I love to read, but who doesn’t? I love the smell of the book paper – kinda old school eh? There has been so much written about the joys in reading, the places you can travel without leaving your chair … the “aha!” moments you get from reading … the consolation that whatever comments you hurled at a book, it can never talk back at you (lol).
But I rarely buy “new” books. I usually scour thrift shops or second-hand bookstores for good authors or interesting topics, or simply curious book titles. My basic routine: check the table of contents, skim the author’s intro of the book, and check the last pages for appendices/summaries/conclusions (nahhh… I seldom read the book review clips on the back book cover, unless one or two “reviewers” are familiar.)
‘Efficient’ reading is a work-related skill that is used most often. We “read” when there is a need to scrutinize details; and we also read to savor the ‘moments’ from given information. There are times when we need to read fast and efficient; the faster we can read instructions, procedures and even descriptions, the better we see or understand the bigger-picture of a what we are doing, or on a specific concept.
Reading efficiently (and fast), without any loss of comprehenson, needs a conscious effort to do so. Here are some techniques that might help us to read efficiently:
a.] prepare your body, and set a time limit for reading
b.] relax, and use your finger as your guide – this will help your eyes read faster as they follow your finger; you may also use a pencil as a reading guide
c.] try scanning first, (when in a hurry) before reading the whole thing, and minimize regressions or rereading, by paying attention to the words being read
d.] avoid vocalizing what you are reading.
Today, we don’t only read from paperbacks or printed-in-paper materials; we read from our cellphones, tablets, laptops, from billboards, ticker-tapes, and many other visual sources. We read according to our specific purposes (and the nature of the reading material); we read to learn, we read to be entertained; we read to understand.
Ahead Tutorial and Review-Baguio offers programs that will help improve your reading skills. Call us at 074-4236133 or 09064490020, we may be able to help you. We are open Mondays to Saturdays from 9am to 8pm. ThinkingOutLoud 2019-5 Deb Pulido
