In this age of information, a great number of people spend most of their waking hours reading. Value investors are no exception; we need to read articles, books, 10-Ks and all sorts of other filings. The benefits to reading faster, therefore, are massive.
As I recently learned, speed reading is no myth; it can be done! In the last two months, I’ve tripled my reading speed. While comprehension is a difficult thing to measure, I have tried to measure it anyway, and I believe my comprehension has not suffered as a result of my faster reading. I’m convinced that with a little practice, you can improve your reading speed as well.
The book that helped me read faster is Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump. To read a lot faster, however, you will have to do more than read the book; you’ll have to practice the techniques it discusses. Kump has you read a chapter a day, and spend about 30 minutes to 1 hour practicing a set of drills designed to help you improve.
The idea behind reading faster is simple. When we read slowly, it isn’t because we are limited by the processing power of our brains. Instead, it’s the speed and pattern recognition of our eyes along with our tendency to vocalize (even internally) words that limit our speed. For example, when children read, they “see” and sound each letter one at a time. When adults read, they see and “internally sound” each word one at a time. Speed readers, on the other hand, transmit groups of words directly into their brains, without any vocalization.
Before going through the practice and exercises in this book, I was an average reader at about 200 words per minute. I now comfortably read most materials at almost 600 words per minute. (This does not apply to technically dense subject matter with which I’m not familiar; I have to slow down in those cases.) I continue to practice, however, and I believe it will be possible for me to hit 1000 words per minute one day, on normal materials; but that day is not today, so in the meantime I will keep practicing!
Good luck! I hope you are as satisfied with the book as I was.
