Speed reading

While reading Haimavathabhoovil  came across an interesting anecdote from Swami Vivekananda's life. I have not come across this incident in any other books.

Swami Vivekananda was staying in Germany as a guest of great philosopher Paul Duschen ( Could not get much info on him by googling ). During his stay, Paul mentioned to the Swami that he has been trying to read a German book for the last fifteen days but was unable to comprehend it. Hearing this, Swami borrowed the book from Paul and within 30 minutes returned it saying "I have read it". Needless to say, Paul was surprised. "Really?" he seems to have asked. To which Swamiji has replied "Yes. Not only have I read it, but also comprehended thoroughly".  An incredulous Paul asked some questions from the part he had read and Swami not only satisfactorily answered his questions but also cited the relevant sentences in German. "Paul, there are normal and abnormal ways of reading", Swami said to a bewildered Paul.

On reading this, various movie scenes came to my mind. Matrix series, in which the lead characters  acquire certain skills in 2 seconds ( actually loads the skills to their brains). Movies like Phenomenon, Transformers etc where the protagonists read esoteric books in 10 minutes or so. Well, those are just movies...back to Swami Vivekananda.

We all know that Swami Vivekananda was gifted with some extraordinary powers. This strength of reading something without really reading it,perhaps, was one of them. Further googling about Paul Duschen and Swami Vivekananda, I came across the following material, apparently from a book called "Short life of Swami Vivekananda".

"It so happened that I could completely understand an author without completely reading his book line by line. I could get the meaning by just reading the first and last lines of the paragraph. As this power developed, I found it unncessary to read even paragraphs. I could follow by just reading the first and last lines of the page. Further, when an author introduced discussion to explain some matter and it took him 4 or 5 or even more pages to clear the subject, I could gather the whole trend of the argument by just reading the first few lines."

Some people make certain things look so easy.

I started thinking about my own reading speed. Number of books I read every year is always less than the number of books I buy that same year. This has been the case for the last 20 years or so. Just imagine the number of un-read books in my shelf!.

I also felt that the speed of reading depends on the subject matter as well. A movie review or a match report could be read much faster than an article about income tax, theoretical physics etc ( atleast for me ). Perhaps it also depends on the power of concentration.

Anyways, I have decided to be aware of the speed at which I read when I read. Hopefully that increases the concentration as well the speed. And slowly reduce the un-read books in possession to zero.

Web is inundated with reading materials. More you read, more informed you are and, most likely, a better decision maker too. Reading, that too speed reading, is a key skill for leaders and managers.