Other Stuff

This chapter is about things that can help your reading, and things that you can do instead of, or before, reading, depending on the material and what you need to do with it.

Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Vocabulary

One of the best things you can do for your reading speed is increase your knowledge base. The more you know the easier it is to make sense of what you read. If you keep a dictionary nearby then it is easy to look up new words. A thesaurus is just as good and sometimes better for a quick grasp of what a word means. There are also many books on the market designed to help you increase your vocabulary. You don't always have to look a word up to know what it means. If you read a sentence such as

There were shards of glass everywhere after Jimmy frapped the window

you will probably figure out that ``frapped'' is something you can do to a window to make shards of glass, so frapped has to be similar to hit or broke or shot or zapped. You might not feel comfortable using the word in conversation, but you will be able to understand the sentence and continue because the context of the sentence tells you more or less what the word must mean. Context can tell you what a word must mean in a given sentence. This is true for all words, in every sentence, but we normally don't think about it. Without context we can't know what a word or sentence means. A person's knowledge base is part of this context. Knowledge base will control the exact meanings that different readers get out of the same sets of words. When you read a word you don't know, your brain goes into overdrive to find words that could be substituted into the sentence and still make sense. If enough substitutes have similar meanings then your brain can signal you to keep reading, on the assumption that the word is similar to the substitutes. You might not even notice that you skipped a word. If too many substitute words are available, or too few, your brain will signal you to stop and think for a moment. Then you will evaluate where the word fits in the sentence, where the sentence fits in the paragraph, and so on, until you decide either to look up the word or to continue. Context helps you make the decision.

Instead of Reading

Sometimes you won't need to read a book or article at all, because you can get what you need from one or more of the three methods that follow. When that works, great. Just don't confuse these methods with reading. Some so-called speed reading courses focus exclusively on previewing, scanning, and skimming. The people teaching those courses know that skimming isn't reading. To support this point, look at the following quotation from Dr. Stanley D. Frank.^4.1 Dr. Frank was Executive Vice-President of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. when he wrote:

I recall a confession of sorts by one of the fastest readers I know, Dan Warner, one of our Evelyn Wood teachers. Dan can read many thousands of words a minute, and has frequently demonstrated his skill before audiences in public lectures and on television. But he has also found a place for subvocal linear reading. For example, he loved reading the Dune series of fantasy-science-fiction books by novelist Frank Herbert. With these and other absorbing novels, he'll frequently slow down to about 800-900 words per minute in the last chapter or so to relish the final climax and disposition of the plot--and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. This sort of indulgence is perfectly acceptable for a student or anyone else, and will probably enhance one's understanding and enjoyment of many books.

The methods taught in Dr. Frank's system are previewing, scanning, and skimming. Previewing, scanning, and skimming are not reading. They can be great time savers for getting the gist of a book or article, and often they can give much more information than you need for a given task or assignment. Previewing, scanning, and skimming can not give the full impact of the writing. Previewing, scanning, and skimming can not give the full details of action. Previewing, scanning, and skimming can not convey the depth of feeling or understanding that reading can bring. You should learn and use these methods. Use them often or sparingly, based on your own needs. Just remember that they are a sorry substitute for meaningful reading.

Previewing

You can't judge a book by its cover, true, but the cover of a book can give a lot of great information to help you get more out of the book. The same goes for the table of contents, index, glossary, footnotes, and diagrams. These materials supplement a book, and previewing them can aid your understanding of the contents and structure of any book. In addition, you may want to turn every page in the book once before settling in to read it. This protects the spine of the book, and thereby protects your investment in the book. ``Breaking in'' a book this way also makes the pages easier to turn later, so you spend less time on page turning and more on the text. Glance at each page as you break in a book, and take an extra moment for each diagram and illustration. You will also notice chapter headings, and any material that is formatted for special notice. When you break in your book, you will get an idea of how much dialogue there is, how much straight text, how long the average paragraphs are, and even the general tone of the author's writing. You can also pick up the basic organization of a book when you break it in and preview it. Whenever you start a book, you have a choice to make. Doing things a little bit backwards can help increase your understanding of what you read. Read over the index and the glossary, if the book has either. Read the table of contents carefully, and look at each of the diagrams. Read the blurbs on the back of the book, and the sleeve of the dust cover, if there is one. All of this provides context for your reading. Having this context makes a big difference in understanding what you read. Should all material be previewed? Remember to ask why you are reading, what you want from your reading. If suspense or surprise are your goal, then previewing is a no-no. Who wants to read a whodunnit when previewing reveals the murderer's identity? But if your objective is to speed up your learning and your understanding of the writing, then previewing is a great way to start.

Scanning

We defined previewing as breaking in the book and looking at all the support materials that come with it, such as the table of contents, the index, the dust cover. In addition to breaking in a book, you can spend two or three seconds looking at each page. Many systems base their methods on this kind of scanning. Many people learn to scan so well that they can get all the information they need that way. If your goal is to give a report on what you have read, or to simply recognize the main points, then scanning is a marvelous tool. As with previewing, there will be times when scanning doesn't fit your wants or needs. At those times, don't scan. Natural speed readers are very comfortable scanning through different parts of books, and then slowing down when things get a little more interesting. Scanning is a tool that you can use to make your reading more enjoyable and efficient. Most systems emphasize different ways to scan a page, but you should experiment and find what works best for you. Straight line scanning has your eyes going smoothly down the center of a page without looking right or left. This is a good thing to practice, and as you do you will find you see larger meaning groups, and your understanding of what you have scanned will increase. Another commonly taught scanning pattern is to swing your eyes in a ``U'' shape over a page. Starting in the top left corner of the page, let your eyes flow down the left side of the page almost to the bottom, then let them swing over to the right side of the page, and then let them flow up the right side of the page to the top right corner. The shape you have just followed is like the letter ``U''. There is also an ``S'' pattern popular with many scanning instructors. In this pattern you start at the upper right corner and use your eyes to trace a giant ``S'' on the page, ending up in the lower left hand corner. Other instructors prefer a ``Z'' pattern, starting in the upper left and using their eyes to trace a giant letter ``Z'' ending in the lower right. All the scanning patterns mentioned so far assume you will use the pattern once on an entire page. Most courses and systems that teach these patterns assume that you will use your hand to trace the patterns on the page. You already know that you can use your eyes without using your hand to guide them, so feel free to use these scanning patterns without your hand. Scanning doesn't deliver the subtleties of feeling and image that meaningful reading does, but it can pack a lot of data into a short time. Besides page-at-a-time scanning patterns, mentioned above, many systems shrink the patterns so they can be used several times on a page. The two most common patterns are the ``S'' pattern and the ``Z'' pattern. Instead of tracing one giant ``Z'' on a page, you can trace one ``Z'' on the top half and a second on the bottom half. Instead of two, you can have three or four or however many you want. If you think about it, the ``Z'' pattern is what you have always used on your normal reading. The first ``Z'' starts in the upper left of the page, with the first letter of the first word, and ends on the last letter of the last word of the second line. The second ``Z'' starts with the first letter of the first word of the third line, and so on down the rest of the page. Scanning is important, which is why you have been provided with the schedule in the table below. You can also come up with your own plan of scanning practice. The schedule provided uses the same speeds as the reading drills, but instead of different word groups, you will use different scanning patterns. The speed is the time you take to trace a pattern, no matter how many times you use that pattern on a page. Day one starts with four seconds per page, for four ``S'' patterns, at Slow. Day fifteen starts with two ``Z'' patterns per page at Slow. The high speed on day fifteen is one ``Z'' pattern at Slow. The highest speed, day eighteen, is a ``U'' pattern skim at Normal; this is equivalent to about 46,000 words per minute, except that scanning is not reading. Here are the first day's drills:

At Very Slow speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Slow speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Normal speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Fast speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Very Slow speed do three ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Fast speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Normal speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Slow speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute
At Very Slow speed do four ``S'' shaped scans per page for one minute

This format should be familiar by now, as it is the same format used for the actual reading drills. Here is the full listing of scanning drills for an 18 day course:

Day One: VS,Sx4; S,Sx4; N,Sx4; F,Sx4; VS,Sx3; F,Sx4; N,Sx4; S,Sx4; VS,Sx4
Day Two: N``S''x4, F``S''x4, V``S''x4, S``S''x3, N``S''x3, S``S''x3, V``S''x4, F``S''x4, N``S''x4
Day Three: S``Z''x4, N``Z''x4, F``Z''x4, V``Z''x4, S``Z''x3, V``Z''x4, F``Z''x4, N``Z''x4, S``Z''x4
Day Four: N``Z''x4, F``Z''x4, V``Z''x4, S``Z''x3, N``Z''x3, S``Z''x3, V``Z''x4, F``Z''x4, N``Z''x4
Day Five: S``U''x4, N``U''x4, F``U''x4, V``U''x4, S``U''x3, V``U''x4, F``U''x4, N``U''x4, S``U''x4
Day Six: N``U''x4, F``U''x4, V``U''x4, S``U''x3, N``U''x3, S``U''x3, V``U''x4, F``U''x4, N``U''x4
Day Seven: S``S''x3, N``S''x3, F``S''x3, V``S''x3, S``S''x2, V``S''x3, F``S''x3, N1``S''x3, S``S''x3
Day Eight: N``S''x3, F``S''x3, V``S''x3, S``S''x2, N``S''x2, S``S''x2, V``S''x3, F``S''x3, N``S''x3
Day Nine: S``Z''x3, N``Z''x3, F``Z''x3, V``Z''x3, S``Z''x2, V``Z''x3, F``Z''x3, N``Z''x3, S``Z''x3
Day Ten: N``Z''x3, F``Z''x3, V``Z''x3, S``Z''x2, N``Z''x2, S``Z''x2, V``Z''x3, F``Z''x3, N``Z''x3
Day Eleven: S``U''x3, N``U''x3, F``U''x3, V``U''x3, S``U''x2, V``U''x3, F``U''x3, N``U''x3, S``U''x3
Day Twelve: N``U''x3, F``U''x3, V``U''x3, S``U''x2, N``U''x2, S``U''x2, V``U''x3, F``U''x3, N``U''x3
Day Thirteen: S``S''x2, N``S''x2, F``S''x2, V``S''x2, S``S''x1, V``S''x2, F``S''x2, N``S''x2, S``S''x2
Day Fourteen: N``S''x2, F``S''x2, V``S''x2, S``S''x1, N``S''x1, S``S''x1, V``S''x2, F``S''x2, N``S''x2
Day Fifteen: S``Z''x2, N``Z''x2, F``Z''x2, V``Z''x2, S``Z''x1, V``Z''x2, F``Z''x2, N``Z''x2, S``Z''x2
Day Sixteen: N``Z''x2, F``Z''x2, V``Z''x2, S``Z''x1, N``Z''x1, S``Z''x1, V``Z''x2, F``Z''x2, N``Z''x2
Day Seventeen: S``U''x2, N``U''x2, F``U''x2, V``U''x2, S``U''x1, V``U''x2, F``U''x2, N``U''x2, S``U''x2
Day Eighteen: N``U''x2, F``U''x2, V``U''x2, S``U''x1, N``U''x1, S``U''x1, V``U''x2, F``U''x2, N``U''x2

How does scanning work? You can see words on several lines, but you have a lifetime's habit of ignoring what you don't look at directly. The biggest reason for this habit is that we are trained to ignore our peripheral vision. The eye has two kinds of light receptors, rods and cones. Rods are pretty much all over the retina. They can detect weak sources of light, and are very sensitive to movement. Cones are found pretty much only in the area of the retina called the fovea. Cones let us see color, and cones get most of our attention. We focus with cones; rods see things we aren't looking at directly. We can learn to use the information rods send us as well as the information from the cones. In theory there is no limit to how much of a page you can see in peripheral vision. One system rests their whole operation on the claim that if you have seen a page, even if only for a second, then all the words are placed in your unconscious by peripheral vision. That system claims you can ``tap into your unconscious'' to understand what you took in this way. It is a plausible idea. Unfortunately the methods for ``tapping the unconscious'' bear a suspicious resemblance to what most grade school students would call reading. It is important to do the reading drills before practicing scanning. Scanning is a good tool for many projects, and you will benefit from developing this skill. Remember that your goal is to get the most out of your reading with the least effort. For some tasks that means scanning. Adding this tool to your skill base can only benefit you, as long as you remember to preview, scan, skim, or read to suit yourself and your needs. Other scanning and skimming methods include reading upside down and reading backwards. Reading upside down is an interesting skill to have. Doing the reading drills and the scanning drills upside down really drives home what it is like to get the meaning of a word from seeing it instead of from hearing it. The ``Flash Card'' exercise that follows also works well with upside down material.

Skimming

When you read, especially when you use the method taught in this book, you are evaluating all the words on the page for how they fit together to make meaning. When you skim, you combine scanning and reading selectively. Skimming is about half way between scanning and reading. One good method of skimming is to read only the first and last sentences in each paragraph. This is a great way to get the flavor of a book or article, you will get more than you would from scanning; but you still aren't reading. Some courses teach students to always start with previewing and breaking in their books, followed by scanning at a second or two per page, and next to decide what parts need skimming and what parts need to be read properly. This is a good method to follow for many types of reading, such as school work and business reports and even some fiction. Knowing how a story ends doesn't mean you won't enjoy the story. Think about the film, ``The Wizard of Oz.'' Each year millions of children are terrified by the Wicked Witch of the West, even though they've seen the film before and they know Dorothy escapes in the end. Previewing fiction can work the same way. Knowing where a story is going can often enhance the pleasure of reading it. This is true of songs and movies that we sing or see over and over. It is equally true with much fiction, so the preview-scan-skim-read strategy shouldn't be ruled out for fiction. You will develop your own judgment for how to approach each reading situation. Remember that your goal is to have choices of how to read, and to choose based on your needs. The best way to read will always be dictated by what you want from your reading, and how the material fits your abilities and experience.

Flash Cards

Flash cards are an incredible learning tool, and you can use them to help increase your reading speed. You won't have to buy them or make them; you can get the same effect using a book. Open a book at a random page, look for a moment at the upper left hand corner of that page, then close the book. Write down as many of the words as you can remember, then re-open the book and compare what you wrote with what is on the page. It is important not to slip into reading; don't let your eyes move over the line or the page. The idea of the exercise is to pin your eyes to one spot and notice how much you can see without moving them. On your first try you might only get the word in the exact corner and the one beside it and the one below it. Do this again, only this time ``flash'' on the lower right hand corner of the page, close the book, write down what you saw, go back and check it. Using the same page you should be able to do at least five ``flashes,'' top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right, and dead center. Your goal in this exercise has two parts: accuracy and number of words. Accuracy is by far the more important of these goals. It is better to only write one word accurately than to guess incorrectly at a half dozen. This exercise will increase your ability to see quickly and recall precisely. When you are able to get one or two words perfect every time then you will want to try for a bigger group. Being accurate is your first goal. Larger numbers will come with practice. This flashing drill replaces a machine called a ``tachistoscope.'' A tachistoscope runs a spool of film, like a filmstrip projector from your school days. Instead of showing a frame at a time, the tachistoscope is set to show one line of writing at a time. The machine has controls that let it pace the reader at different speeds. The machine's constant speed is supposed to wipe out regression and encourage the student to see bigger and bigger groups of words. The tachistoscope is like a set of training wheels without the bicycle. There are three main problems with tachistoscopes. First, there is very little that you can read on a tachistoscope; Random House isn't going to publish on this medium any time soon. Newsweek and People magazines don't publish on tachistoscope film. Second, the machine can't take into account a reader's need to vary their pace, faster and slower, to suit the reading material at hand. It is assumed that reading more words per minute is the only goal. It is assumed you will set the machine for the fastest speed at which you can comprehend. Third, the tachistoscope does nothing to address the difference between meaning-based word groups and arbitrary groups of words. The student using a tachistoscope has to hope that the words flying by will eventually make sense. The idea of seeing larger meaning groups can only be attained through sheer luck. Contrast with the tachistoscope: the flashing exercise described here can be used on any reading material, and will run to your pace. Most important of all, the flashing exercise aims at meaning groups instead of individual words.

State of Mind

It is difficult to read while you worry about your bills and the grades your kids are getting in math. Compare this to reading while you are on vacation in a quiet place, in a comfortable chair, with good light and not a care in the world. Which environment is going to be better for reading? Your state of mind will have a direct effect on your reading performance. By ``states'' it is meant states of mind such as relaxed, tense, angry, worried, or comfortable. This is the key element in the ``free demonstration'' sessions that some systems use for selling their classes. They test you once while you are still unsettled from being in a strange room full of strange people. Later, after a pep talk, after getting you pumped up to concentrate, after getting you to feel comfortable with the setting, they test you again. Of course the second test is better, but what has changed? Not your reading skills, but your state of mind. You don't need a teacher to change your state; you can do it yourself. When you find you have been regressing, stop reading for at least a couple of minutes. Close your eyes and ask yourself what you need to do before you are ready to concentrate on reading again. One nice thing about this system is that you will be more sensitive to when you regressing, so you will know when you need a break. Instead of being the enemy, regression becomes a faithful guard dog that lets you know when tiredness or distractions sneak up on you. Sometimes you will read for half an hour or more without needing a break. Other times you will need to stop and get your bearings every five minutes. The difficulty of the material, your interest in the material, the lighting, hunger, the noise level of the surrounding area, and many other things can affect how often you need a rest. You need to realize that reading works better when you are relaxed and alert at the same time. Too much of one or the other and your reading will suffer. If you must read when the setting isn't ideal, there are some things you can do to help. First, start with a drill. Use a very slow speed and a meaning group size that is very easy for you. Do the drill just the way you did the drills when you first started the system. This will help you concentrate. You will be better off going a little slower for a bit and getting things right the first time. As you get focused you will find yourself automatically moving up to a more comfortable speed and a more natural meaning group size. If this doesn't do the trick you might want to try the method described below.

Mental Bookmarks

What can you do when you are having trouble reading? Start by asking yourself, ``When was the last time I felt really clear headed, relaxed, on the ball?'' Any example of a time when you felt good, when your mind was clear and working well is great. A hint: don't try to find an example of reading with this feeling; you probably won't be able to remember one right away. But it's pretty easy to think of doing a hobby or playing some sport or doing some other activity when you feel alert and alive and clear headed. A great example is any time when you were especially proud of your creative or mental powers. You can use any time you solved a problem, figured out some puzzle, or came up with a creative plan. Once you find an example of the kind of experience described above, take a few minutes to think about that experience. If you can, do the following experiment in a place where you can concentrate, where you can take five or ten minutes by yourself. Later you will need less time and you will be able to do the exercise in the middle of a noisy office. That comes later; for now, start yourself off easy. Think of that time when your brain was working well, when you felt clear and clean, alert, refreshed, focused, relaxed, on the ball. It doesn't matter what you call it; pick a description that feels comfortable for you. You are searching for a feeling that helps you read better, get more out of your reading, enjoy it more, understand it better. Whatever positive experience you select, start asking yourself some questions about it. Really take the time to answer each question. Don't answer the question out loud; instead, answer the question by re-experiencing the example, re-seeing, re-feeling, re-hearing what you saw and felt and heard at the time. There's no rush; just take each part of each question one at a time.

• What time of day did this experience happen?
  
• Is it a memory from an evening, a morning, an early afternoon?
  
• Was it bright out or dark?
  
• Who was with you, or were you alone?
  
• Was it noisy or quiet?
  
• Were you talking to someone, or yourself?
  
• How did your voice sound?
  
• Was it hot, cold, dry, humid, windy, still?
  
• Were you standing, sitting, walking?
  
• What else can you remember about the sights and smells and sounds and feelings of this experience?
  

Maybe thinking about these questions will bring to mind other times that were similar in feeling. Take some time to explore those similar experiences, and ask the same questions about those other experiences. Here are a few other questions to ask:

• What it would be like to feel right now the way you felt in the examples?
  
• If this feeling were going to happen right now, would it creep in slowly over a few minutes, or would it flash into you like flipping a switch?
  
• Would you see your present surroundings a little differently?
  
• Would your surroundings seem brighter or darker?
  
• Would they be more focused? Less focused?
  
• Would you sound different when you talked, either to others or to yourself?
  
• Would your surroundings seem louder or softer, clearer or noisier?
  
• How would you sit or stand or walk if you had the feeling right now?
  
• Shift your seat or posture so that you are sitting or standing as you did in the past experience; how does that feel?
  
• What about your breathing? How did you breathe in the past experience? How are you breathing now?
  
• What's it like as you shift your current breathing to be more like that past experience?

Notice that the longer you do these comparisons the more you feel now like you did then. Why is that? By asking yourself the questions above, you can set up the equivalent of a mental bookmark for your self from your past. Any time you want to get back some of the feelings from the past, all you really have to do is spend a few minutes seeing what you saw then, hearing what you heard, and feeling with your skin and body what your felt at the time. You already do this with friends and family. When you get together you tell stories, happy or sad, and as everyone goes back and re-experiences the sensations of the event, they get some of the feelings. If you spend a few minutes thinking about what you saw and heard and felt at a funeral of a loved one it is pretty easy to get back some of the sadness. It works the same way for good feelings too, which is why people reminisce about ``glory days.'' The way you feel at any moment in time is influenced by what comes before it and after it, the same way a word gets much of its meaning from the words before and after it. When you spend a few minutes refreshing positive memories, the present moment comes to have those memories as part of its context. Feelings have a powerful influence on our performance. When we feel ``down'' we usually don't perform as well as when we feel ``up''. By using a mental bookmark to re-capture past feelings of resourceful times you bring those resources to the present. Just as figuring out a word by context doesn't give you the exact definition, using a mental bookmark doesn't make you feel exactly the way you felt in the past. Instead it helps you feel similarly about the current situation, which means you will have similar resources available for the current situation. In outline form, the way to create a mental bookmark is

1. Think of a state of mind you would like to have more often; a feeling, an inner resource
2. Think of a time when you had that state of mind or feeling or resource. The example might not have anything to do with the task at hand. One woman with used her confidence at the pool table to conquer her fear of public speaking. She made a mental bookmark for playing pool, and used it when she prepared for the speech. She used it again just before taking the stage. Imagine if you felt about reading the same way as you feel about your favorite sport, hobby, or TV show!
3. Let yourself relive the example experience. See now what you saw at the time of the original experience, the same way you saw it at that time. Hear now what you heard at the time of the original experience, the way you heard it at that time. Feel on your skin and in your muscles what you felt then. You might have noticed that many of the questions asked you to compare, contrast, or rate the strength of a sensation. This helps you get deeper into the sensations. When the mind is filled with those sensations it will greatly influence your present state of mind as well.
4. Use your body and voice and eyes to re-create as much of the past experience in the present moment as is practical. In the example of the ``public speaking and pool playing'' bookmark, the person couldn't very well take a pool cue on stage with her. Instead she could, and did, pay attention to the way she placed her feet, to her breathing, to the tension in her face and across her shoulder blades. She could and did control all of these things at will, and they helped her get back to the bookmark experience anytime she needed it. Eventually just taking a breath through her nose to ``smell'' the chalk in her mind, just imagining the feel of the felt of the pool table was enough to bring back the feeling of confidence.

Using your body and eyes and voice is very important. A mental bookmark is only a guide, just like a real bookmark in a book. The bookmark doesn't have the information on it; it just makes it easier to find the desired information quickly. In a similar fashion, your mental bookmark isn't magic. A mental bookmark isn't a button that will just turn on the desired feeling. Instead it is a reminder of where you've felt it before and how to get it back now. It is still up to you to use your body and voice and eyes and imagination to recapture the feeling. If you practice you will get better and faster at it, so that you can do it almost without thinking. You can use a mental bookmark for many different situations. Anytime you want better access to some past feeling or ability, make a bookmark for it. Common, and very useful, bookmarks are for relaxation and sleep, for concentration and alertness, for good times and fun socializing, and for dealing calmly and successfully with unpleasant people or other stressful situations. What would happen if every time you went to work or school you ``looked up your bookmark'' for the feelings of competence and success that you want in that setting? What would happen if every time you went home you ``looked up your bookmark'' for the feelings of love and respect that you had for your partner in the beginning of the relationship? You can find many repetitive situations for which you can use a bookmark. Use the bookmark often enough before a situation and you will find the feelings and resources start to manifest automatically in that situation. Improving your ability to read is only one small example of what using mental bookmarks can do for you.

Four Kinds of Reading

Most people seem to think there is one kind of reading, and that anything else isn't ``really'' reading. If you have done the drills in chapter one and also done the drills in this chapter, you are ready to start thinking differently. Instead, think of there being four kinds of reading called Reciting, Reading, Skimming, and Scanning. Reciting is verbal, pure and simple. Reciting is the way to read for an audience. Reciting is the way to read poems. You can recite in your head, and most people are limited to reading 200 words per minute exactly because they are silently reciting the work to themselves instead of reading. Reading is what the drills in chapter one teach. Reading is taking in every word with your eyes and gathering the meaning of those words in natural groups based on meaning. This kind of reading seems to have an upper limit of about 1,000 words per minute, which is still four to five times faster than most people's ``normal'' reading. Next is skimming. Skimming is visual, and it is very fast, but it doesn't really gather every word or even every meaning group. Instead, skimming is a way to get the flavor of a book or article. Finally there's scanning. Scanning can give a wealth of information, and scanning is the best way to get the overall structure of a book. Often undestanding that overall structure is more valuable than reading the individual words. Which is better? Which is more important, Reciting, Reading, Skimming, or Scanning? The answer is entirely up to you. Your needs, your wants, you desires determine what kind of reading is best. Those needs will change with each item you read, so naturally you will shift back and forth among all four styles of reading as best suits your needs. Having the choice, that's the big trick. If you have done the drills in the book, you will have that choice.