Speed reading

(Being on paternity leave, I don’t have as much time for blogging as I’d like – not that I’m complaining; I love being able to spend lots of time with my daughter – but I’ll try to post shorter entries at least once a day, about the things I’m thinking about. Today I’ve had a “day off”, so I’ve had time to read some of my favorite weblogs.)

Niklas Johansson’s weblog Enkelriktat.com (in Swedish) is one of my favorites, and yesterday I read two posts of his from August (this and this), about speed reading. At the time, I didn’t read it that well, because I thought it wasn’t something I’d be interested in, and I believed in the myth he writes about: that in order to understand some text, you have to read it slowly.

As it turns out, Niklas seems to have a history similar to mine: he writes that he’s always felt challenged when reading, that he’s always read slowly. I have either read very slowly, having to concentrate hard on the text; or I have read too fast, missing lots of things on the way, suddenly realizing I haven’t understood anything the last couple of pages. But a few years ago I decided to get out of this, and I think I’ve succeeded fairly well.

I’ve got to go now. I hope to continue this post soon, and summarize in English what Niklas wrote.