Intelligent Reading

Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.

Reading may be as easy as ABC, but remembering what you read isn’t. Find out what you can do about it. A great book or idea is only as good as the person who remembers it. How many times have you been excited to share something you read only to have the concepts slip away from you like an elusive morning mist? Being thrilled to learn something new is natural. Unfortunately, so is forgetting. The scientifically plotted rate at which you’re expected to do this is called the forgetting curve.

Imagine if you were running a very old software program on a computer. It would be slow, inefficient, and cause you to waste a lot of time dealing with the outdated interface. You know how frustrating it is when this happens to you on a computer, but do we even notice when we are using old or inefficient mental skills? Think how many times you read every day. And imagine how much more time you would have if you could learn how to speed read.