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
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