Comments on: PhotoReading: Become A Superhuman Reader

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:37:12 +0000

Hunter,
I read quite fast from years of practice, but I have very stiff fingers from inflammation which I am working on getting rid of, but it is a work in progress. When I read a 900 page paperback the book often is heavy and of the smaller size – pages stick together and I use a reading pillow to balance the weight and not hold my hands in a difficult position.
I can and do change sizes on the font – particularly on the airplane when the lights were low…
I noticed right away that I was taking about 2 hours reading time off of most texts and books and my hands love the weight and just tapping the page turn – I sometimes turn too many pages
I also can read in the car with the Kindle which I was never able to do without getting carsick.
I listen to the Kindle II when I am making dinner – it is computer speak, but I can keep up with story or ideas and still make dinner!
The Kindle was made for me for sure!
So little time – so many books!

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:29:21 +0000

@ Kristjan, for short texts, the overhead of PhotoReading will make it not practical to use the full system. You could still use some of the techniques, but it wouldn’t be all that different from traditional speed reading.

@ Patricia, I don’t know why people say it takes forever to turn a page in the Kindle. I’m surprised you find it a lot faster though. Is it because you can set the font to a readable size?

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:08:31 +0000

With my Kindle I can read a full 5 books a week now, because it is so much faster than reading a paper book for me – I can not understand how others think it is slower?

I would love to learn how to photo read and your post gives me more specifics to figure out, but it might not work for me with my poor vision and Dyscacula – often these things do not work for me because of my spacial problems.

Thank you for sharing and yes well formatted Blog posts are so much easier for me to read that anything else I encounter. Nice to know why

By: Kristjan-Olari Leping

Kristjan-Olari Leping — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:19:30 +0000

I am an “ordinary” speed reader myself. For me it seems to be more easier and practically better applicable than Photo Reading. The preparatory processes and knowledge activation for Photo Reading will consume much time and therefore Photo Reading can be beneficial for longer texts. If you are reading short artciles or blog posts from the Internet then I do not see the point of using Photo Reading for them.

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:20:28 +0000

@ Beniaminus, if you were taught to use your intuition to answer, I have to wonder if they were just giving you tests with intuitive answers. But if you’re really going through a page a second, without doing any more reading afterwards, having any recall at all is impressive.

By: Beniaminus

Beniaminus — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:34:22 +0000

About 16 years ago, I took a course called Subliminal Dynamics, which sounds similar to the PhotoReading system. During the course, we took regular comprehension tests, and my scores ranged from 60-80% at a page a second. Impressive, and well above the monkey mark! The downside, and the part that discouraged me, was that I couldn’t actively recall the content. During the tests we were taught to use our intuition to answer, but if I attempted to ‘remember’ the story, I got dead air.

Like you, I get a lot of pleasure from the artistry of the words in a book, so I eventually let the course skills fade. But your post has inspired me to dig up the old manuals and notes – the technique might help me get through this pile of TPS reports on my desk…

By: Hunter Nuttall

Hunter Nuttall — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:54:19 +0000

@ Barbara, LOL, OK, here’s your reading test:

1. What is the name of the co-founder of Learning Strategies Corporation and developer of PhotoReading?

2. What is the average person’s reading speed?

3. What percent of any text carries the essential meaning?

4. (Essay) Which is more important, reading speed or reading comprehension? Discuss.

Can you believe it? A pop quiz on a Monday morning!

I should point out that photoreading a post would be like taking a plane to the next town over. By the time you add in all the waiting at the airport, driving would have been faster.

The PhotoReading system has some overhead. Like after the photoreading step, you’re supposed to give your inner mind time to organize the information, at least 20 minutes, but preferably overnight or 24 hours. You wouldn’t want to do that for blog posts, but you could still use some aspects of the system.

By: Barbara Swafford

Barbara Swafford — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:53:30 +0000

Hi Hunter,

As I was reading your post, I had to laugh as I kept scrolling down and seeing more and more of your writing. I didn’t know if you would have a test at the end or not – to see if I had read it all. LOL

One thing I did learn from your post is the part about web pages being narrower so we can read faster by using our peripheral vision. It makes sense. In fact when I land on sites where the writing goes all the way across the screen, I find it very difficult to read (I have a wide screen monitor).

Makes me wonder. Now when we scan someone’s post, if we should start saying, “No, I didn’t scan it. I photoread it”.