Ch. 1free to read
Rapid Reading
What It’s About
Imagine how much time you would save if you could finish the same text in a third or even a fifth of the time it used to take you! Speed reading is simply the practice of how to control fine motor movements.
Three Key Ideas
Reading Speed Is a Habit
Dudley argues that slow reading is not a fixed trait but a learned habit, and habits can be changed through deliberate practice.
Eye Movement and Regression Control
Most adults read one word at a time and frequently backtrack, and eliminating these two patterns is the fastest route to doubling your reading speed.
Speed and Comprehension Together
Slow reading creates more distraction and wandering attention, so increasing pace and improving retention are complementary goals, not competing ones.
Read a Sample
Rapid Reading by Geoffrey A. Dudley
Most adults read at roughly 200 words per minute. That's barely faster than someone talking to you over a leisurely dinner. It's why your stack of unread books keeps growing, why your inbox feels heavier on Friday than it did on Monday, and why you'll finish a chapter and wonder what exactly you just read. Geoffrey A. Dudley, writing in the 1970s for British readers teaching themselves, makes one bold claim and then spends ten chapters proving it. Reading speed, he says, isn't set by nature. It's set by habit. And habits can be changed.
What follows is a tour of Dudley's book, *Rapid Reading*, published by Thorsons. It's a practical manual, not a theoretical treatise. He asks you to do exercises. He asks you to time yourself. He asks you to put a pencil between your teeth and feel ridiculous. By speed-reading standards, it's a modest promise. He doesn't promise to quadruple your speed. He promises to double it and to lift your comprehension at the same time, because the two aren't enemies. Slow reading doesn't mean careful reading. Often, it's distracted reading, and Dudley's whole project rests on that insight.
Three ideas are worth holding on to. The first is that insight itself: slow reading isn't careful reading, and speed and understanding can climb together, because a slow pace lets attention wander. The second is that reading speed is a habit, and a habit gives way to imagination, not to willpower. The third is that a fast reader takes in groups of words and whole lines instead of single words, and goes straight for the meaning. Attention, interest and association then keep that meaning in memory. The book itself runs to ten chapters, with eight reading techniques along the way and a closing chapter on memory.
Who It’s For
- Anyone who has a growing pile of unread books and wants to actually get through them.
- Anyone who spends a significant part of their workday reading reports, emails, or documents.
- Anyone who struggles to stay focused while reading and wants practical, exercise-based techniques.
- Anyone who wants to improve both their reading speed and their ability to remember what they read.
About the Author: Geoffrey A. Dudley
Geoffrey A. Dudley was a British author who wrote practical self-instruction books for a general adult readership, primarily in the 1970s. His work focused on applied psychology and personal development skills such as memory, concentration, and reading.
Rapid Reading was published by Thorsons, a UK publisher known for self-improvement titles of that era. Dudley draws on the educational and psychological research of his time, citing researchers from American reading institutes and British universities to ground his techniques in observable evidence.
