How to speed read – read through a book very fast
How to speed read – read through a book very fast 
I used to read a book a year – nowadays I cannot believe that this used to be me. What has changed? I really love reading about other leader’s experiences and how they managed finding their way through leadership and business challenges. There is a common theme that runs through their stories and the more I read, the more complete the picture gets that I can derive from it. Nowadays I can plow through an average business book in fewer than 2 hours and still fully retain the points.
It is not some miracle that is needed to do this. Here is a quick run-down of how easy it is and you can do this too. Up to the last bullet point these tips help you skim read through the book. It helps you deciding if you want or need to read everything in the book. Once you are there make good use of the last bullet item:
- Read the front and back book cover jacket. These two half page size text pieces are loaded with information about the book’s content and the author.
- Read the foreword or intro pages. Here there are also compressed nuggets worth of powerful information about the main theme and topic of the book.
- Read the endorsements pages. This can hold important quotes about well-known people who may have blessed the book’s author with a review of the book. This can hold an important clues depending on who those folks may be and how well known they are and what they are known for representing.
- Read the first chapters of the book or give precedence to them. Here is where typically the most relevant and important data sets reside.
- Read the first one or two paragraphs and the last paragraph of each chapter. That’s where the key points reside. The middle section of this text section is typically only covering personal stories and / or more ways of applying what the author may have learned and wants to pass this information along. It adds time to reading their points, but this may not be necessary reading it all.
- Train your brain. The best thing to do is investing in a speed read course like the one offered through Eye Q Advantage.
Leaders are readers and readers are leaders. When are you going to get off the couch and be reading your next book?
Ralf
