#fast reading

The book is a first edition, 361 pages long and I hit the lap time every 100 pages.

Unfortunately, I do have ADHD and got distracted but I can read 361 pages in about 3 hours and 4 minutes, after a full 8 hour workday. Google says the word count for the book is 85,079 words. About 462 words per minute and 27,743 words per hour. See the screenshots below for reference.

Apparently I read frighteningly fast?

i’m really really really sorry for not sharing my tips yesterday because i just fell asleep right after i finished my homework and i immediately regret it the second i woke up, haha. so anyway, here are my tips for reading a book, getting the knowledge fast, and reading fast are;

1. make assigned reading more interesting - if you’re reading a book because you have to, for something like school, or a book club that you need to get finished with asap, get into the teacher’s or leader’s mindset. if it’s an informative book, do some research before reading the book. pretend that you will have to teach someone what you are about to read and then read with that in mind.

2. calculate the time you spend on normal things you usually do  - you need to determine your time frame and consider how many hours you can dedicate to reading per day.

3. write 5 main ideas and one question you have per chapter - this method works for me the best if i’m reading a boring book for school. i’m currently reading “Night” by Elie(zer) Wiesel. i’m not saying it’s a boring book, as it’s about the holocaust and i’m now getting into those kinds of books (informative) but it’s just that i haven’t really gotten much time to read, as i’m just really busy with other schoolwork. the only thing that caught me up to the rest of the class, is this method.

4. re-read parts that are unclear - if you struggle with the book with what you’ve read so far, re-read the past chapter to see if you’ve missed something, if you struggle with the whole book, try to read the book along with the audiobook, if available, so you will follow along with the voice. this will help you read faster and understand it better. i really don’t like listening to audiobooks just them alone, but i like reading a book along with the audiobooks. it helps me read faster, read effectively and understand.

5. eliminate all distractions - get off the computer and turn the tv off. it’s very difficult to read, especially if you’re reading something difficult, when your attention is divided. reading closely meas you have to find a nice, comfortable location that’s distration-free, like your study space. my tip is to make reading fun by getting yourself a snack or a drink and getting comfortable

6. picture what you’re reading - if what you’re reading is a historical-fiction, informative, or a biography, google will always be there for you. if the setting is in a actual place, google image search the name of the location, and picture the protagonist in the spot. think of yourself as a movie director and picture the action while you’re reading it

7. take breaks - make sure you save enough time to do your reading so you do it and complete it comfortably, and take frequent breaks. for every 45 of reading, let yourself relax for 15 or do some other kind of homework to give your mind a rest and to let yourself focus for a while.

8. flag/mark important pages - the best thing i could’ve done was to use those sticky note flags to mark down the pages with the most information, and i would write ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᵗᶦⁿʸ on the flags a summary, but if you chose to flag the pages and write a summary on another paper, go right ahead.

9. think of open-ended questions to explore the reading - write down some questions that might make an interesting discussion to bring up in class or with a teacher. note; don’t ask questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no”, because those questions are for the teachers on the end test!! learning to ask “how” is a helpful way of coming up with big discussion questions.

10. to improve your reading skills… - read regularly. challenge yourself by reading something a little harder to further improve your reading skills. take good notes, review them, and use flashcards for an easy way to remember everything you’ve read.

(ooh, extra tip!)

11. avoid cramming - the difference between reading and cramming is when you’re reading, you are taking the time to fully interpret the text, but when you’re cramming, you’re just trying to stuff as much information as you can in your head)

Me:

As my job, I deal with reports and documents, massive amouts each day. And in order to perform better, I taught myself to just pick up words that are important, search for patterns, those kind of stuff. So, I now can read real fast.

And by 'real fast' I mean 11 chapters (so around 60%) of the book was read in 1,5 hour.

Just for the record, I already read this book, it's only 253 pages and each chapter is broken into smaller sub-chapters, around 10-13 each. It may be affecting the speed as well, but I remember reading that book when I was younger and I would read only 1 chapter per sitting (sometimes not even full chapter if I was really tired) and it would take me several days to get through it.