Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Speed reading used to require months of training. Now you can rev up your reading in just a few minutes a day. With quizzes to determine your present reading level and exercises to quickly introduce new skills, this book is a must for anyone feeling pressed for time.

Rating : - Great Introduction to Speed Reading
This actually work. Initially I was very pessimistic about speed reading as most of the techniques located on the web will tell you to automatically skip lines or other obviously erroneous techniques. There is no substitute for actually reading everything, but there are ways to do it faster and more efficiently. These includes:

1) Training your eye span and movement.
2) View larger word clusters instead of single words.
3) Use a pacer that works for you (this is highly individual and this book wisely contain many choices).
4) Limit sub-vocalization (internal whispering)
5) Read with a purpose.
6) Vary you reading style in accordance to the material

Besides all this the book contains a multitude of tests, pointers on screen (computer) reading and lots of other useful stuff.

The book is not without its limitations, the biggest problem being that it is simply to ambitious; it's material on note taking and technical reading is so short and over simplified that it ends up doing more harm than good, for people interested in this important subject I suggests you look to the book What Smart Students Know. Another and perhaps more important area that lacks attention is the speed techniques themselves, although many are presented only few are backed with exercises which is crucial to their development and understanding.

For all it's problems the book still deserves four stars, simply because it will install confidence in you that this actually works. I went from 220 WPM to 330-350 WPM within a week, with my comprehension rate rising from 50 to 70%. However if you want to go up to 400-600WPM, extend your mental abilities to concentrate (read) for longer intervals and get your comprehension rate up to 80-90%, you will have to look to more compressive (and time consuming) programs such as the one brilliantly outlined in Breakthrough Rapid Reading. For newcomers and people who just need quick improvement or motivation I will strongly recommend this great little book.