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    Cover of Breakthrough rapid reading

    Breakthrough rapid reading

    Peter Kump · 1979

    Other
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    2recommend
    5mentions
    5people
    2009–2016years
    40% recommend60% neutral

    Mentions per year

    20092010201120122013201420152016

    What Hacker News says

    1. f_allweinSep 2016
      Learning to speed read helps a lot. I worked through Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump and really liked it: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100800.Breakthrough_Rapid...

      I highlight important stuff while I read. After reading, I usually create a word doc/ mindmap with the key ideas.

      thread
    2. RondrakApr 2011
      Ah, my apologies for misunderstanding your comment. That's what I get for attempting rational thought at one in the morning.

      Before I learned to speed read the way I currently do, I tried learning using RSVP. In my personal experience I didn't find it very helpful, and my comprehension rates (when using RSVP) plummeted. I'm in complete agreement there.

      As to my 1,300wpm, you're partially correct. 1,200wpm is just about the limit at which I can read word by word, line by line in a book, using my hand as a pacer. After 1,200, I stop dropping conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions, and anything that can be inferred through context or isn't necessary to the meaning of the sentence (e.g. - absorbing key words and ideas, but still more precise than 1/2 a page at a time).

      Here's the book I learned from so you can judge the merits based upon something better than my attempted explanation: http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...

      thread
    3. espinchiNov 2011
      Breakthrough Rapid Reading (Peter Kump)

      The Pragmatic Programmer (Andrew Hunt)

      Cashflow Quadrant (Robert T. Kiyosaki)

      thread
    4. SkyMarshalApr 2011
      This helped me a great deal, increased my reading speed for anything non-technical by at least two-fold:

      http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Prog...

      I bought this one recently as well due to reviews on the Evelyn Wood book, but haven't read it yet (Land of Lisp is taking all my spare time):

      http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...

      thread
    5. barmstrongNov 2009
      I went through this book a few years back (Breakthrough Rapid reading by Peter Kump). I bought it for no other reason than it comes up first in Amazon when you search for "speed reading": http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...

      My conclusion is that yes, speed reading works and it's real. The book takes you through various 15 min exercises, one per day for 30 days. At times these exercises are a real pain and I really hated doing it. Sometimes it feels like you are making no progress and not comprehending anything if the exercise makes you go faster than normal.

      But at the end (and throughout) you can do a self test to see your improvement. The test also covers comprehension so you can verify you aren't just skimming. The improvement was dramatic. I ended up reading twice as fast by the end with no loss in comprehension.

      I still use a lot of the techniques today to reinforce it, although if I'm reading for pleasure I don't usually use the techniques (but still read faster).

      One downside to it that I've noticed is that I'm much worse at catching typos in things I write now. Since my eye is not focusing on each word when I read I have to really force myself to slow down if I'm reading to proof something instead of comprehension.

      Here is something I wrote on it a while back: http://www.startbreakingfree.com/77/business-education-part-...

      Some of the claims about reading a book a day are marketing hype. So don't expect miracles. But in general yes I'm convinced it works. I definitely read faster now, and it's probably worth the investment of a month to learn it to get the return in productivity.

      thread

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