READING FOR INFORMATION

So how can you learn the most from a book when you are reading for information, rather than for pleasure?

It’s very satisfying to start at the beginning and read straight through to the end. Some books, such as novels, have to be read this way, since a basic principle of fiction is to hold the reader in suspense. Your whole purpose in reading fiction is to follow the writer’s lead, allowing him or her to spin a story bit by bit.

But many of the books you’ll read during your undergraduate and graduate years, and possibly during the rest of your professional life, won’t be novels. Instead, they’ll be non-fiction: textbooks, manuals, histories, academic studies, and so on.

The purpose of reading books like these is to gain information. Here, finding out what happens -- as quickly and easily as possible -- is your main goal. So unless you’re stuck in prison with nothing else to do, NEVER read a non-fiction book from beginning to end.

Instead, when you’re reading for information, you should ALWAYS jump ahead, skip around, and use every available strategy to discover, then to understand, and finally to remember what the writer has to say. This is how you’ll get the most out of a book in the smallest amount of time.

By combining the different strategies and techniques that are available in top speed reading programs – see our speed reading reviews – you should be able to read a 300-page book in one to three hours. In addition you’ll strengthen memory, concentration and comprehension. The benefits will be: LESS time spent studying and BETTER results on tests.