Saving my copy of this:<\/p>\n
I am unfamiliar with speed reading techniques, so I cannot evaluate them.
\nThe best way to read quickly is to read lots.\u00a0 And lots.\u00a0 And to have started a long time ago.\u00a0 Then maybe you know what is coming in the current book.\u00a0 Reading quickly is often, in a margin-relevant way, close to not reading much at all.
\nNote that when you add up the time costs of reading lots, quick readers don\u2019t consume information as efficiently as you might think.\u00a0 They\u2019ve chosen a path with high upfront costs and low marginal costs.\u00a0 “It took me 44 years to read this book” is not a bad answer to many questions about reading speed.
\nAnother way to read quickly is to cut bait on the losers.\u00a0 I start ten or so books for every one I finish.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind disliking a book, and I never regret having picked it up and started it.\u00a0 I am ruthless in my discards.
\nFairfax and Arlington counties have wonderful public library systems, and I go about five times a week to one branch or another.\u00a0 Usually I scan the New Books shelf and look at nothing else.\u00a0 I can go shopping at the best store in the world, almost any day, for free.
\nI am both interested and compulsive.\u00a0 How can I let that book go unread or at least unsampled?\u00a0 I can\u2019t.
\nVirtually every Tuesday I visit the New Books table at Borders.\u00a0 Tuesday is when most new books arrive.\u00a0 Who knows what might be there?\u00a0 How can I let that New Books table go unvisited?\u00a0 I can\u2019t.\u00a0 About half the time I buy something, but I always walk away happy.
\nHere is another reading tip: do less of other activities.
\nBlogging hasn\u2019t hurt my writing, it has helped by non-fiction reading, but I read fewer novels.\u00a0 That is the biggest intellectual opportunity cost of MR, though for the last month I\u2019ve made a concerted effort to read more fiction.\u00a0 But it is not like the old days when I would set aside two months to work through The Inferno, Aeneid, and the like, with multiple secondary sources and multiple translations at hand.\u00a0 I no longer have the time or the mood, and I miss this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n