Do you read everything fast

This question is one I frequently get asked by people who aren't speed readers.
The short answer is no. The longer answer is that I can choose when to speed read and when not to.
I tend to choose to speed read if I have a lot of fairly tedious material to read. I often speed read if I have read something a long time ago and I want to refresh the memory of it. Sometimes I speed read if something is really interesting and I want to find out more. Even when I feel I am reading something relatively slowly, it is usually faster than most people read. There are times when I definitely don't speed read. Like many people, I have favourite poems that I like to read and re-read. I like listening to poetry read aloud. When I read poems by myself, I often hear the words in my 'mind's ear'.

Speed reading is a very useful skill to have when you are really busy and you have to prepare for a meeting at short notice. When this happened recently, I was able to use the time saved to think about the situation that had prompted the meeting. As a result of the extra thinking time, I felt I was better prepared when we sat down for discussions. My choice of speed mainly depends on my purpose for reading and the time available to do it. The main constraint is how the reading is presented. Narrow columns and small print allow readers to take in more words at once. Large print, double line spacing and long line widths slow the reading rate of even the best speed readers.

Anne Jones, February 2011