Speed Reading: Third Edition

by Tony Buzan

Book Overview

Dramatically increase your reading speed, comprehension, and retention Tony Buzan, world-famous expert in the field of the brain and the inventor of Mind Mapping, has gained international recognition... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452266041
• ISBN13: 9780452266049
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Simple, Facil y Efectivo!

Es un libro facil de leer, sencillo de entender y lleno de ejercicios que te permiten aumentar la velocidad de tu lectura

Get an audio program in addition to this book

Like in all of his books, Tony Buzan reiterates his favorite assertions on mind mapping and mental abilities of a human. This book consists of history and the new developments of speed reading, self tests and exercises, mixed with short essays on physiologic aspects of reading, like left and right cortical research, the number of brain cells and their interconnections, the anatomy of eyes (including the cross-section), control of eye movements t to increase the speed and comprehension of reading (with diagrams of eyes' progression while reading). The author addressed the common reading problems: subvocalization, finger-pointing, regression and back-skipping, and presents the new approaches to overcoming them. He gives practical advises on improving your concentration and increasing your comprehension. Much attention is given to developing advanced skimming and scanning techniques, range reading skills, metronome training. The book finishes with tips on getting control of different kinds of text: the newspapers, literature and poetry. In addition to this book, I can recommend exercising with a speed reading audio program, that should be listened while reading. I can suggest "The Speed Reading 16-Minute Audio Program" which I have personally used.

I might be out of step here, but I liked it.

I have several of Tony Buzan's books, and I appreciate his work very much. Although I don't believe that he is the only word in mind improvement, he has been extremely helpful to me. And this book was no exception. He covers what I feel to be important parts of reading speed improvement -- using the hand to guide, the different guiding movements, improving eye span (among other things). He also touches on the importance of building up vocabulary, and of course, Tony Buzan would not be Tony Buzan if he didn't mention something about Mind Mapping -- another tool of his that has helped me greatly. You'll have to put in some dedicated, sustained effort into the exercises in this book. They are understandable, but improving reading speed is always a challenge. I've improved my reading speed through this book, and I want to take the book again and work with it to keep the skill up. I can't answer for those who say that the book did them no good. Perhaps it didn't. But it did do me good. And I'm glad I bought it.

I expected more

I am not sure about this book. Maybe because my expectations were different. I expected to increase my reading speed by reading this book. That did not happen. Maybe I get an improvement after more practising. Maybe it is because English is not my first language. Also only about half of this rather small book is dedicated to speed reading. The other half is filled with, although useful, hints on not necessarily directly related issues. Tony Buzan also repeats some ideas presented in his other (and better) book - Use Both Sides Of Your Brain. That caused another disappointment. It is a good and worthy book, but do not expect too much. The other book I mentioned above is better.

Excellent book if you want to improve your reading speed

I am just about half way through the book and have already double my reading speed without much difficulty while increasing my comprehension. I was a 248 words a minute reader with 66% comprehension. Now half way through and am reading 550 words a minute with 85% comprehension. The book guides you through with plenty of exercises and checks throughout with a chart to map your progress. But a word of warning: Don't just think that you can start reading 2000 words a minute just by reading this book. You do have to practice and actively push yourself to break your own barriers. If you are serious about improving yourself and willing to put in some work and practice then buy this book. There are so many crappy books out there purporting to increase your reading speed, usually only doubling your current speed (normal readers read at about 200 to 300 wpm) but Buzan promises to take you up to 2000 wpm!! But remember, you still have to work at it.