On Sun, 19 Sep 2010 10:29:10 -0400, AK wrote: > On 09/18/2010 11:28 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: [...] >> My wife can read scarily fast. It's very something to watch her reading >> pages as fast as she can turn them, and a few years ago she read the >> entire Harry Potter series (to date) in one afternoon, and could gives >> a blow-by-blow account of the plots, including a detailed critique of >> the writing style and characters. But then, she feels that reading the >> Potter series is a chore to be completed as fast as possible, rather >> than a pleasure to be savored. She'll sometimes drag a new Terry >> Pratchett or Stephen King novel out for as much as two days. >> >> >> > That's pretty impressive. I used to get somewhat close to that speed > when, years ago, I'd read a lot of trashy scifi. [...] > In other spots, I'd > be able to scan a few words at the top of page, a few in the middle and > at the bottom and I'd know what's going on, generally.
I don't know about how other people speed-read, but I can assure you that when my wife speed-reads, she's not just scanning a few words and interpolating between them. She can give you a detailed summary of what *actually* happened, not just a good guess. Including pointing out any spelling or grammatical errors and clumsy writing. *Especially* the spelling errors, they have about the same effect on her reading speed as a tree trunk lying across a Formula 1 race track. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list