Reading

Abstract

We would all claim to be able to read, but the truth is that few people read efficiently. The single word ‘reading’ is itself misleadingly simple, for there are many different techniques of reading required of us according to the task in hand: scanning a telephone directory, checking a recipe, flicking through a book to see if it is useful, ‘reading’ a complex mathematical formula, studying a chapter of Jane Austen, enjoying a le Carré spy novel. All of these call for a different reading approach, but most people only have one: slow, one-paced and rather ponderous. This will clearly be a major drawback to you when you have so much reading to get through.