The annoying speed reader.
I inherited the love of books from my father but the only
difference between my Dad and I; he reads 500+ words per minute. It’s insane!
When I read a book and finish it in two days I’m like; Wow I can read
superfast! And I end up feeling like a pro.
Until I did a reading speed test . . .
Basically you take an article from a
newspaper and time yourself until your done reading it. Then you count the
total amount of words. Let’s say you read 500 words in 2 minutes. Basically you
read 250 wpm. It only takes a little Math to ruin your ego. (Believe me.)
Top readers read 1000 wpm with a total of 80% comprehension
and normal readers read 300 wpm with an average of 60% comprehension. (I
googled it.) How this is possible I have no freaken idea. It does not make sense
how a speed reader understands more of what he reads than someone who reads
slower but that’s statistics for you folks.
Feeling not so super anymore a searched the Internet for
some tricks on how to improve your reading speed. Here is their advice:
1. Don’t read every word.
2.
Scan your sentence to make your own
comprehension of what it reads.
3.
Read every first and last sentence of the
paragraph.
4.
Avoid sounding out your words.
5.
Place a pointer to follow as your read.
6.
Blah Blah Blah
It was useless.
I read a total of 320 wpm and you know I don’t even care. I had this exact conversation with my dad and I told him:
“Dad you know what? I think I enjoy my books more than normal people do, that’s way I don’t really care how fast I read. It’s about the story.”
And he agreed.
So my advice. . .
Don’t try and rush a story to an end. Yes, there are so many books and only 24 hours in a day but enjoy it and become a part of a magnificent world, even allow yourself to get lost. It’s why we read.
Stay Awesome Bookish Worms.