Breakthrough Rapid Reading

... It's hard to call what this book teaches "rapid reading." That phrase makes it sound exotic and unreachable. I truly believe after reading this that everyday people can learn to read at 1000+ words per minute with excellent retention. I first read this as a 20-year-old college student. With it, I learned to clock my reading rate at 350 words-per-minute. Like most people, I read from left-to-right in "rows of corn," sub-vocalizing. Although extremely bright, I never really could enjoy extensive reading. Doing it for school was a chore.I tried all sorts of methods for taking notes on books. I tried a tape recorder. I tried writing in the margins. I tried post-it-notes. I tried marking page sections and writing notes longhand in a separate notebook. I tried typing at my computer as I read. I'd end up with sometimes dozens of pages of notes and outlines yet not feel like I could discuss the text fluently. This book teaches how to process text differently. Now, I relax my eyes and ideas simply flow from the words. A page in a book is no longer like a step ladder or rows of corn -- but it is like a sculpture. As a pianist, I can say that reading text for me has become like reading music. Just as I can see a sheet of music and gain an idea of the song, I can look at a written page and see ideas. Every author has a rhythm and style. After extensive and sometimes frustrating practice, based on techniques in this book, my understanding of text has completely changed. I am much more able to understand an author's central themes. Whereas before it seemed I could only think on a scale of words and sentences, now I can easily think on a scale of sections and chapters. I have much better judgement in taking notes and feel able to discuss books that I read much more fluently. Books that might have taken me 15 hours to read before now comfortably take 3 or 4. I am now able to actually enjoy reading fiction. It's more like listening to a new peice of music now than forcing myself to plow through a haystack of text line-by-line and inch-by-inch. Literacy education truly needs to incorporate methods of visual reading. My only regret about this book was that I realized I hadn't been fully taught to read before!

I started out viewing the Evelyn Wood videos (3 videos), which showed me the basic principles on speed reading. But Peter Kump's book was filled with more exercises than the three videos could have gone over with the viewer. I found that even without the background I already had in the methods that Evelyn Wood teaches, the Peter Kump book is excellent and stands on its own. The exercises are explained thoroughly and not only does he teach rapid reading but also teaches comprehension techniques as well.I was able to triple my speed in a matter of hours. With diligence I should be to able to increase my speed 5-fold,maybe 10-fold. The only other thing the reader should have is a timer or stop watch to help time oneself during the exercises.

This is probably the best book that I've read on speed reading. In an earlier review, I suggested that Zorn's book, "Speed Reading," was the best. It is indeed a fine book. Kump's book, however, give a more realistic idea of the kind of work it takes to boost your reading speed. Other books give a smattering of exercises--often very good ones--without emphasizing the kind of practice that is necessary, or even that you won't necessarily be able to maintain high speeds across all types of reading material.Kump uses familiar reading exercises, and variations on them. The lessons are brief, and each lesson contains short (10-15 minutes) exercises; at the end of each lesson, you are instructed to do a series of drills. Kump wants you to spend about a week on each series of drills, and to repeat them every day. They can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more a day, depending on how much time you are willing to spend. I've found most--but not all--drills useful. The ones that were not useful to me drilled on skills I already had (recognizing levels of specificity within paragraphs, for instance). Here's an example of one particularly useful drill. Kump has you read for 2 minutes, as fast as you can with comprehension. Then you read the same material again, trying to read a little faster, and a little further, in the same amount of time. And again. You do this four times. A variation of this is to read for 1 minute, then a little faster for another minute, and then to "practice read" (i.e., move your eyes quickly across the words, without worrying about comprehension) twice the longest passage in the same amount of time. Then you practice read three times the original (that is, the longest of the first two 1-minute drills) in one minute. One REALLY nice thing about this book is that Kump has you use your own reading material, your own books. Other books include selections for you to practice with, most of which are tedious, simplistic, or just too brief. Kump's exercises work, and you can read your own books while you practice.

This is the book for the skeptics. I researched several speed reading methods and doubted all of them. Mr. Kump's book seemed to make the least outlandish claims, so I chose to take a chance on it. It turns out that this is the best $20 I have ever spent! I am about to start a part-time MBA program at a prestigous university. I have a wife and two children and was desperate to try a technique that could improve the efficiency with which I learn. Now, I am so excited about starting my degree program, and so much of that is due to my completing this book. The book has taught me many simple techniques which have increased the speed of my reading, but much more important to me, is the fact that I now comprehend and recall much more of the info than I did in the past. I can now read technical material at three times the speed that I used to and my recall is far superior to what it used to be. No more having to read the same chapter 2, 3, or 4 times and no more "outlining" the entire thing in an attempt to remember everything. I cannot recommend this book enough. It takes work and effort to complete the exercises on a daily basis, but if you are serious you will find that the investment in time and energy will payoff many times over. It is my intention to teach this skill, it is a learned skill, to my children and I am trying to convince my wife to take the time to learn it also. Good luck and do not hesitate to try it. THANK YOU, PETER KUMP!