If you read 100 -150 books in a year and it will change your life. I read typically 100 books a year and plan on 150 this year, which is a stretch goal for sure. Include a mix of topics, genres and if you are a non-fiction only reader consider deep diving into a novel and you might be surprised.

How difficult is it to improve your reading speed and retain more information? There are plenty of speed-reading programs/courses that you can purchase that might offer ideas and processes to increase your reading speed.

Most of us tend to read at about 200-400 words per minute. Speed-readers claim to hit around 1000-1700 words per minute.

Meta guiding is one of the older techniques and one that I use. It’s when you use a finger (or a pointer like a pen) to guide your eyes to specific words. The point is to decrease distraction and focus on the specific words to increase your reading speed.

Another method pushes you “read” multiple lines at once by expanding your peripheral vision. 

Non-Fiction Reading 7 Steps – Speed Reading Process

• Read Back Cover and Book Jacket inside
• Skim the Chapters
• Read The End of the Book – Look for the summary
• 1st Read of the book – with my finger going over the words and a pen close by but the goal is not to read for comprehension. 200 pages should be around 2-3 hours maximum.
• 2nd Read of the book– Highlight the key concepts, stories, quotes and any items of importance and write them in a journal (no typing), physically writing.
• Review the notes 3 times quickly over the next 2 weeks for retention
• Draft a quick summary of the book (200-400 words maximum in Evernote)

Speed-reading is not for everyone and much more difficult while reading fiction. However, if you want to cover a lot of material and many subjects, consider a speed reading process. Happy reading!