Quick reading: how to read a book quickly

1. READ A BOOK IN A DAY In the scholastic career of a student, it can happen to meet again on the last day before a test or an exam with hundreds of pages still to be read. It may be a whole book that, due to laziness or other commitments, or because of the initial discouragement, it just didn’t even manage to open. But the question is simple: that book, like it or not, should be read.

What can be done in these cases? First of all, learn from the mistakes made: aware of the anxiety that involves postponing the reading of a book assigned until the last available day, next time you will probably think twice about falling back into the same trap. It will be enough for you to carve out a half hour a day to devote to reading to experience the matter with much more serenity.

Now, however, what is done is done and we cannot go back: fortunately there are techniques to be able to read a book in a single day and in this guide you will discover step by step how to face an afternoon of total immersion in reading, managing to obtain good results.

2. READ A BOOK QUICKLY: WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU BEGIN
How to read a book in just one afternoon
How to proceed if you need to read a book in just one afternoon? The first thing to do is to prepare yourself in the best possible way for reading. To do this, just follow these instructions:

1. Isolated. The company you are about to do requires you to be totally concentrated: look for a place that is quiet, where there are no other people who could distract you. It is very important to turn off all the electronic devices and remove anything that could become a distraction: you cannot afford to lose any more precious time.

2. Make yourself comfortable. Your mind will have to work hard, at least make sure your body is at ease. Reading in a comfortable and relaxing position will help you be faster in reading. Be careful to choose a place that is well lit and with a temperature that is not too high.

3. Make a plan. When you have little time you need to be objective. Precisely for this reason, before moving on to the actual reading, you will have to divide the work in a functional manner, so as to have a rational estimate of the timing. To do this, take the index, subdivide the chapters into blocks, establish how much time you can devote to each of these and make a roadmap that includes small breaks to rest the mind, as well as ten minutes between one block and another for summarize how much I read.

4. Recover the necessary material. If you need to read quickly, you can’t face the book completely unprepared. To be able to skip the parts that are not strictly necessary, in fact, you must be able to recognize them. Therefore, before starting to read, you should find the following information:

Author’s biography and style
Short story
Any salient points about which you absolutely must know something (for example, in I Promessi Sposi, Farewell to the mountains of Lucia)
Possible belonging of the work to specific literary currents

3. READ A BOOK IN AN AFTERNOON: FAST READING TECHNIQUES Once you have completed all these precautions, you will be ready to start reading by following the schedule you have created. Obviously by reading how you do at your usual it is unlikely that you will be able to complete what you have proposed. For this reason you will have to abandon the traditional reading method and put into practice the following tips:
Ask yourself questions

At the beginning of each chapter ask yourself what you expect to happen in the text and take up reading to see if your intentions are correct or not. In this way you will stimulate curiosity and your brain will be much more reactive.

Use a finger or a pointer
In order not to tire your gaze too much, you will have to do exactly as you did in elementary school: use your finger (or an alternative pointer that can be, for example, a pen) to follow the text. In this way you will tire yourself much less.

Don’t read everything
Never as in this case you will have to avoid slavishly reading the contents of your book. Remember that you have little time and, therefore, you need to go to the point. If, for example, you are faced with many descriptions, try to understand the style but avoid reading word for word.