4 ms·

Informal poll: how fast do you read, in pages/min? Assume typical fiction paperback pages. My girlfriend is an extremely fast reader, somewhere around 3 pages/

Informal poll: how fast do you read, in pages/min? Assume typical fiction paperback pages. My girlfriend is an extremely fast reader, somewhere around 3 pages/min. E.g. she just read A Game of Thrones in a couple days. I'm not a slow reader by any means, but even a two-fold speed boost would make it dramatically easier to finish books; I have too many competing interests to spend more than an hour on any given book per day, and if it's going to take me a week to finish a book, there are just too many opportunities to put it aside and start something else.

3pt14159 15y ago
About 500 to 900 wpm depending on the urgency vs complexity vs longevity-of-understanding trade-off. So something like Game of Thrones would take me about 8 or 9 hours. The key is to move away from "voicing" the words to just "hearing" (or when scanning quickly, "understanding"). I read a lot though, so maybe it's just practice.
- happy4crazy 15y ago
  If I start reading something non-technical, I quickly slip back into "hearing" mode (maybe 500 wpm), but I've gotten worse at this over time as I've started spending more and more time with technical material.
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  Yes, for slow readers the process is usually: See words -> subvocalize words -> grok. For fast readers, it's: See words -> grok. The latter is learnable, and is usually a main component of speed reading programs.
arghnoname 15y ago
When I read fiction, part of the pleasure for me is to take it easy, so I read at a leisurely pace. A a book isn't something for me to complete, it's something for me to enjoy. Rushing through a good book, to me, is like rushing through a good meal; a waste. I actually read lightly technical materials (programming language books, etc) much more quickly than fiction books. I don't know how fast I read exactly, but I suspect it is probably between 1 to 2 pages for enjoyable fiction.
SkyMarshal 15y ago
This helped me a great deal, increased my reading speed for anything non-technical by at least two-fold: http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/1566194024 http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Prog... I bought this one recently as well due to reviews on the Evelyn Wood book, but haven't read it yet (Land of Lisp is taking all my spare time): http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...

3pt14159 15y ago

About 500 to 900 wpm depending on the urgency vs complexity vs longevity-of-understanding trade-off. So something like Game of Thrones would take me about 8 or 9 hours. The key is to move away from "voicing" the words to just "hearing" (or when scanning quickly, "understanding"). I read a lot though, so maybe it's just practice.

happy4crazy 15y ago
If I start reading something non-technical, I quickly slip back into "hearing" mode (maybe 500 wpm), but I've gotten worse at this over time as I've started spending more and more time with technical material.
SkyMarshal 15y ago
Yes, for slow readers the process is usually: See words -> subvocalize words -> grok. For fast readers, it's: See words -> grok. The latter is learnable, and is usually a main component of speed reading programs.

arghnoname 15y ago

When I read fiction, part of the pleasure for me is to take it easy, so I read at a leisurely pace. A a book isn't something for me to complete, it's something for me to enjoy. Rushing through a good book, to me, is like rushing through a good meal; a waste. I actually read lightly technical materials (programming language books, etc) much more quickly than fiction books. I don't know how fast I read exactly, but I suspect it is probably between 1 to 2 pages for enjoyable fiction.

SkyMarshal 15y ago

This helped me a great deal, increased my reading speed for anything non-technical by at least two-fold: http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Program/dp/1566194024 http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Prog... I bought this one recently as well due to reviews on the Evelyn Wood book, but haven't read it yet (Land of Lisp is taking all my spare time): http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/dp/073520019X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...