Read faster to read smarter

Its funny when you realize that the problems that keep pestering you are common to many more amongst us. Dave broached up the topic of "Reading" this morning and it began to give me a happy feeling that it's just not me who faces the problems of not reading at a rate I expect myself to read - yeeee! Happy to know that I am not the only one screwed up.

For so long, I have been thinking of my reading rates. Few of my bad practices which I intend to change but remain futile over them are - .

• SubVocalization : It is that tendency where we try to pronounce the words as we try to read. They say that activating parts of the brain related to pronouncing impose a reading speed limit of 250 wpm (aah! mine is wayyyy below - prolly around 150 wpm ). This common flaw is what limits performance of average readers like me.
• Conversion of thought process to mother tongue - Although english is not my first language, I am averagely adept at it, atleast to the point that I need not have to convert all that I read to my mother tongue and then do the thinking part. With this barrier in between my reading and interpretation, I end up doubling the time I would take to read something.
• Penchant for building up vocabulary - Whenever I read and come across a new word ( on an average, I would find atleast 3 new words in a single page of a novel), I would immediately, type the word in the google toolbar "define: " and hence the drifting starts.Known for poor concentration, I am a person who gets distracted very very easily. So, given the statistics, I start with the word search and land up in idlebrain.com site( hehe...regional movie and gossip site).

For all these problems, I guess "reading faster" is the smartest solution out there. To think of it, remember the good old school days when you had to cram for the final examinations, the nightouts. I don't know about the elicit few out there, but for me, it was the last minute readings that helped me excel in the exams( I know, I know - its just insane!). I remember the blood gushing into my brain in the final 1 hour.Nevertheless, it was that "last minute reading" that retained very well in my memory and the only reason I could think why it was so - is "I read to my maximum capacity, utilising all the mental resources I could possibly have."

So, the gist -
READ FASTER TO READ SMARTER.
Skimming through a book for the first time, coming back to it again and again is a good idea rather than reading thick through the book, word by word. ( especially to vagabonds like me whose mind just meanders over a slew of rambling thoughts).(Just this tip alone is may be worth your putting me in your will! hehe) (I wonder how people managed to write anything before paranthesis were invented!) Btw, this one is a good article.