Looking for the best books on speed reading?
Today, we’re sharing our list of the best speed reading books to help you master the formidable technique of speed reading.
It is important to cultivate a reading habit. Doing so develops and strengthens your mind. Reading also widens your viewpoint, allows you to become a better functioning member of society, and ensures that you can perform your duties well.
It is also a pleasant way to wile away the time.
The ability to read faster and understand what you’ve read is highly beneficial. It is a great way of keeping up with the plethora of information we need to process every day, not only at work, but also in our personal lives.
In addition to helping us keep up with information, speed reading also benefits us cognitively and socially.
More Benefits of Speed Reading
Some of the other benefits that you can reap from speed reading include:
We recommend the following books on speed reading.
1. Limitless Expanded Edition by Jim Kwik
Takeaways:
- The book emphasizes the importance of adopting a growth mindset and expanding one's mental capacity to achieve success.
- It provides practical techniques and exercises to improve memory, focus, and learning speed, enabling readers to unlock their full potential.
- Jim Kwik shares personal anecdotes and success stories to inspire readers and demonstrate the effectiveness of his methods.
- The book highlights the impact of nutrition, exercise, and stress management on cognitive function and offers strategies for optimizing brain health.
- It encourages readers to embrace lifelong learning and develop a habit of continuous self-improvement to lead a fulfilling and successful life.
Let's start off with a book that helps you unlock your limitless potential for learning, including speed reading.
Limitless Expanded Edition: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life teaches you how to tap into your inner resources in order to achieve more in life. Whether you want to become more productive by adopting good habits or achieve your greatest dreams, this book can help you.
Within the pages of Limitless, Jim Kwik provides science-based practices that help you speed up just about any aspect of life.
Whether it’s speed reading, improving your memory and recall, or learning how to communicate well, this book shows you that it can be done quickly.
2. How to Read Better & Faster by Norman Lewis
Takeaways:
- Norman Lewis offers practical strategies for increasing reading speed without sacrificing comprehension, enabling readers to process information more efficiently.
- The book emphasizes the importance of active engagement with the text and provides techniques for improving concentration and retention while reading.
- It advocates for developing a flexible reading approach tailored to different types of content, such as fiction, non-fiction, and technical material.
- The book provides exercises and drills to help readers overcome common reading obstacles and improve their overall reading skills.
- Norman Lewis underscores the value of reading as a lifelong learning tool and encourages readers to cultivate a habit of regular, purposeful reading for personal and professional growth.
This manual on speed reading was first published in the 1970s, but remains relevant today for the valuable information it imparts on how one can become a speed reader.
How to Read Better & Faster provides step-by-step instructions on how to improve your reading skills in order to read faster than the average 300 words per minute.
It is a hefty book, with tons of useful tips and drills that really help readers master the art of speed reading.
3. Speed Reading With the Right Brain by David Butler
Takeaways:
- The book introduces a unique approach to speed reading that leverages the brain's right hemisphere to enhance reading speed and comprehension simultaneously.
- David Butler emphasizes the importance of visualizing and conceptualizing text to accelerate reading, offering practical exercises to develop these skills.
- The book advocates for a holistic reading experience that incorporates intuition, creativity, and emotional engagement to unlock the brain's full reading potential.
- It provides guidance on overcoming subvocalization and other common reading habits that hinder speed, enabling readers to break through reading barriers.
- David Butler encourages readers to embrace a more intuitive and imaginative reading style, fostering a deeper connection with the material and enhancing overall reading proficiency.
If you’ve ever been frustrated by being a slow reader, Speed Reading With the Right Brain: Learn to Read Ideas Instead of Just Words might be what you’re looking for. It will help increase your reading speed and improve your comprehension.
Engaging the right side (big-picture thinking) of the brain enriches your reading experience. It allows you to grasp concepts and ideas rather than merely memorizing words from the reading material.
In addition to helping you become a faster reader, this book can help improve your visualization skills. Within its pages are at least 20 reading exercises that tap into the power of the right side of your brain.
4. 10 Days to Faster Reading by the Princeton Language Institute and Abby Marks-Beale
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Takeaways:
- The book offers a structured 10-day program designed to improve reading speed, comprehension, and retention through targeted exercises and techniques.
- It emphasizes the significance of mindset in developing efficient reading habits, encouraging readers to adopt a positive and proactive approach to reading.
- The book provides practical strategies for managing time and prioritizing reading material, enabling readers to make the most of their reading sessions.
- It addresses common reading obstacles such as subvocalization and regression, offering specific methods to overcome these challenges and enhance reading speed.
- The program promotes the integration of newly acquired reading skills into daily practice, emphasizing the importance of consistency and perseverance in achieving lasting results.
10 Days to Faster Reading: Jump-Start Your Reading Skills with Speed reading promises to equip you with speed reading skills in days rather than the months that it usually takes to become a fast reader.
The book provides helpful tips for weeding out bad reading habits and replacing them with useful techniques. It promises to make you a speed reader in 10 days.
Each chapter builds on the previous one. The book also contains quizzes and exercises to apply the techniques you are learning.
5. Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump
Takeaways:
- The book introduces a comprehensive system for increasing reading speed and comprehension, emphasizing the importance of efficient eye movement and mental processing.
- Peter Kump provides practical exercises and drills to help readers develop rapid reading skills and overcome subvocalization and regression.
- It advocates for a flexible reading approach that adapts to different types of material, enabling readers to adjust their reading speed and technique based on content.
- The book addresses the significance of concentration and focus in rapid reading, offering techniques to improve attention and reduce distractions.
- It encourages readers to approach reading as an active, engaging process, promoting the integration of rapid reading skills into daily practice for continued improvement.
If your job involves a lot of reading, or if you are a student who has required readings and reports for different subjects, speed reading is a must in order to stay on top of things.
Peter Kump has decades of experience teaching people from all walks of life how to speed read. In Breakthrough Rapid Reading, he shares his knowledge through in-depth, step-by-step instructions on how to read faster while retaining information.
People with busy schedules appreciate this book. It allows them to set their own pace in learning speed reading, as well as choose their own materials.
There are tons of exercises found within the book. In addition to the exercises, there are drills and diagrams that are designed to hone one’s speed reading skills until mastery is achieved.
6. Essential Speed Reading Techniques by Katya Seberson
Takeaways:
- The book offers practical speed reading techniques to improve reading speed and comprehension simultaneously, catering to readers of various skill levels.
- Katya Seberson emphasizes the importance of developing a strategic approach to reading, incorporating methods such as previewing, chunking, and minimizing subvocalization.
- It provides guidance on selecting appropriate reading material and adjusting reading speed and technique based on the content and purpose of reading.
- The book addresses the significance of practice and persistence in honing speed reading skills, encouraging readers to integrate these techniques into their daily routine.
- It promotes the concept of mindful reading, advocating for a balanced approach that prioritizes both speed and understanding to maximize the benefits of speed reading.
A lot of speed reading techniques focus on increasing the words you can read per minute. However, reading comprehension is often sacrificed, especially when one reads at rates of 500 words or more.
Essential Speed Reading Techniques: How to Become a Better, Faster Reader takes a different approach to teaching you how to become a faster reader. It does away with techniques such as skimming and scanning.
Instead, Katya Seberson explains the science behind reading and shares her techniques for upping your reading speed while retaining comprehension.
The book comes with individualized exercises to help you understand what your own strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to reading. Not only will you become a faster reader, you’ll also become a more efficient one.
7. Speed Reading by Kam Knight
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Takeaways:
- The book introduces a comprehensive system for increasing reading speed and comprehension, emphasizing the importance of efficient eye movement and mental processing.
- Kam Knight provides practical exercises and drills to help readers develop rapid reading skills and overcome subvocalization and regression.
- It advocates for a flexible reading approach that adapts to different types of material, enabling readers to adjust their reading speed and technique based on content.
- The book addresses the significance of concentration and focus in rapid reading, offering techniques to improve attention and reduce distractions.
- It encourages readers to approach reading as an active, engaging process, promoting the integration of rapid reading skills into daily practice for continued improvement.
The average time to finish a 200-page book is four hours, but Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour promises to teach you how to finish it in just an hour.
In this book, Kam Knight teaches techniques through simple analogies. The practical tips and exercises help to strengthen your eye-brain coordination while reading.
Knight’s techniques focus on speed and comprehension. It does away with the usual skim and scan techniques that are popular in other speed reading books.
8. Speed Read Anything by Peter Hollins
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Takeaways:
- Speed Read Anything: How to Read a Book a Day With Better Retention Than Ever presents practical strategies for accelerating reading speed and improving comprehension across various types of content, including books, articles, and digital media.
- Peter Hollins emphasizes the importance of developing flexible reading techniques tailored to different material, enabling readers to adapt their approach based on the nature of the text.
- It provides guidance on overcoming common reading obstacles such as subvocalization and regression, offering specific methods to enhance reading speed and efficiency.
- The book advocates for a holistic approach to speed reading that integrates visualization, pattern recognition, and active engagement with the material.
- Peter Hollins encourages readers to cultivate a habit of purposeful reading, emphasizing the value of continuous practice and refinement of speed reading skills for long-term success.
9. The Science of Self-Learning by Peter Hollins
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Takeaways:
- The Science of Self-Learning: How to Teach Yourself Anything, Learn More in Less Time, and Direct Your Own Education delves into the science-backed strategies and techniques for effective self-learning, enabling readers to optimize their learning process and retain information more efficiently.
- Peter Hollins emphasizes the importance of developing a growth mindset and leveraging cognitive psychology principles to enhance learning and memory.
- It provides practical guidance on setting achievable learning goals, managing time effectively, and utilizing various learning tools and resources to maximize the learning experience.
- The book addresses the significance of active learning, critical thinking, and continuous self-assessment as essential components of successful self-learning.
- Peter Hollins encourages readers to embrace a lifelong learning mindset, fostering curiosity, adaptability, and a proactive approach to knowledge acquisition for personal and professional growth.
10. Remember Everything You Read by Stanley D. Frank
Takeaways:
- Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading & Learning Program offers practical techniques and strategies to improve reading comprehension and retention, enabling readers to recall and apply information from their reading material.
- Stanley D. Frank emphasizes the importance of active engagement with the text and provides methods for enhancing concentration and understanding while reading.
- It provides guidance on effective note-taking and memory enhancement techniques to aid in retaining and recalling key information from reading material.
- The book addresses common reading challenges and offers specific methods to overcome them, such as improving reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.
- Stanley D. Frank encourages readers to adopt a proactive and deliberate approach to reading, emphasizing the value of critical thinking and reflection to fully internalize and utilize the knowledge gained from reading.
11. Proven Speed Reading Techniques by John R. Torrance
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Takeaways:
- Proven Speed Reading Techniques: A Guide for Beginners on How to Read Faster With Comprehension emphasizes the importance of eliminating subvocalization, or silently pronouncing each word, in order to increase reading speed and comprehension.
- It introduces techniques such as using a pointer or finger to guide the eyes along the text, which can help improve reading speed and focus.
- The author discusses the significance of minimizing regression, or the tendency to reread material, to enhance reading efficiency.
- The book provides practical exercises and drills to help readers develop and improve their speed reading skills.
- It emphasizes the value of regular practice and persistence in mastering speed reading techniques.
Final Thoughts Speed Reading Books
Whether you’re studying or working, speed reading is a useful skill for success and well-being.
We hope that you’ve found a book or two on this list that can help you master speed reading.
The techniques do work, and the best way to apply the authors’ tips is to read, read, and read some more.
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