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How Do You Speed Read Effectively?
http://www.setthestageforsuccess.com/articles/12392/1/How-Do-You-Speed-Read-Effectively/Page1.html
Chris Yeh
Chris Yeh has been building Internet businesses since 1995. He has been a founder, founding employee, or seed investor in almost a dozen startups, and advises a wide array of startups ranging from network equipment makers to vertical search engines. When he is not answering the world’s questions, Chris is the VP Enterprise Marketing for PBwiki, the world’s leading provider of on-demand wikis and collaboration software.  Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His blog is Adventures in Capitalism.  
By Chris Yeh
Published on 07/11/2008
 
I’m definitely a speed reader, but I’ve never taken any classes or underwent formal training.  The Chris Yeh speed reading course is essentially this:
  • Starting at the age of 7 or 8, read as quickly as you can for 4-5 hours per day.
  • Continue with the regimen until the age of 21.
  • Occasionally measure your progress by participating in the March of Dimes reading competition (I think my record was 150 books in 30 days).
I’m definitely a speed reader, but I’ve never taken any classes or underwent formal training.  The Chris Yeh speed reading course is essentially this:
  • Starting at the age of 7 or 8, read as quickly as you can for 4-5 hours per day.
  • Continue with the regimen until the age of 21.
  • Occasionally measure your progress by participating in the March of Dimes reading competition (I think my record was 150 books in 30 days).

My speed varies depending on the reading material, but reaches a top speed of about 160 pages per hour for popular fiction.

My big tricks are:

  1. Mentally highlight the important words and concepts
  2. When it comes to fiction, focus on the dialogue–all that description just slows you down
  3. When reading on the Internet, try to get into a rhythm.  When I’m blasting through feeds, I maintain a steady beat on the “Page Down” key

I don’t believe that I give up more than 5% in terms of comprehension; if I read slower, all that happens is that I have less time for other things.

The one drawback of speed-reading? I have to take a lot of books with me when I fly.