So how fast DO you read?

[rolanni]

As previously advertised, I'm a slow reader.  How about you?

Source: Staples eReader Department

I read, it says here, 443 words per minute, 77% faster than the national average. If I could maintain that pace, and not let my attention get caught by Teh Shiny, I could read The Lord of the Rings in 18 hours.

Comments

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

700+ on the one I had never seen before. I ran it again and got an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland. I've read that before, so I scored over 1000.

~700 is probably close to my actual "reading for pleasure" speed. Reading for understanding and retention of course materials is considerably slower.

[sb-moof.livejournal.com]

The first one I read and came up with 19% slower than the national average, the second one I read and came up with 52% faster than the average (in the 300 wpm range). For me it all depends on what I'm reading I guess.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

881 wpm. I swallow novels in a single bound. :)

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

I got 1607 wpm. I think that's a bit high.

And 542% of the national average suggests that their math comprehension is a bit off... ...or, at least, the way they express their math comprehension.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Fast -- last time I tested I was in 7th grade and I hit 1220 wpm. I found, after you asked the question, that I do seem to read every word. I only become aware of type on a page, however, when something trips me.

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

1300 for general reading and 850 for technical reading

[adriannem.livejournal.com]

I'm a slow reader too. 600wpm. 137% of average??? What do I know?

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

This came in at around 1000 - which is about right to perhaps 20% slower than I actually read. Earlier though you asked something about "which words I skip" and I really don't think I do. My experience is similar to @kalimeg above. As far as I can determine, I see sentences and phrases as a single item. From what I have read about what is known about this issue I have come up with an analogy that might be useful.

I am guessing that you don't decode words letter by letter. Fast readers, I think, see longer strings of letters as a single thing. So, for example, if I see "words per minute" it is one brain click not three.

A second analogy that might be useful is considering predictive text that often appears in search boxes in various venues. When you type in two words a dropdown of phrases appears. I think quick readers do something similar, and pick the right phrase out as a whole. (Of course, every so often it goes spectacularly wrong, or there is the pleasurable surprise when the author's prose delivers something different.)

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

When I read the comments above I went back, and I too got Alice, which I have read many times. That clocked at just over 2000 words per minute. I think a lot of fast readers do a lot of rereading and enjoy it. For instance, after I read the new Cherryh book in the Foreigner series, I might well go back and reread the whole thing.

[adriannem.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I've just finished my first pass through Foreigner 13, and I'll be going back to pick up nuance and revel in spending time with all my favorite characters.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

at my best I was 1200+, but I have slowed down, they dont factor in the days when the good drugs disconnect the brain.

How Fast do I read

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

I read the piece the way I sometimes do kind of skimming.469 words per minute or 88% faster than average. But I would read a technical piece much slower. And as I said I have to read Miller and Lee at least twice to not miss some things.

The race is not always to the swift.

[fullmetal-al.livejournal.com]

When, I wonder, did reading become a race? I resent the implication from that test that because I like to savour each sentence and paint images in my mind as I do so at a leisurely 220 wpm that I am, somehow, less advanced than an eight grader.

Re: The race is not always to the swift.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oh, geez. . . reading became a speed contest in...sixth grade? Maybe fifth grade. We had these color-coded pamphlets at the back of the room that you had to read (starting at yellow and working up to a very nice deep purple), and then take a comprehension test. Each piece was timed, and you got to move up to the next color by beating both pre-set timing and comprehension goals.

Pain in the hat, is what that was, because, like you, I'm a thorough reader, but it takes me awhile to get from here to there.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

See, now? The Foreigner books are so dense, I can't for the life of me even conceive how one can be read "for story" or in a "first pass" that skips the nuance.

Intruder arrived here yesterday, and it'll sit on the Mencken Table until I have enough time to give it the attention it's going to need.

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

I agree with romsfuulynn - I suspect that I'm seeing parts of words, and phrases as a unit. I can read those little vowel-less paragraphs that circulate occasionally, at about the speed I read study materials.

Re: The race is not always to the swift.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

No one did that to us, and a good thing, too.

[oberon.livejournal.com]

1781, but I'm not sure I agree with the methodology.

[sctechsorceress.livejournal.com]

How fast I read depends on what I am reading. I tend to read most fiction very fast indeed. Faster on paper than on a screen, which is kind of frustrating because I have a hard time holding large books anymore.

Technical reading goes much slower.

[jane-barfly.livejournal.com]

I find this sort of test not very helpful. In this case, the sample's awfully short. I read about 990 wpm according to this, but I was reading at fiction speed, rather than at technical speed.

It also depends on my purpose for reading....