Bleeding reading.

This is a set-up post for my next post, because it would have been awkward to combine them.

When I was a freshman at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse I was required to take a developmental reading course. The teacher was Mr. Molessa, a layman. Naturally, we called him The Mole. He was kind of nerdy, but a nice guy. Unfortunately, he diminished my reading skills forever.

We took some tests and I was able to read at 2200 wpm with 90% comprehension. That probably sounds more impressive than it was. I was a good test taker, and I had a technique. I'd read the first and last sentences only of a paragraph, and usually I then knew what the paragraph was about. If I didn't, I skimmed the rest of it.

One day we were doing some exercise and The Mole said, "Class, look at how quickly Mr. Freund's eyes go back and forth." And I was like, "What?! My eyes go back and forth?"

SCREEECH!

That put the brakes on. From that moment on whenever I try to read fast I can feel my eyes creaking back and forth in their sockets. Fortunately, most of the time I am content to read slowly and savor the writing.

All I wanted to say for the next post is that you can read faster with no loss of comprehension... and maybe better comprehension... if you don't speak the words in your mind as you read them.