VIP friends who have been with me for a while here know that I love to do at least a few columns a year about books and reading. Those tend to be the ones that generate the most lively and interesting comments. They're also part of an ongoing reminder of just how awesome the VIP community is here.
For a variety of reasons, my 2025 reading habits have been garbage. That's not a good thing, given the pace at which I read. Playing catch-up in December to hit my reading goals for the year isn't really an option for me. I really wish I could read faster.
Friends and colleagues are familiar with me going on about my desire to live a very long time. Quite often, their response is, "Why?" My pat answer is, "I've got a lot of reading to do." I was probably in my early 30s when I first began to lament the fact that I couldn't do all of the reading that I wanted to do in one human lifetime.
I read a lot, but I don't read quickly. My late father was a voracious and fast reader. My 87-year-old mother still is. If there is a gene for being able to blitz through a book in one sitting, I didn't get it. A guy can dream, though.
Over the years, I've thought about speed reading, of course. I think I once checked out a website that had some drills. The drills didn't work for me, however. After some time, I began wondering why I had never met anyone in real life who was a speed reader, or had even studied it. To this day, the only speed readers I've ever seen were characters in movies or on television shows. These are usually the characters who are also tech wizzes who can hack the NSA in 90 seconds so...yeah.
Speed reading would also help me work faster, which would be a godsend. I don't think a lot of people ponder how much reading I do every day before I write anything.
Sometimes I wonder if speed reading is an urban legend, or maybe just a scam. I don't dare research it online, lest my Instagram timeline turn into a barrage of ads promising that I'll be able to get through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in just 45 minutes. My IG feed is still reeling from the suitcase ad I accidentally clicked on last week because I was scrolling too fast. I swear to the algorithm gods that my travel accessory situation is nigh on perfect right now.
On the topic of speed reading, I trust all of you more than I do Google or ChatGPT. That's saying a lot, because ChatGPT and I have become pretty tight these last six months. There's a level of trust that develops quickly when getting instantaneous responses to, "Here's what I have in the fridge, give me five Crockpot recipes for that." Back to speed reading though. Are any of you speed readers? If so, how did you learn?
If there is any way for me to pick up the pace — even a little bit — I need to find out. I still have to finish Infinite Jest.
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