Speed Reading with the Right Brain: Learn to Read Ideas Instead of Just Words Kindle Edition

I've taken the Evelyn Wood course and another online speed reading course and bought another program promising to boost my reading speed. None of them worked for the reasons that David Butler surveys in Speed Reading with the Right Brain. I'm happy to say that in only about three weeks my reading speed has gone from an average of 210 WPM to 400—with excellent comprehension. His method actually works. It takes practice, obviously, but it's not tiring or frustrating as other speed reading programs struck me as being. What's completely different about Butler's method is that he puts good comprehension first. You learn to parse texts into phrases (groups of words) that communicate single ideas and then to visualize and conceptualize their meaning. Speed develops on its own as a reader's ability improves in translating the meaning of phrases into mental imagery. I've started reading my own material in this way, and it's been a revelation. Highly recommended.

I read a great deal and constantly have too much to read, so I have gone through a lot of speed reading stuff--videos, books, software, you name it. And I kept getting frustrated because it wasn't working like it was supposed to. Now, thanks to David Butler, I know why.

If anyone wants to learn speed reading, I suggest they go through his book first. (I certainly wish I had.) That way when they start coming across weird eye movement training, or odd things to do with their hands on the page, or instructions to read without comprehending (which by some magical process is supposed to kick in later), and so on, they will have a decent context for it. I will not judge anyone who gets value from that stuff, but it didn't work out for me.

btw - It says I am reviewing the Kindle version. Probably my mistake, but it's too much of a hassle to fix this. I did get the Kindle version, but I bought the printed version, too. And that's the one I read. Good thing, too, because I was able to mark it up.

David Butler's concept of "speed comprehension" works far, far better. Also, he goes into lots of discussions related to speed reading, the history of it, how the mind processes information, and so on.

I read one chapter a day--very carefully--in order to let the exercise at the end (which I read twice) make an accumulated effect. As there are twenty chapters, that took twenty days. I like my progress and improvement so much, I am going to do it all over for another round. As a bonus, there are several classics (which he used for the exercises--he used the first 1,000 words of each) I now want to read. Also, there are other texts formatted by him and he has a free online training software that I intend to get back to (after screwing it up the first time around a couple of years ago).

The reason I'm not jumping straight into the extra stuff right now after reading Butler's book is that his novelty method of alternating black with gray text in order to emphasize conceptual groupings of words on the page is clever, and it probably helped, but I did not find it essential to improving my reading. My conceptual groupings seem to fall naturally to slightly larger numbers of words than his. Still, I use the same idea and it is extremely powerful.

Frankly, after one failed attempt after another at speed reading, I'm relieved to find out that I'm not crazy or mentally deficient. (At least not because of speed reading trouble. :) ) That alone is worth the value of this book. But it's good to know I can improve my reading--both speed and comprehension--for real, as I have already done. Not super-speeds, but solid. It's also good to know I can improve even more over time with this system and, based on my own experience, know it will work.

My oh my. This book is game changer when it comes to reading with a purpose! I've had a private education my entire life, and was never taught the reading methods in this book. This is probably why from my elementary days up through high-school, I despised reading unless the book was the attention grabbing type. Somehow I stumbled upon an Evelyn wood speed reading book that my dad bought back many, many years ago. That's when I started creating speed reading goals, but I new there had to be other secrets out there. Then I looked all over the internet for other speeding reading books, and finally hit the jackpot with this one. Superb book that will not disappoint anyone trying to increase their reading speed, or to give as a gift to someone who doesn't read. Comprehension is by far the most important factor, and you will start learning material like never before. Also, subscribe to his emails because he sends out extra information about every week or so.

It's seems easy to underestimate just how important this book really is! I'm also an engineer (near retirement) and have noticed the same difficulty in comprehending while 'reading'. It's so frustrating to read so slowly when there's so much to learn. Ultimately, after learning the reading-comprehension technique in this book, one is inevitably led to the question "Just what are we?" Reviewing titles of related books seems to give the impression that experts in learning still believe we are machines - study techniques, nutrition for the brain, exercise, lifestyle, etc., all leading to an conclusion that we can create machine intelligence. Yet, when one looks closely at our senses upon which learning (e.g., reading-comprehension axis being a subset) is based, there's nothing there! This observation seems to indicate we already know (everything) - our ability to facilitate this understanding seems to be blocked. Mr Butler has (perhaps unwittingly) opened a door toward removing the barrier. Further insights might be gained from Ivan Barzakov's OptimaLearning Technique and Shinzen Young's "The Science of Enlightenment." Well done David Butler!

Update:
Playing with the conceptualizing reading technique presented in this book, I found that reading speed greatly improved if I the phrases are read along with a beat or cadence. I didn't have any sound on, just bobbed my head gently along with the phrase reading-conceptualizing. The 'beat' seemed to eliminate the 'stress' of reading, making the experience somewhat more pleasant. Maybe other readers could try this too.