“That’s my fear. Once you’ve learned to speed read, can you shut it off?”. Yes you can. Speed reading is not a dark side of reading (Unlimited POWER!!!). It’s an ability,a tool, just like a hammer. You probably posses a hammer, that doesn’t mean you use it- right?

“Next thing: Beethoven at triple speed. Doesn’t appeal to me either. I treasure every minute with a really good book.”
I love music and Beethovens sonata D-dur for two pianos is really gr8. Still reading is really more like watching paintings than listening music.

“This strikes me as being akin to walking quickly through an art gallery not stopping to look at each of the works there, but only glancing at them quickly(…)”
Reading is like watching pictures! I concur. But when watching a painting we don’t have to name tree a tree to know it’s a tree- right? Than there are some people who watch more carefully, and other who don’t like this kind of art.
Same goes for the books. You read carefully what you want to spend more time with, and go faster where you need to read more in less time.

For me- I started to notice the quality of writer, when I started to read faster. When i had no time to enrich each word with emotions the true quality came out. Still I’m not fond of reading poetry fast- it just misses the point.

One more thing on speed reading as such. To learn how to read 10 times faster you really need to keep your brain fit. It needs good focus, motivation, and some training. The fact that I can obtain an ability which few people can is really something. I like self development and in speed reading there is always space for development.

That’s my fear. Once you’ve learned to speed read, can you shut it off? Can you speed read some things (say, a newspaper article) for comprehension and then pick up a classic novel and savor the words?

Thank you for putting into words what I feel but couldn’t express.