Reading With the Right Brain: Read Faster by Reading Ideas Instead of Just Words (7 page)

But let’s be realistic
―
there are a lot of very unbelievable claims being made in the speed reading industry. You’re probably suspicious of many of them, or you at least suspect they might be too good to be true.

Instead of filling your head with nonsense, I want to give you something that will truly be of value to you. Forget all the exercises that focus on eye movement. Instead, focus on thinking conceptually about what you are reading by employing the right side of your brain to see the big picture, the whole idea of what you read.

With the explosion of information available through e-readers and the internet, we are likely witnessing a fundamental transformation of the world. In fact, we are probably at the beginning of an unprecedented information and knowledge revolution—a quantum leap in the development of human intelligence and potential. The driver of this change is the worldwide connectedness and collaboration that has suddenly been made available through the internet.

All of this change, however, depends on reading. A rocket ship is about to take off, headed for the future, but only those with excellent reading skills will be aboard.

Practice Exercise #3

As you practice this exercise, keep in mind that there is still a speed below which we tend to vocalize the words, at least internally, just because we’re bored. If you are careful to read slightly faster while concentrating on imagining the meaning of what you read, there therefore will be less of a tendency to say the words.

During this exercise, try to visualize in your imagination what you are reading. Visualizing ideas also has a powerful effect on silencing your inner voice since it’s actually difficult to verbalize while concentrating on visuals. It seems that concentrating on one makes it harder to do the other, so you don’t need to make any special effort to silence that voice; just concentrate on the visuals but avoid going too slowly.

This, and all remaining exercises, will have a maximum thought-unit phrase length of five words. You should have no problem picking up these larger phrases because each will still represent only a single idea. In fact, you may find that you can read even faster with larger phrases because you will be covering more text per glance. But don’t push your speed past your comprehension; focus on imagining what each phrase means and the speed will come.

Once you’ve finished reading the exercise, make a note of your speed result for future comparisons.

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

The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The studio
was filled
with the rich
odor of roses,
and when
the light summer wind
stirred amidst
the trees of the garden,
there came through
the open door
the heavy scent
of the lilac,
or the more
delicate perfume
of the pink-flowering
thorn.

From the corner
of the divan
of Persian saddle-bags
on which he was lying,
smoking,
as was his custom,
innumerable cigarettes,
Lord Henry Wotton could
just catch the gleam
of the honey-sweet
and honey-colored
blossoms of a laburnum,
whose tremulous branches
seemed hardly able
to bear the burden
of a beauty so flame-like
as theirs;
and now and then
the fantastic shadows
of birds in flight
flitted across
the long
tussore-silk curtains
that were stretched
in front of
the huge window,
producing a kind
of momentary
Japanese effect,
and making him think
of those pallid,
jade-faced painters
of Tokyo who,
through the medium
of an art
that is necessarily immobile,
seek to convey
the sense of swiftness
and motion.
The sullen murmur
of the bees
shouldering their way
through the long unmown grass,
or circling with
monotonous insistence
round the dusty
gilt horns
of the
straggling woodbine,
seemed to make
the stillness
more oppressive.
The dim roar of London
was like the bourdon note
of a distant organ.

In the center
of the room,
clamped to
an upright easel,
stood the full-length
portrait
of a young man
of extraordinary
personal beauty,
and in front of it,
some little
distance away,
was sitting
the artist himself,
Basil Hallward,
whose sudden
disappearance
some years ago
caused,
at the time,
such public excitement
and gave rise to
so many
strange conjectures.

As the painter
looked at the gracious
and comely form
he had so skillfully
mirrored in his art,
a smile of pleasure
passed across his face,
and seemed about
to linger there.
But he suddenly
started up,
and closing his eyes,
placed his fingers
upon the lids,
as though he sought
to imprison
within his brain
some curious dream
from which he feared
he might awake.

“It is your best work,
Basil,
the best thing
you have ever done,”
said Lord Henry
languidly.
“You must certainly
send it next year
to the Grosvenor.
The Academy is too large
and too vulgar.
Whenever
I have gone there,
there have been either
so many people
that I have not
been able
to see the pictures,
which was dreadful,
or so many pictures
that I have not
been able
to see the people,
which was worse.
The Grosvenor is really
the only place.”

“I don’t think
I shall send it
anywhere,”
he answered,
tossing his head back
in that odd way
that used to
make his friends
laugh at him
at Oxford.
“No,
I won’t send it
anywhere.”

Lord Henry
elevated his eyebrows
and looked at him
in amazement
through the thin
blue wreaths of smoke
that curled up
in such fanciful whorls
from his heavy,
opium-tainted cigarette.
“Not send it anywhere?
My dear fellow, why?
Have you any reason?
What odd chaps
you painters are!
You do anything
in the world
to gain
a reputation.
As soon as
you have one,
you seem to want
to throw it away.
It is
silly of you,
for there is
only one thing
in the world
worse than
being talked about,
and that is
not being
talked about.
A portrait like this
would set you
far above
all the young men
in England,
and make
the old men
quite jealous,
if old men
are ever capable
of any emotion.”

“I know you will
laugh at me,”
he replied,
“but I really can’t
exhibit it.
I have put too much
of myself into it.”

Lord Henry
stretched himself out
on the divan
and laughed.

“Yes,
I knew you would;
but it is quite true,
all the same.”

“Too much
of yourself in it!
Upon my word,
Basil,
I didn’t know
you were so vain;
and I really can’t see
any resemblance
between you,
with your rugged
strong face
and your coal-black hair,
and this young Adonis,
who looks
as if he was
made out of ivory
and rose-leaves.
Why, my dear Basil,
he is a Narcissus,
and you—well,
of course
you have an intellectual
expression
and all that.
But beauty,
real beauty,
ends where
an intellectual expression
begins.
Intellect is in itself
a mode of exaggeration,
and destroys the harmony
of any face.
The moment one
sits down to think,
one becomes all nose,
or all forehead,
or something horrid.
Look at
the successful men
in any of
the learned professions.
How perfectly
hideous they are!
Except,
of course,
in the Church.
But then in the Church
they don’t think.
A bishop keeps on saying
at the age of eighty
what he was
told to say
when he was
a boy of eighteen,
and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite sure of that. He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence. Don’t flatter yourself, Basil: you are not in the least like him.”

“You don’t understand me, Harry,” answered the artist. “Of course I am not like him. I know that perfectly well. Indeed, I should be sorry to look like him. You shrug your shoulders? I am telling you the truth. There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as well as…

Chapter 4: The Basics

Many people seem to be looking for a quick and easy way to read faster—some kind of ninja trick or magic beans. This preference for a “magical” solution is clearly evidenced by the popularity of books with titles promising to teach you speed reading in one hour or less.

The hidden truth behind such promises is that when they say “Learn to Speed Read in One Hour,” they’re not actually promising to teach you TO READ faster in one hour; they’re only promising to teach you HOW TO read faster. There is a subtle but important difference; the “one hour’” only refers to how long it will take you to read their little book! At the end of the hour, you still won’t be able to read any faster; you’ll just know
how
(supposedly) to
begin
learning.

If you only want to know
how to
read faster, I can tell you in just a few seconds:

3 Mind Tricks to Power-Up Your Reading