Reading With the Right Brain: Read Faster by Reading Ideas Instead of Just Words (19 page)

Once again, remember to time your reading and record your words per minute on your progress form. Even though you are concentrating more on comprehension than speed, your speed is still a helpful indirect indication of your progress.

When you’re ready, begin reading the first thousand words of

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I am afraid,
Watson,
that I shall
have to go,”
said Holmes,
as we sat down together
to our breakfast
one morning.

“Go!
Where to?”

“To Dartmoor;
to King’s Pyland.”

I was not surprised.
Indeed,
my only wonder
was that he had not
already been
mixed up in this
extraordinary case,
which was
the one topic
of conversation
through
the length and breadth
of England.
For a whole day
my companion had rambled
about the room
with his chin
upon his chest
and his brows knitted,
charging and recharging
his pipe
with the strongest
black tobacco,
and absolutely deaf
to any of my questions
or remarks.
Fresh editions
of every paper
had been sent up
by our news agent,
only to be glanced over
and tossed down
into a corner.
Yet,
silent as he was,
I knew perfectly well
what it was over
which he was brooding.
There was but one problem
before the public
which could challenge
his powers of analysis,
and that was
the singular
disappearance
of the favorite
for the Wessex Cup,
and the tragic murder
of its trainer.
When, therefore,
he suddenly announced
his intention
of setting out
for the scene
of the drama
it was only what
I had both expected
and hoped for.

“I should be most happy
to go down
with you
if I should not
be in the way,”
said I.

“My dear Watson,
you would confer
a great favor upon me
by coming.
And I think
that your time
will not be misspent,
for there are points
about the case
which promise
to make it
an absolutely
unique one.
We have,
I think,
just time
to catch our train
at Paddington,
and I will go further
into the matter
upon our journey.
You would oblige me
by bringing
with you
your very excellent
field-glass.”

And so it happened
that an hour or so
later
I found myself
in the corner
of a first-class carriage
flying along
en route for Exeter,
while Sherlock Holmes,
with his sharp,
eager face framed
in his ear-flapped
travelling-cap,
dipped rapidly
into the bundle
of fresh papers
which he had procured
at Paddington.
We had left Reading
far behind us
before he thrust
the last one of them
under the seat,
and offered me
his cigar-case.

“We are going well,”
said he,
looking out the window
and glancing
at his watch.
“Our rate
at present is
fifty-three and a half
miles an hour.”

“I have not observed
the quarter-mile posts,”
said I.

“Nor have I.
But the telegraph posts
upon this line
are sixty yards apart,
and the calculation
is a simple one.
I presume
that you have looked
into this matter
of the murder
of John Straker
and the disappearance
of Silver Blaze?”

“I have seen
what the Telegraph
and the Chronicle
have to say.”

“It is
one of those cases
where the art
of the reasoner
should be used
rather for
the sifting of details
than for the acquiring
of fresh evidence.
The tragedy has been
so uncommon,
so complete
and of such
personal importance
to so many people,
that we are suffering
from a plethora
of surmise,
conjecture,
and hypothesis.
The difficulty
is to detach
the framework of fact—
of absolute
undeniable fact—
from the embellishments
of theorists
and reporters.
Then,
having
established ourselves
upon this sound basis,
it is our duty
to see what inferences
may be drawn
and what are
the special points
upon which
the whole mystery
turns.
On Tuesday evening
I received telegrams
from both Colonel Ross,
the owner of the horse,
and from
Inspector Gregory,
who is looking after
the case,
inviting my cooperation.”

“Tuesday evening!”
I exclaimed.
“And this
is Thursday morning.
Why didn’t you
go down
yesterday?”

“Because
I made
a blunder,
my dear Watson—
which is,
I am afraid,
a more common occurrence
than any one
would think
who only knew me
through your memoirs.
The fact is
that I could not
believe it possible
that the most
remarkable horse
in England
could long
remain concealed,
especially in
so sparsely inhabited
a place as
the north of Dartmoor.
From hour to hour
yesterday
I expected to hear
that he had been found,
and that his abductor
was the murderer
of John Straker.
When, however,
another morning had come,
and I found
that
beyond
the arrest
of young Fitzroy Simpson
nothing had been done,
I felt that
it was
time for me
to take action.
Yet in some ways
I feel that yesterday
has not been wasted.”

“You have
formed a theory, then?”

“At least
I have got
a grip
of the essential facts
of the case.
I shall
enumerate them to you,
for nothing clears up
a case so much
as stating it to
another person,
and I can hardly
expect your co-operation
if I do not
show you the position from which we start.”

I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar, while Holmes, leaning forward, with his long, thin forefinger checking off the points upon the palm of his left hand, gave me a sketch of the events which had led to our journey.

“Silver Blaze,” said he, “is from the Somomy stock, and holds as brilliant a record as his famous ancestor. He is now in his fifth year, and has brought in turn each of the prizes of the turf to Colonel Ross, his fortunate owner. Up to the time of the catastrophe he was the first favorite for the Wessex Cup, the betting being three to one on him. He has always, however, been a prime favorite with the racing public, and has never yet disappointed them, so that even at those odds enormous sums of money have been laid upon him. It is obvious, therefore, that there were many people who had the strongest interest in preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the fall of the flag next Tuesday.

“The fact was, of course, appreciated at King’s Pyland, where the Colonel’s training-stable is situated. Every precaution was taken to guard…

Chapter 11: Comprehension

I don’t know why, but few people seem to recognize that we are not trying to read WORDS—we are trying to read IDEAS.

Reading is all about comprehension. Reading without comprehension is like reading with your eyes closed. Comprehension means more than just understanding words and definitions; it means understanding the ideas being communicated.

Comprehension depends on the writer and the reader; it is a connection between two minds, and good comprehension depends on both ends of this connection.

Since comprehension is the purpose of text, it would be helpful to consider what comprehension is, what affects it, and how to maximize it.

Reading IS Comprehension

Sure, we all know comprehension is important. We want to read faster while maintaining good comprehension. But this is looking at the process completely backwards. Comprehension is the goal of reading and the only reason for reading. It is not a part of reading to be simply
maintained
. What you really want to have is good comprehension… and then also have fast reading.

Even though it seems obvious to everyone that comprehension is important, most reading improvement courses not only ignore comprehension, but even actively discourage it. We are told we can ignore comprehension while pressing ahead with our “reading” speed. We are told that
after
we develop the habit of seeing words faster, our comprehension will somehow catch up. I’m afraid it just doesn’t work like that, as you have probably discovered for yourself.

Pushing your speed and expecting your comprehension to catch up is like flooring the accelerator on your car and expecting your driving skills to catch up. Your car would soon crash as certainly as your comprehension would.

Comprehension is a skill, a complex mental skill that doesn’t improve on its own. Like most skills, you have to master proper technique before you can perform the skill faster. Improved comprehension is what leads to speed, not vice versa.

Not only does comprehension fail to automatically improve with faster reading, it is also possible to read words and have absolutely no comprehension at all. How often have you read an entire page with your mind on autopilot, only to discover that you didn’t remember a thing?

Here’s another example of “reading” without understanding. Even though I do not
understand
Spanish, the phonetic rules of the language are logical enough that I could probably
say
all the words. This means I could read a Spanish book aloud and most Spanish speaking people would understand what I was saying. But just because I could say the words wouldn’t mean I was actually reading them. I would only be decoding written symbols into their associated sounds. In the end, I am not taking away any information, just sounds. This is the same if I were to read English while ignoring comprehension. Comprehension must come first—without it, you aren’t really
reading
at all.

The path to faster reading is
improving comprehension by conceptualizing meaning
. By following this path, your reading speed will increase automatically—a natural result of faster understanding. With more effective comprehension, you’ll not only read faster, but you’ll have more to show for it.

Information Density

The information density of a piece of text depends on how much new information is contained within that text, and this can have a huge effect on comprehension. Data that contains no new information is the easiest to read because most of this empty data will be simply discarded by the prefrontal cortex.

But after this filtering, data that includes new information is going to go through additional processing to be sorted, prioritized, and finally connected to previous knowledge through shared attributes.

During this process, some of the knowledge may be deemed interesting enough to require further contemplation, in which case you may even halt your reading momentarily to ponder and examine this important discovery and make further mental attachments.