Speed Reading for Professionals (Barron's Business Success Guides) [Paperback]

H. Bernard Wechsler (Author), Arthur Bell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2005 | Series: Barron's Business Success Guides

Barron's Business Success books offer useful advice to career-minded men and women who are looking to get ahead in the business and corporate world. Titles touch on all levels of management, marketing, organization, and related business operations. Reading and comprehending a large number of documents and reports—many of them specialized and technical—is a vital task that is intrinsic to fulfilling management and executive responsibilities. The authors of this practical book recommend techniques and exercises designed to increase reading speed dramatically and to retain important information more easily. They also offer tips on methods for comprehending dry and often difficult reading matter.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

(back cover)
Speed-Reading
for Professionals

Reading and comprehending a large number of documents and reports—many of them specialized and technical—is a vital task that is intrinsic to fulfilling management and executive responsibilities. The authors of this practical book recommend techniques and exercises that will increase your reading speed dramatically and help you retain important information more easily. They also offer tips on methods for comprehending dry and often difficult reading matter.

Increase Your Reading Speed

Improve Your Comprehension

Retain Important Information

Increase Your Ability to Concentrate

BARRON’S BUSINESS SUCCESS GUIDES offer career-minded men and women practical methods for success along with sound advice that applies to all levels of management in the business and corporate world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764131990
• ISBN-13: 978-0764131998
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Business & Investing > Careers > Guides
  • #42 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Words & Language > Reading Skills
  • #54 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Business & Investing > Careers > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Look at Speed Reading, March 31, 2006

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Speed Reading for Professionals (Barron's Business Success Guides) (Paperback)

This book presents a basic do-it-yourself speed reading course in six chapters laid out as follows:

1: The Speed Reading Aventure Begins (a pep talk)
2: Understanding Why We Read Slowly--And How to Change (a little theory)
3: Learn to Jog, not Walk, through Your Reading (the basics)
4: Learn to Run, not Jog ... (adding some bells and whistles)
5: Learn to Sprint, not Run ... (kicking it into overdrive)
6: Understanding and Remembering What You Read (a presentation of the "Fistnote" technique for retention)
Appendix A: A syllabus for a company in-service on speed reading.

Each chapter gives a clear, concise how-to on the performance of the technique and exercises to perfect the techniques. As the student gains skill and confidence with each technique, the following chapter presents more advanced techniques.

Geared for the busy professional, and an excellent expenditure of funds for anyone wanting to increase reading speed. This is the second speed reading book I've read. "Remember Everything You Read" was the first. Previously I read about 2-3 books per week, mostly nonfiction. I'm reading one per day now. I'll probably burn out on that pace in a couple of weeks, but so far it's been great.

FOOTNOTE: After about a month, I burned out on the rapid pace of reading a book a day. Someone once told me that when you speed read, you "coil up with a good book," and that is an accurate assessment. I'm still reading much faster than before, but slowing down some has improved my enjoyment of reading.

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book: a very calculated way to increase speed and comprehension, November 18, 2007

By 

.NET Code Monkey - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Speed Reading for Professionals (Barron's Business Success Guides) (Paperback)

Why I bought this book:

This book was published by Barron's, giving it immediate credibility. This was important to me since a lot of the speed reading books and programs/tutorials on Amazon and eBay look to be obvious scams. Also, another reviewer--Bob Dekle, a top 500 reviewer--reported cranking out a book a day after applying the techniques. There is certainly merit in that.

Why I'm glad I did:

I consider myself a slow reader, and my reading speed did increase threefold in a very short time (about an hour) after consciously using this book's techniques. Also my comprehension improved considerably without having to reread everything.

The technique that helped me the most was using my peripheral vision while splitting the page into two or three columns.

This increased speed is incredibly helpful in my career as a software developer. The satisfaction of my job is found in implementing what I learn, not actually learning it. (I find reading up on most technology concepts horribly boring.) Therefore, this book is very helpful in shortening my reading time and getting onto the fun stuff.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good techniques but not enough detail on application, October 13, 2008

By 

The Actor (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speed Reading for Professionals (Barron's Business Success Guides) (Paperback)

I was somewhat disappointed with this book. On the one hand, it introduced a lot of helpful techniques in a fairly clear and concise manner; on the other hand, I found it often lacked sufficient detail on how to actually apply them. As a result, when I tried the techniques I often didn't experience the dramatic gains in reading speed the book claimed would result.

For example, this book helped me determine that one of my problems is subvocalization and showed me why this is slowing down my reading speed; unfortunately, the book says very little about how to stop doing it (and I did look carefully, including in the index).

I think this book did help me a little, and I know what I need to do to improve my reading speed, but I'm going to have to read another book to figure out how to apply that knowledge. This book will probably be helpful if you already have some speed reading background; otherwise you may just find it frustrating.