Breakthrough Rapid Reading [Paperback]

Peter Kump (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 073520019X | ISBN-13: 978-0735200197 | Publication Date: November 1, 1998 | Edition: Revised

A previous National Director of Education for Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics presents his do-it-yourself program for increasing reading speed and boosting comprehension.

"Speed reading is one of the truly useful educational ideas of the last few years, and this book can be the least expensive and most efficient way you can learn it." --William Proxmire, United States Senator

The perfect answer to today's information explosion, Peter Kump's rapid reading method has already helped thousands of people to read up to eight times faster, with better concentration and retention.

This program brings together the best of what classroom speed reading courses have to offer, and distills fundamental principles and skills that can be learned at home with the help of the drills and exercises provided. And because it lets readers choose their own material and set their own pace, it's the ideal method for busy people juggling a full schedule.

Breakthrough Rapid Reading makes conquering information overload a reality. So whether it's cutting down on that backlog of business reports and technical matter or scaling that mountain of newspapers and leisure reading, getting up to speed is only a matter of time and practice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Kump, a rapid reading expert, has been Director of Peter Kump Reading Consultants for over twenty years. He has taught rapid reading to White House staff, corporate groups, and individuals. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press; Revised edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073520019X
• ISBN-13: 978-0735200197
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Education & Reference > Words & Language

More About the Author

Peter Kump, a rapid reading expert, has been Director of Peter Kump Reading Consultants for over twenty years. He has taught rapid reading to White House staff, corporate groups, and individuals. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

442 of 445 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Home-Study Course, July 25, 2000

By 

John Noodles (A Field in ND, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Breakthrough Rapid Reading (Paperback)

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.

126 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, with plenty of exercises., September 24, 2000

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Breakthrough Rapid Reading (Paperback)

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.

85 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who can't speed read is at a disadvantage, December 21, 2003

By 

Lars Bergstrom "LarsBerg" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakthrough Rapid Reading (Paperback)

I was already what was considered a pretty fast reader by its tests; in the 400wpm (words per minute) range at maximum speed. After going through the first half of the book, I was well over a thousand for the vast majority of all text. This has enabled me to go from a book or two a month to reading two or three a week, and has fundamentally changed my life. Even after the first couple of weeks I was dramatically improved, and after a couple of months of daily use, I was just flying.

On the bad side, I had trouble staying at the chapter per day pace, given a job, working on my Master's, and trying to spend time with my family. Still, I practiced, kept up with the new techniques, and continued to improve. Even though I left off just after I learned how to read at diagonals, it's stuck with me and been the best expenditure of time I've made.

I can't believe this isn't taught in school; it would've made college a completely different experience for me.