Learning How to Speed Read

Control and Initial Reading Rate
📌 The initial control reading test yielded a speed of 250 words per minute (WPM), completing 50 pages of *Circe* in one hour.
🐢 The reader struggled with a long "To Be Read" (TBR) list, having kept a friend's copy of *Circe* for two years without finishing it due to slow reading speed.
📚 The book *Circe* is a retelling of the Odyssey, focusing on the titular character, the daughter of a titan and a nymph, and her exile after discovering her power to turn enemies into monsters.

Speed Reading Strategy 1: Music Immersion
🎶 The first strategy tested was reading with ambient music specifically curated for *Circe* to enhance immersion and focus on visuals over words.
📉 This strategy resulted in a decrease in reading speed to 225 WPM (45 pages in one hour), which the speaker attributes partly to having a cold, but ultimately deems unsuccessful for increasing speed.
💡 The speaker theorizes that successful speed reading requires intentionality, suggesting that immersion alone, without specific speed techniques, is insufficient.

Speed Reading Strategy 2: Peripheral Reading (Focusing on the Middle Third)
🧠 This strategy involved eliminating the time spent reading every word and moving the eyes across the entire line by limiting the reading to the middle third of the page, relying on peripheral vision to fill in gaps.
🚀 This technique led to a massive increase in performance, achieving 90 pages in one hour, translating to 450 WPM—a doubling of the initial speed.
📖 Despite the speed increase, the speaker reported remembering most of the plot points covered during this session, suggesting adequate comprehension retention for the speed gained.

Speed Reading Strategy 3: The Finger Pacing Guide
👆 The final added element was using the finger as a pacing guide to direct eye movement and maintain reading speed.
🌟 The combination of Peripheral Reading and the Finger guide resulted in an estimated speed equivalent to 120 pages per hour for *Circe* (or 600 WPM when adjusted for the longer lines in the subsequent book, *Wicked*).
⏱️ The speaker notes this speed (600 WPM) is over double the average reading speed and effectively halved the time needed to read a book compared to the start of the experiment.

Book Review: Circe
⭐ The speaker rated *Circe* four stars, praising its beautiful imagery and powerful, albeit subtly expressed, feminist themes.
💔 The main drawback was a personal lack of intense emotional connection to the ending, specifically wanting more emotional impact when Cersei willingly gave up immortality for a mortal life.
📖 The book explores themes of power where ruthless, apathetic individuals control, while kind, talented people are suppressed.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ The most effective speed reading technique tested was Peripheral Reading (focusing on the middle third of the text), achieving 450 WPM.
➡️ Adding the finger pacing guide on top of peripheral reading boosted the effective speed to approximately 600 WPM.
➡️ Implementing these combined techniques can increase reading speed by 100+ WPM reliably, dramatically reducing the time required to finish long reading lists (e.g., reducing Lord of the Rings reading time from 32 hours to 13 hours).
⚠️ Reading with music, while enhancing immersion, decreased reading speed in this test, highlighting the need for intentional speed techniques over general focus aids.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Jan 27, 2026, 06:45 UTC