What Ten Years of Speed Reading Actually Taught Me

The Reader’s Edge | Charlie Samways | July 12, 2026 |

For the last ten years, I have been honing my ability to speed read.

This started when I first arrived at university to study history, and the reading list went further than anything I’d experienced before.

My first year of results left me just short of top grades, but I felt close. I started asking what would get me into that top category.

The answer was that, compared to other first-class papers, mine were short of breadth across ideas and arguments for the topics I was discussing.

Feeling that I was already at my maximum for what I could read, I knew I had to rethink my approach. That’s how I landed on speed reading.

Initially, I assumed speed reading was a bit of a myth. Something reserved for the ultra-intelligent. I was wrong.

It is worth pausing on my initial reaction that speed reading is a myth before going further.

In 2016, a review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest concluded there is no “magic bullet” to reading faster, while maintaining comprehension. Once you get above 500 words per minute on unfamiliar topics, the evidence is not clear that speed reading is achievable.

There is quite rightly scepticism around how far speed reading can go as a tool. But even taking this limit of 500 words per minute into consideration, means you would be doubling the average silent reading speed amongst adults (250 words per minute).

For me, that meant reading roughly twice as fast as I used to, not the extreme claims sometimes made for the technique. Those top-end quoted speeds typically range from 700 words per minute to 1,000 and above.

What I can safely say is that for the final three years of my studies, I used speed reading to push myself into the top bracket for marks and learn a skill that still serves me to this day.

When I Use Speed Reading Techniques

After ten years of speed reading, I now feel well placed to cover when this skill is best utilised.

The starting point for me was education. Reading broadly is associated with assisting our ability to observe a wider range of viewpoints. That allows you to quickly navigate through different arguments and form your own opinion.

Speed reading at university opened my mind to a huge array of debates. I used this time to hone the skill and always kept reading comprehension at the forefront of my mind. If I finished a reading session and couldn’t remember the details, I’d slow down next time.

When I left education, I started to wonder whether my requirement for speed reading would end. It certainly didn’t.

For work, I use speed reading with documents and reports, as well as articles on how technology can be both a benefit and a distraction. Speed reading allows me to get the broad points I need to know before deciding where to give further attention.

In my more general reading, which covers pleasure and work, an unexpected benefit of speed reading has been to push through difficult books. This could be because the subject matter is challenging to read, or simply that I’m not fully engaged with the story.

A great example of this was Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. The book is filled with interesting insights and observations, but I’ll admit, I found it hard going. Speed reading helped me work through the book and build momentum to continue reading. I was able to extract the ideas that really struck me and delve deeper into them.

I could have decided to throw Kahneman’s popular book out. Instead, speed reading equipped me with the tools to finish the book and gain a lot from its lessons.

That’s what speed reading is now. A tool that I have in my armoury to use when I need it.

This isn’t about speed reading all the time. I still love sitting down and taking my time with certain books.

Sometimes, life calls for speed. That’s when speed reading comes in.

This Week’s Question

Have you ever used speed reading techniques? Did they work for you?

Reply to me at hello@charliesamways.com. I read every one.

From The Channel This Week

Check out this week’s video, where I break down the speed reading system that I use alongside my Kindle:

 The Kindle Speed Reading System That Actually Works

And I’ve just updated my Free Kindle Guide with a bonus section on speed reading, which is available for all members to download here

Wishing you all the best this week, and in harnessing the power of speed reading.

Catch up next week,

Charlie Samways