Speed reading?

[Cobalt Greywalker]

A few of the comments about the EVA fic I recommended has made me believe I'm a bit odd in that my reading speed seems to be much higher then most (even on these boards).
For example, the last HP book took me about 5 hours to read cover to cover. This is with breaks for drinks. When I looked it up that was 198,227 words or roughly 660 words per minute.
Not the best example because I was keen on reading it but...
Anybody else got any stories of insane reading speeds for books?

[kestrel404]

I have very mild dyslexia, and because of that my reading speed tops out at around 100 words per minute. But all of my friends believe that I'm a much faster reader than that because I read continually and voraciously and remember everything I've read.
The first harry potter book took me about 24 hours cumulatively over the course of about five days.
But I've since discovered the joys of audio books. With a 3 hour round trip commute, I just listened to the entire Wheel of time series, to date, over the last two months. Considdering the first book took me almost a month the last time I read it, that's really impressive.
I wish I could read faster, but I'm pretty happy now that I can 'read' books while driving to work.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84

[ECSNorway]

I'm with Cobalt on this one. I plow through 200+ pages a day with ease. Unless the writing style really grabs me, I tend to read quickly, and often have an image of the scene in my head - complete with character voices and everything.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[jpub]

I tend to read quickly, but I've also noticed I practice many speed reading 'techniques' unconsciously.
Usually, a 400 page book will take me 3-4 hours.--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

I was reading at 3, reading Mark Twain at 6, and I've been a speed reader all my life...
--Sam
"It's the Iliad...? It's Homer...? READ A BOOK!"

[Acyl]

I've not timed my regular reading speed for...a while. I did once, but that was quite a long time ago. I think it topped out somewhere in the region of 600-700ish words per minute, though...something comparable to Cobalt's. It rarely takes me more than five or six hours to get through a novel, and often I can do it faster.
That said, it depends on the subject material and whether I'm reading for fun, for an overview, or for actual long-term retention. What I've described is average reading speed, mostly for leisure.
But my academic and professional experience has shown I can...pretty much glance through entire papers and press releases in just a couple minutes. Every single word, beginning to end. I'm likely to miss most of the detail, but I'd come away with some idea of the overall content. I'll also forget it all within a few hours - zero memory retention there.
Conversely, if I'm trying to actually learn something - reading an economics text, for example, I can spend several minutes just sloooooowly going over a single page. I think my record there is a full twenty-five minutes for one page...though in my defense, it was a large textbook with small print. =P
But I figure I'm similar to most fast (or simply avid) readers...I've never trained myself in formal speed reading techniques. I know of them, since I...er, read up on the subject some time ago. But I don't use 'em. 's just that, y'know, I've always read a lot.
When I was a kid, I used to freak out librarians by borrowing a book in the morning...then coming back by lunchtime to return it and borrow another book...and then back again by late afternoon...

-- Acyl

[Bob Schroeck]

I've always been a fast reader -- at my peak of free time vs other obligations, I could go through a fair-sized-novel-plus a day. I don't have as much free time as I used to, but when I do get a big block of time, I can still chow down on the verbiage at an impressive rate -- for instance, Deathly Hallows took me less than an afternoon on the porch of a beach house the day it came out.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

[Epsilon]

I'm a slow reader, relative to everyone I know. It takes me about 12 hours to finish a 200-300 page novel and about twice that to read a gaming book of equivalent size (but with gaming books, I will often re-read certain sections repeatedly). This is usually spread out over the course of a week or so with one or two hours of reading per day.
My roommate puts all of you to shame. I brought back three Star Wars novels from my vacation which I used to pass the time while I lacked an internet connection. She read them in one day. This is something like one thousand pages of text.
On the other hand I have oddly noticed that I have an easier time following subtitled movies than many other people in my social group.
----------------
Epsilon

[Cobalt Greywalker]

The only time I did something like that was when I got through 3/4 of the Mallorian Saga by David Eddings in a day. That's about 1800 pages (I think, about 3 & 1/2 books at roughly 500-600 pages a book). Admittedly I didn't do much ELSE...

[TheTwisted1]

I've been known to push 200 pages per hour depending on material (for highly technical, equation-laden physics or math texts it can drop down to about 60-80 pages per hour). However, I'm an anomaly in that I was reading before I could talk.
--The Twisted One"If you wish to converse with me, define your terms."
--Voltaire
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

[katreus]

Mine's around jpub's speed although it depends on the book. If I'm interested, it'll be fast (it took me around 3-4 hours to read Butcher's newest book, Captain's Fury); if I'm not, it goes a lot slower.
For example, it took me several weeks to read Pride and Prejudice. It's not hard to read like a Chaucer text, but it's just not as interesting to me so I can only read several chapters before having to take a break.

[Bob Schroeck]

That's a good point that tjalorak and others have made. My interest in the book has a direct effect on my reading speed -- the more I want to read the book, or the more the material engages me, the faster I can go.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

[Ebony]

It took me four hours to read Farenheit 451. I read it in high school because I wanted to.
Conversely, it took me 18 months to read The Last of the Mohicans. I read it when I was 25 because I felt I should. I feel I have now done penance and can move on.
Each Harry Potter book took me about three days. Mostly because I either had other things to do or my eyes got tired.
Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Ankhani]

Last impressive feat I can remember is reading 'The Heritage of Shannara' (4 book series collected ), around 1250-some pages in a weekend. Can't quite remember how long definitively though (Time or length wise).
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
-Analects Book V, Chaper XXVI
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[VladimirTherin]

Yeah, glad to know I am not the only one that reads a hardcover in a few of hours and then wants MORE!
Thats part of the reason I am so into fanfic, actually.
Always more to read :-)