Devised by the man recorded in Guinness as the world's fastest reader--80 pages per minute--this is the only program that combines the most up-to-date learning techniques and psychological discoveries with proven speed-reading methods and ancient tools like meditation to significantly improve both reading speed and comprehension.
No, I haven’t changed my mind about speed reading. I think it's glorified skimming, and Howard Berg only confirms my position. This is to his great credit. Once we give up on the idea that we can have super-powers, we can get to some good reading tips. He has some. My biggest takeaway is using my finger (or a pencil) to guide my eyes while reading. I find this to be useful. It keeps me from backtracking, sets a pace, and I have a weird nervous tic of looking directly up from the page for no discernible reason. It gets rid of that. Also, Berg's thoughts about "schema" are helpful. Using his outside-in approach to non-fiction a can give us information that helps make the incomprehensible a little easier to follow. Glad I read this.
Notes:
(1) Use your finger to guide your eye.
(2) Read backward!
(3) First and last sentence for schema.
(4) Ask questions during reading (59)
(5) Read selectively.
(6) "Reading Shakespeare at 80 pages per minute is like roller skating past art on a museum wall - you simply can not appreciate its beauty at high speed" (76)
(7) using mental folders to organize information (who, what, when, where…) 78
(8) Spend your time mastering, not reading (79)
(9) Using your body to "tag" memory 1. feet 2. shins 3. knees 4. thighs 5. rear 6. stomach 7. heart 8. breasts 9. shoulders 10. head
If this is the first book you have read on speed reading, Super Reading Secrets will be profound in places. Otherwise, there is not much new. I don't blame the book since it was published in 1992, and a lot of similar books have appeared since.
That said, I have read many speed reading books, and I did learn some new things about reading comprehension.