And thereupon he suddenly
remembered that he was not sleeping in his wifes room, but in his study, and why: the smile vanished
from his face, he knitted his brows.
"Ah, ah, ah! Oo! he muttered, recalling everything that had happened. And again every detail of
his quarrel with his wife was present to his imagination, all the hopelessness of his position, and
worst of all, his own fault.
Yes, she wont forgive me, and she cant forgive me. And the most awful thing about it is that its all
my faultall my fault, though Im not to blame. Thats the point of the whole situation, he reflected.
Oh, oh, oh! he kept repeating in despair, as he remembered the acutely painful sensations caused
him by this quarrel.
Most unpleasant of all was the first minute when, on coming, happy and good-humored, from the

theater, with a huge pear in his hand for his wife, he had not found his wife in the drawing-room, to
his surprise had not found her in the study either, and saw her at last in her bedroom with the unlucky
letter that revealed everything in her hand.
She, his Dolly, forever fussing and worrying over household details, and limited in her ideas, as he
considered, was sitting perfectly still with the letter in her hand, looking at him with an expression of
horror, despair, and indignation.
Whats this? This? she asked, pointing to the letter.
And at this recollection, Stepan Arkadyevitch, as is so often the case, was not so much annoyed at the
fact itself as at the way in which he had met his wifes words.
There happened to him at that instant what does happen to people when they are unexpectedly caught
in something very disgraceful. He did not succeed in adapting his face to the position in which he was
placed towards his wife by the discovery of his fault. Instead of being hurt, denying, defending
himself, begging forgiveness, instead of remaining indifferent evenanything would have been better
than what he did dohis face utterly involuntarily (reflex spinal action, reflected Stepan
Arkadyevitch, who was fond of physiology)utterly involuntarily assumed its habitual, goodhumored, and therefore idiotic smile.
This idiotic smile he could not forgive himself. Catching sight of that smile, Dolly shuddered as
though at physical pain, broke out with her characteristic heat into a flood of cruel words, and rushed
out of the room. Since then she had refused to see her husband.
Its that idiotic smile thats to blame for it all, thought Stepan Arkadyevitch.
But whats to be done? Whats to be done? he said to himself in despair, and found no answer.
Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with himself. He was incapable of deceiving
himself and

The End
How well you master these techniques will depend on how much you practice them. I know how hard
it is to find time to practice, but as with all worthwhile goals, you do what you HAVE to do now, so
that you can do what you WANT to do later.
Although few goals are free of effort, some certainly have bigger paybacks, and having good reading
skills has huge paybacks.
Just as I originally discovered, the main thing to remember is that reading IS comprehension. The
more you comprehend, the deeper your experience will be and the more interesting the world will be.

Bonus Material
As a small way to thank you for reading my book, I have created black and gray versions of the full
books for the first four exercises. You can download the free pdf files here.
www.readspeeder.com/books/the-velveteen-rabbit.html
www.readspeeder.com/books/pride-and-prejudice.html
www.readspeeder.com/books/the-picture-of-dorian-gray.html
www.readspeeder.com/books/the-war-of-the-worlds.html
Thank you for reading my book. If you found this book helpful, will you please leave a review? I very
much appreciate it.
On the off chance that you really didnt like my book, could you contact me at [email protected]
instead of posting a review? The choice is ultimately up to you of course

Other Books by David Butler

READING THOUGHT-UNITS
Faster Reading through Faster Comprehension
with 12 Specially Formatted Short Stories

About the Author

David Butler is a retired mechanical design engineer. He has applied his conceptual approach for
solving design engineering problems, to developing a solution to his lifelong struggle with slow
reading, and enjoys sharing this solution with others not only through this book but with the free
course at www.readspeeder.com, and the free tool at www.phrasereader.com, as well as on the blog
at www.thoughtunits.com. David lives in the scenic mountain forest of Southern California, but when
the weather is 75 and sunny, he can usually be found riding his beach bike along the ocean with his
beautiful wife.