Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning. It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information & ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text & the reader which is shaped ...
52
votes
10answers
2k views
How can I improve reading speed and comprehension?
How can I improve my reading ability? I want to increase my reading speed and comprehension.
Do you have experience in increasing your reading. What did work for you? Which approaches failed?
22
votes
8answers
1k views
What is the best way to approach large tasks, such as reading scientific papers, that require intense focus?
I'm in graduate school, and part of my job is to read widely in my field. Scientific papers are very dense and I tend to read slow, so I average around 2-3 pages/hour. Consequently, long papers can ...
18
votes
6answers
686 views
How to keep up with academic publications (papers) as a researcher?
As an academic researcher involved in a field with lots of academic publications, I find it hard to keep with these constant stream of publications. Even if my field is already specialized, there are ...
15
votes
9answers
557 views
Be able to focus and read books when your partner watches TV
I like reading books a lot. Usually have only time for that at night, after work, but at that time my wife likes TV a lot and specially zapping; continuously jumping from one channel to another. I ...
13
votes
6answers
642 views
Can reading electronic displays be made more comfortable?
We all have to handle large amounts of information on a daily basis, but some of us find it hard to focus on the information displayed on electronic devices. It's easy to read through tens of pages in ...
12
votes
3answers
736 views
How to stop mind from drifting off while reading?
Lets say I'm reading a text on programming language which has some example on poker. As soon as I read it, my mind drifts off about some related things around poker, like probability, last time I won, ...
12
votes
5answers
567 views
How to master a large variety of technical literature
I've an Engineering background I like to read technical literature (college level onwards) quite omnivorously - especially mathematics, computer science, engineering, and medicine. This is part of my ...
10
votes
4answers
744 views
How to work through technical books for long hours to completion
I cannot sit in one place reading for more than a hour, no matter what book it is (except maybe Harry Potter).
Can anybody please advise me how I can learn to sit and read for long hours. My main ...
9
votes
8answers
623 views
How do you read programming books?
I'm wondering, how do you read programming books? I always don't do the exercises, I just read the book.. Do you read while sleeping or you really take the book and study like you do in high school ...
8
votes
8answers
387 views
How to Stop Glazing when Reading
When I need to read something, I have a really bad habit of just glazing over it and not really comprehending the words.
As a result I have no clue what I've read.
How can I stop glazing at a ...
8
votes
4answers
421 views
How to effectively read and understand scientific literature?
If have read some other topics regarding this subject, but they were rather focused on the immediate understanding of a paper and not long-term knowledge of a topic.
Suppose I read a book about about ...
7
votes
4answers
540 views
How can I listen to a webcast while reading or programming?
Since I have a full-time job, I find difficult to do things I like, such as starting personal projects.
For example, I'm trying to listen to a webcast, which from time-to-time requires me to switch ...
7
votes
7answers
295 views
How can I get myself to read books?
This might sound vague, but I think the question is pretty simple:
If I have never had a habit of reading books in my life (as some people grew up with) and I am now in my twenties, how can I start ...
7
votes
5answers
667 views
How to stop vocalization habit in reading
Voicing the words,as you write or read...How to stop it?
It wastes a lot of energy, and limits the speed....
any other tricks than singing... cause I also need to comprehend the matter
7
votes
3answers
743 views
Free and simple speed reading software?
Many years ago I did a 5-day speed reading course. At the time, my reading speed (paper, not screen) went from 200ish words a minute to between 1100 and 1250 wpm. It was fantastic. Comprehension ...
6
votes
4answers
277 views
Does Readfa.st actually help you learn to speed read?
I just came across a site called Readfa.st.
It has this way of getting you to learn to read fast by hiding the text you're not supposed to be reading.
Apparently, it'll teach you to slowly learn to ...
6
votes
2answers
226 views
How long after reading should you review?
I read a lot of advanced math and computational science literature which requires the reader to be pretty involved most of the time. I usually read and simultaneously take notes, solve and comment in ...
6
votes
1answer
426 views
Long term effect of learning speed reading
A few years ago I learned to speed read, but in recent years I'm using it less and less. Maybe because it didn't bring me what it promised: same or even better comprehension and speed.
Did you get ...
5
votes
8answers
428 views
I want to track pages of book read per day
I am try Beeminder but it is not apprpropriate tool to page tracker. Can we have tool which is free and I can use it to increase my reading speed? Can I track my pages read something like velocity? I ...
5
votes
9answers
264 views
How to force myself to focus while reading
I am having very less concentration. Specially when I read a book or an article. I don't read a paragraph of 2 lines even. I start searching 1 or 2 words from a line and leave the rest. Definitely, It ...
5
votes
6answers
224 views
How to evaluate quality of a book
I'm reading quite a lot professional literature, it's often about information technologies, programming books, computer science etc.
The problem is that there are many books that are poorly written. ...
5
votes
3answers
235 views
Save a place in a webpage where I stopped reading?
If I am reading a really long book online, after leaving and coming back a few days later, I have no way of remembering where I stopped.
Is there any "tool" (for browser say, I use chrome), that can ...
4
votes
3answers
180 views
Reading to Understand
When I read a math or science textbook and do not understand something, I can easily look it up online or look at another book for a different perspective. But how does one develop the ability to ...
4
votes
2answers
331 views
What is the optimal text width for Speed Reading?
Was reading here about this technique. From my POV it only works good with a distinct min-max text width. Columns in newspapers of a with of a few centimeters (5-6) seem quite good to me. I also like ...
4
votes
2answers
149 views
How to productively read a computer science text book?
I find it hard to achieve true understanding reading theoretic computer science books. In particular, I struggle with symbolic notations and proofs. After spending a very long time perusing all the ...
4
votes
3answers
149 views
Method for keeping the most of a bibliographic work?
I just ended a research project in physics, and most of my time was spent reading articles. However, I still think that my method to extract and keep the most information from what I read could be ...
3
votes
3answers
161 views
Reading a book a week
I want to try to read a book a week for 12 weeks beginning this summer. I have already began collecting recommendations for which books to read, and I will refine the list at some point, to get the ...
3
votes
4answers
112 views
Engaged Reading for web pages
Sometimes even if I am interested in a topic and in need of sorting through it, I am still unable to get myself "into it" and engaged (especially for technical articles) unless it is printed out and I ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
How to become a fast learner?
In the college, I faced the problem of not grasping my study-materials fast. It used to take intense study and brainstorming to understand a material which seemed to be a piece of cake for others.
...
3
votes
2answers
456 views
What is the average reading speed in words per minute?
I have heard about different statistics about the average reading speeds of English among English speakers ... but I don't find any of them particularly reliable as their is wide variety. Can somebody ...
3
votes
2answers
394 views
Speed reading technique ebook
Which ebook would you recommend to learn speed reading techniques, to improve reading speed and understanding?
(ebook, preferred for Kindle, as I don't want printed version - easier to buy overseas)
3
votes
6answers
291 views
Kindle Fire or Nook Color as a tool?
I am considering buying an ebook reader but not only to read books but to use websites, write notes if possible, keep a library of texts I use in teaching, reference, etc. The price for these ebook ...
2
votes
4answers
173 views
Send it to my Ereader
I have a Nook Touch, but this question aims to address a system that would suit any Ereader device.
What do I need to do to reliably take anything I find on the web and automatcally have a version ...
2
votes
2answers
274 views
Does speed reading work well with reading non-native language?
My native language is Serbian, but from my early age I started to learn English. And now, when I am a programmer I read almost all stuff in English (stuff for college, books, internet stuff, movies, ...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Learning methodology for software developer?
I am a beginner in software development. I've started learning algorithms, networking and software development practices from various books. My seniors advised me to read one book and learn one thing ...
1
vote
2answers
130 views
Do´s and dont's for audiobooks?
(Related with this question)
I have recently started to hear audiobooks in my daily commute, giving me 40 minutes a day of "book listening". However, though it's my first time on the audiobook world, ...
1
vote
1answer
161 views
Experiences of PhotoReading
I'm curious to know if there are people that actually have experience with the PhotoReading system?
PhotoReading is a reading system that claims that you can read at a speed of 25,000 words a minute ...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
Documentation matrix for scientific papers
Interested to know about any systematic and preferably standardized framework for analyzing research paper in consistent matrix form which would allow us to compare the same parameters over multiple ...
1
vote
1answer
153 views
Speed reading drills on a rehearsed text
How effective is it to integrate the rehearsal of a text with speed reading it?
I ask this because when I was taking the course Breakthrough Speedreading, a common routine for getting speed was to ...
1
vote
0answers
230 views
Speed Reading: Spreeder vs ReadFa.st [closed]
I've been starting to learn to speed read, and two very different softwares that teach differently. Which is more effective and easily used when putting these tactics offline? The flash reading (one ...
0
votes
4answers
125 views
When do you update and study other material?
Considering an 8-9 hours a day in a job, you come home, you are tired, wanna listen to music, don't want to study anything new in CS, weekend comes, you never want to touch anything related to work, ...
0
votes
1answer
168 views
Help me study and read paperlessly, with some ebook reader efficiently?
I have directories like this here full of PDFs that I want to read, comfortably.
I consulted the GoodReader's developers (a book application for iPad) and they said that I need Mac -computer to ...
0
votes
1answer
231 views
Does having a eBook reader like the Kindle help in improving productivity? [closed]
I shall be getting an eBook reader soon, and was wondering if it will help in boosting my productivity. I could see activities such as searching data of books could be faster. I could immagine that ...
