The Advantages of Speed Reading

By Marion Jones

What have you been reading lately? In a gathering, you can soon tell who the wide readers are, since wide readers are often quick thinkers and good public speakers too. They quickly win the adulation, respect, and fellowship of others. After all, reading expands the mind and many people see it as one of the most satisfying pleasures known to mankind, being a combination, as it is, of mental agility and physical relaxation well above the level offered by television or the cinema.

Reading is mostly a mental activity, since you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the storyline of the action thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the different arguments and ideas theorized by the author in that self-help book you are studying.

Reading effectively helps you to develop (an extensive|a wide through reading different kinds of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not understand exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a good idea of what the sentence is trying to say.

The act of reading makes you more alert and more curious about hitherto unknown words. Some readers even develop 'the dictionary habit', which means that every time they come across a new word, they try to work out what it possibly means by the context. If they are stumped, they refer to the dictionary.

Likewise, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to a variety of subjects. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. As in other forms of education, you learn by actually doing and as you are reading you automatically learn about the subject matter of the book too!

Basically, reading teaches you to have an active and open mind. Only grasping the writers point of view is not really good enough, you have to have a response to what you have read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Try to develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Always keep your mind open; understand and consider the ideas that you have read. A practical part of active reading is the development of one's own conclusions.

Now let me mention the concept of speed reading. All of the above applies between three and ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that! - Being able to read, understand and remember all those books and articles. You would surely become well-read in your field much more rapidly than others. Just think how that could help you at work, in school or in college ...

Now, let me show you the four primary rules for better reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember the saying that practice makes perfect. 2) Develop the habit of reading for main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate - the main ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Think of what you are reading. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try purposely to read faster. Give yourself a time limit for a specific article that you are reading.

Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your understanding and ability. You have so much to gain by discovering the joy of reading. So, go ahead and take down a book right this minute.

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