Speed reading is the ability to not only read text far quicker than you would normally but to be able to absorb the information as well. It’s no good zooming down a page of text and then not being able to recall any of the information.
Speed reading is something that can be of great assistance to you in almost any working environment and particularly one where you have to take in a great deal of information daily – to the point where you feel your head might explode!
One of the most overlooked points about speed reading is that you must first know what you want to get out of the book you’re trying to read. Do you need to know all of the info in in-depth detail or do you just need to get a gist of what it’s about? In which case you can just skim over the outline of the book and that will suffice.
In other words, know what you want to achieve with your reading before you actually do it. This is a seemingly obvious thing to say but one which, nevertheless, is often overlooked and misunderstood. The key is to be able to skim extremely detailed documents but still pick up the required information – that is what speed reading enables you to do.
Think about how you read right now. As a child you merely went from letter to letter as you got older it was word to word. Now, you probably read in sections or groups of words at a time. You may find that you’ll read one block of words, go onto another and then skip back to the previous block of words because you failed to understand or just didn’t take in what you just read. This is a common problem with adults and their reading. Speed reading on the other hand aims to eliminate these issues and make reading a breeze whilst still absorbing the required info.
In short, a good speed reading course will allow you to read more words in each section, it should reduce the amount of time you spend reading each individual section and it should eliminate the number of times you return to each previously read section.
A great tip to reduce the amount of time you spend going back over words you’ve already read is to use a pointer, say a pencil or a pen, to guide your eye as you read the text. As you get better, increase the speed with which you move your pointer across the text, you’ll find this quickly improves the speed of your reading.
Matt Oconnor
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/how-to-speed-read-why-speed-reading-will-improve-your-life-96272.html
What kind of books should I read to improve reading speed?
Throughout my life I have blown off reading…it was never my forte. Last year in AP Biology I guessed on all the tests and got a B as my final, and I did the same thing this year in AP Chemistry and got a B- as my final. I am majoring in Chemical Engineering and I know that I can only get so far by using my logic. I am really good at math, but I am horrible at reading. I remember in middle school I was always like 1 grade level below what is normal(actually, English isn’t my first language, but I can’t really use that as an excuse anymore in college). I recently started reading articles from papers like The Economist, The New Yorker, and The Times Literary Supplement. I am trying to read 1 or 2 from each of them per day. Also, if I read more, will I be able to focus more? One of the problems I have is when I read, I can’t focus and my brain goes off-road and after like 10 minutes I will get back on track (I recently started to listen to classical music to try and help me, and it seems to help me somewhat, is there anything else I can do? I don’t have ADHD, or any other disorder for that matter…also I have a quiet place to read). Thanks for all your help!
For me, really boring books take longer to read. So get all the most boring chemical books at your library and try to read as many of them as you can this summer. Skim over some less important sentences. Time yourself and try to beat your best time per page. Make it a competition with yourself.
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Unfortunately, a short attention span is the byproduct of modern lifestyle. What I’ve done to overcome it in my reading is to read two books at once. One a fictional novel and one a nonfiction book or article. When I feel my attention span waning I switch. It’s like channel surfing for books, but because the topics are so different I can follow both stories.
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Sheesh, my advice would be the opposite of the above.
Read books you love, something you will enjoy and not want to put down. Count how many pages you can read in say…5 minutes, then keep trying to up it.
Also, maybe get someone to test you – Just to make sure what your reading is actually going in haha.
Then apply your new-found reading skills to not-so exciting reading material, like your chemistry books.
Start off small and build up gradually, soon you”ll be flying
Reading should be a joy, don’t make it hard work. Enjoy it 
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Yup i am agreeing with Celtic Tigress here.
I can relate to you easily here as i have always been interested in reading, but always found i could read pages then suddenly realise i wasnt absorbing any of it.
I’m 24 and was only able to read my 1st book about 1 year ago due to a short attention span, i used to just get bored and my mind would wander.
My advice is read something you are interested in. Its no good to read something boring and find you are constantly watching the clock and realise time is going slow. You need something that stimulates you’re mind and allows you to get lost in time whilst reading. You should know if a book is right if you are absorbed and lose track of time after maybe 10-15 pages or even less.
After you read a few books that capture you like this, concentrating on reading will become easier, you will become a faster reader, and most importantly you will be able to read the boring stuff you need to learn.
One last thing i’ll mention is that i used to have to read in silence, no t.v, no music and no one talking to me but now i can just about do all of these things whilst reading. The more you read, the easier you’re mind will absorb the information whilst being distracted or not.
Hope this helps.
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You seem like a bright guy, and you’ve taken a very intellectual route. You may be doing yourself a disservice. Educational non-fiction is some of the driest writing available, and while Great Literature may offer startling insights into the human condition, that doesn’t mean it’s any fun to read. Also, there are plenty of well-written books that don’t insult your intelligence and are still a blast.
I’m with the Tigress: find something you like. If you get into an author or a genre, you’ll read more of it, and your speed will improve as you "practice".
Fiction is designed to be engaging; to keep you turning the pages. I would normally recommend science fiction to an engineer (and fantasy to someone whose mind tends to wander
), but maybe you’ll have more luck with suspense thrillers, like Harlan Coben’s. He’s famous for writing "page-turners." If you’re okay with being scared, try a Stephen King book, like "It."
Another route might be to step back a couple years and read young adult fiction. The Hobbit is a good one, and (of course) the Harry Potter series. Both are in the fantasy genre, and Tolkien also wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy for adults, if you try The Hobbit and like it.
My sci-fi recommendations would be authors Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark.
Looking over my recommendations, I realize that I put them (roughly) in order from least to greatest intellectual engagement. For what that’s worth.
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