How to finish a book quickly without getting bored?

“Damn, I don't like reading the book.  I can't explain why are textbooks so boring, oops!”

We have said the above words at least once, right?  Not only this, many times we find it very annoying to read books that is a pretty thicker.  But if you read the book that I am going to talk about now, you will never lose interest in reading books and you will know many techniques along with it.

I'm talking about Tony Buzan's The Speed Reading Book.  The book was first published in 1971 and stunned the world.  Not only that, it is said, Tony Buzan was the first to talk about Mind Mapping.  So now I say, what is in this book?  

Basically, this book is divided into 5 parts and these parts discuss why we find a book boring, how our brain and eyes perform a reading function, how to increase vocabulary and general knowledge skill to increase reader's confidence. 

After each division of the book, there is a part of the quiz and self-test, for your convenience, I have summarized this 235-page book with some very important information.

The first question is, why do we bother to read a book, is it really the book's fault, or our fault.  According to Mr. Tony, neither the book nor the reader is to blame.  The problem is we don’t know the exact rules of how a book should be read and exactly what should be read or covered. 

The reading process is basically done in 6 parts and we all read this way without knowing it.  Remember talking about mind mapping a little while ago?  Mind mapping is when we read something, draw a visual graphics or image of it in our mind and set it in the brain.  When we do Mind Mapping, we remember it for a long time. 

According to the author, if we read a book or a topic in its entirety, only 20% of it is remembered in the whole 24 hours.  So, there are some things to keep in mind.  Many people say that when we get old, our brain cells get damaged so we forget.

This is absolutely wrong.  There are approximately 100,000,000,000 (1 million) brain cells in the human head.  We forget because we are not engaged in mental improvement.  

Again, many people say that it is remembered if you read loudly and can be read quickly.  This idea is also wrong.  When you go to read a book loudly, you see the words and sentences in the book as long as your mouth speaks.

This means that you move your eyes forward according to your vocal sound and are more conscious in pronunciation, which is called sub vocalization.

But if we want to read fast and develop the habit of reading fast, we should practice reading in mind.  Because then you are not as conscious in pronouncing every word as you are in sub vocalization.

A reader's internal and external environment is very important to read a book quickly.  The internal environment basically refers to how much a reader is interested in reading the book, how mentally prepared.  We find a topic annoying only when we do not read it with pleasure.  The author gives an example in this book,

“Don't make your study environment as a prison cell, when you welcome a book so much, just as much as you love and rejoice when your friends visit your house, then you will enjoy the book too”.

And in the external environment, to read a book, the lighting, the way the book should be kept, how far it should be kept from the eyes, what the posture should be, it has been said. Sunlight is most effective for reading speed. 

Also, desk lamps are good for reading at night, but the light level should not be too high or low.  The book or object we are going to read should be kept at least about 50cm or 18-20 inches away.  It can move fluently by keeping our eyes spacing, covering all the text and the brain can also set which information should be captured from it. 

And even if you can read very comfortably, the reading speed decreases.  According to the author,

"Anything soft or too comfortable like cushion, will ultimately send you to sleep!"

Many people say that the slower you read, the better.  The subject is wrong.  According to the author,

"Reading slowly and carefully encourages the brain more and more slowly, with less comprehension."

There are also many of us who read books line by line with fingers, pencils or pens.  This habit is very useful to increase reading speed.  Pulling any long pencil, pen, chopstick or needle down the line (without cutting the line, of course) sets the word or line in the brain quickly.

Our brain can easily read the average 400wpm (word per minute) but in the history of reading speed, there is a record of 37850wpm.  The question is, how can this speed be measured?  In this book, the author has shown that the reading speed of a reader can be known by dividing the number of words by time.

These are just some of the tricks you can use to finish a book quickly without getting bored.  There is also a lot more in the book, if you want to know more details, you must read the book and solve the self-test or quizzes of the book.  There is also a section on suffix, prefix and vocabulary in the book, you can learn them.

However, it must be kept in mind, the more you read, the faster the speed will increase.  And as the reading speed increases, you will feel confident and learn to read anything faster.

Author: Rtr. Md. Mosher Rahman

Rotaract Club of Wari

RID3281 Bangladesh