Speed reading is concentrating

All reading requires concentration; even reading a third-rate

thriller on the beach on a beautiful sunny day requires a certain

amount of concentration. If only for a moment, you have to ignore

the refreshing breeze, as enticing as it feels, to find out whether

the hero will escape from the villain’s secret mountaintop retreat.

Speed reading, however, requires sustained, forceful concentra-

tion because when you speed read, you do many things at once. As

you see and read the words on the page, you also remain alert to

the main ideas that the author wants to present. You have to think

along with the author and detect how she presents the material so

you can pin down the main ideas. As you read, you have to read

with more perspective and separate the details from weightier

stuff. You have to know when to skim, when to read fast, and when

to slow down to get the gist of it. (Chapter 10 helps you choose

your reading speed.)

Speed reading also requires you to read aggressively. You read

hungrily, absorbing the information as you come to it.

One way to improve your concentration when you speed read is

to imagine that nothing exists outside the boundaries of the page

you’re reading (or the boundaries of the monitor, if you’re read-

ing at your computer). Pretend that the entire universe has been

condensed to the square space in front of your nose. Nothing can

distract you because nothing exists to distract you.