The former National Director of Education for Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics. presents his do-it-yourself program for increasing reading speed and boosting comprehension. This program distills fundamental principles and skills chat can be learned at home with the help of the drills and exercises provided. And because it lets readers choose their own materials and set their own pace, it's the ideal method for busy people juggling a full schedule.

Table of Contents:
Breakthrough Rapid ReadingWhat Breakthrough Rapid Reading Means to You Chapter One: Save Time by Starting Today Rapid Reading Is a Skill; Successful Skill Learning; A Senior "Student" Makes It; A Good Reader Is a Flexible Reader; What You Can Expect to Learn; How to Get Started; Exercise No. 1 Chapter Two: Test Your Reading Rate to See Where You Stand Timing Yourself; Testing Yourself; Computing Your Reading Rate; Evaluating Your Retention; Keeping Your Progress Profile; Evaluating Your Present Skills; Be Sure You're Ready to Begin; A Few Words About Your Eyes Chapter Three: Start Using Your Built-in Reading Accelerator What Your Eyes Do When You Read; Regressions Slow Your Rate Considerably; What You Should Know About Reading Conditions; Reading Positions; How to Use Your Hand in Reading; Exercise No. 2; Exercise No. 3 Chapter Four: Eliminate Regressions and Speed Ahead How People Read Fast; The Next Big Step; Eliminating Regressions; Exercise No. 4; Always Use Your Hand; Getting Ahead Chapter Five: Build Your Reading Rate through Drilling The Three Stages of Subvocalizing; Proper Practice Is the Key; How to Learn to Discern Information More Rapidly; Exercise No. 5; Exercise No. 6; Getting Ahead Practice Drills for Week 2 (Supplementary drills to be done with the next six chapters.) Chapter Seven: Don't Read Just for Its Own Sake The First Misconception; The Second Misconception; The Third Misconception; Once Through Is Not Enough; Exercise No. 9; Exercise No. 10; Get Specific with Your Purpose; Know Your Purpose and You Won't Have to Work So Hard; Use These Questions to Start Setting Your Purpose; Set a Purpose for Everything You Read Chapter Eight: Become One of the World's Faster Readers! The "Secret" of Speed Reading; A New Drill Can Increase Your Rate Even More; Exercise No. 11; Push Up Even When You're "Reading"; Exercise No. 12; It Can Be Easy to Reach Your Goal Chapter Nine: Use the Magic Line to Develop Better Reading Recall The "Acid" Test of Comprehension; The Magic Line; Exercise No. 13; Comprehension Versus Speed; Exercise No. 14; Getting Ahead Chapter Ten: Stretch Your Rate Higher with a Different Drill The Range of Efficient Linear Reading; Your Reading Rate Will Vary; The Double/Triple Drill; Exercise No. 15; Reading Versus Practice Reading; Are You Making the Mark?; How to Move Your Hand Faster Chapter Eleven: Know Writers' Techniques and Help Yourself The Basic Form of Nonfiction; Exercise No. 16; The Forms of Fiction Chapter Twelve: Don't Let Turning Pages Slow You Down "Dusting"; Exercise No. 17; The Glorious Saga of the Windshield Wiper, Solving a Nonreading Problem; Turning Pages the Fast Way; Exercise No. 18; Getting Ahead Practice Drills for Week 3(Supplementary drills to be done with the next six chapters) Chapter Thirteen: Make Difficult Reading Easy How Abstract the Writing Is Affects Your Understanding; How People Write and Speak; Levels of Generality; The "Testing" Question; Exercise No. 19; Exercise No. 20 Chapter Fourteen: How People Read Really Fast Evelyn Wood's Remarkable and Simple Discovery; The Differences Between Slow and Fast Readers; How to See Eye Movements; How Much Can the Eyes See?; Why Can't You Understand Lots of Words at a Time; Taking the First Step; Exercise No. 21 Chapter Fifteen: Learn to Read as Fast as You Think "Reading" at High Rates Feels Different; How to Get Comprehension at Higher Rates; Meaning Isn't Carried by All the Words; You Can Read Out-of-Expectancy Order; Exercise No. 22; Adapt Your Hand Movement to the Paragraph; Exercise No. 23 Chapter Sixteen: How to Start Getting Comprehension at High Speeds The Three Rules Which Govern Comprehension; Back to the First Grade; Practice As Much As You Can; Exercise No. 24; Exercise No. 25 Chapter Seventeen: Read Without Saying Each Word to Yourself - And Soar Be Sure You're Ready to Move Ahead; "Paragraphing": The New Hand Movement; Put Your Earplugs On to Practice: The Two Keys to Successful Practice; Exercise No. 26; You're Your Own Best Bet; Exercise No. 27 Chapter Eighteen: How Are You Coming Along? Re-test Yourself; Are You Ready to Move On?; You Must Evaluate Yourself Practice Drills for Week 4 (Supplementary drills to be done with the next six chapters.) Chapter Nineteen: Knowing Reading Signals Helps Speed You Up Why Signal Words Help You Understand; The Many Kinds of Transition Words; Exercise No. 28; Exercise No. 29; Exercise No. 30; Faster Reading in Harder Materials; High-Speed Practice Helps Lower-Speed Reading Chapter Twenty: There's More Than One Way to "Read" Old-Fashioned Speed Reading; Exercise No. 31; Scanning Is Another Reading Alternative; Exercise No. 32; Four Ways of Reading; Leave Your Guilt Behind! Chapter Twenty-One: Advance Organizers Can Help Your Comrehension From Whole to Parts; Find the Author's "Map"; Hard Books Are Often the Easiest; Previewing Nonfiction; When There Is No Apparent "Map"; Exercise No. 33 Chapter Twenty-two: Change Your Attitude and Increase Your Speed What a Basketball Experiment Taught Me; How You're Making Progress When Your Rate Stays the Same - Or Even Drops; Remember the Value of Practice Reading; My "Best" Student; Handle Each Day's Practice by Itself; Exercise No. 34 Chapter Twenty-three: Previewing Fiction Is Always Very Fast Use Scanning to Preview Fiction; Read for Enjoyment; Beware of Reading Problems; Reviewing: The Third Step; Exercise No. 35 Chapter Twenty-four: A Different Hand Movement Can Help Your Comprehension The Good Reason for New Hand Movements; The Two Types of Hand Movements; "Underlining" with Two Fingers; The Slashing Hand Movement; The Criss-Crossing Hand Movement; "Criss-Crossing"; Exercise No. 36; And Why Not Straight Down the Page? Practice Drills for Week 5 (Supplementary drills to be done with the next six chapters.) Chapter Twenty-five: Make Study Reading a Game What's Happening While You're Learning; The Mind Can't Handle Everything That Comes to It; Concentration Is a Trick; The Two Rules of Learning; Ways to Increase Your Concentration; The True Test of Learning; Read Aggressively; "Use" the Information Well; Exercise No. 37 Chapter Twenty-six: Read with Defined Purposes Reading Purposes Vary Widely; When Your Purpose Is Pleasure; A Stock Broker Finds There's More to It Than Speed Alone; Read Smarter and Faster; Don't Let Chance Determine Your Purpose; Levels of Reading and Learning; How to Define a Purpose When Studying; When You're Not Certain; Draw the Recall Pattern in Advance; How to Learn the Correct Information; However You Can Learn Most Efficiently Is the Right Way; Exercise No. 38 Chapter Twenty-seven: "Program" Your Reading to Learn More Efficiently Spend Less Time to Learn More; The Most Efficient Reading; A Plan for Studying; Don't Read to Remember; Exercise No. 39 Chapter Twenty-eight: Create Visual Patterns to Help Your Recall The Value of a Recall Pattern Versus an Outline; Taking the Second Step; Recall Patterns Can Vary; Exercise No. 40 Chapter Twenty-nine: Remember More of What You've Read with These Proven Techniques The Three Steps to Improving Your Retention; Organize Creatively; Associate Information Dramatically; Compare and Contrast; More "Recording" Tricks; Exercise No. 41; Now Apply the Techniques for Yourself; A Final Word Chapter Thirty: Unravel Difficult Passages This Easy Way When Reading in a New Field; When the Writing Is Abstract; Success Doesn't Always Mean 100 Percent; How Fast Can You Read?; When Reading Test Materials; Exercise No. 42 Practice Drills for Week 6 (Supplementary drills to be done with the next six chapters.) Chapter Thirty-one: Develop High Speeds with These Special Drills It Helps to Be Relaxed; Results Vary with Various Teachers; Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?; Exercise No. 43; Exercise No. 44; Practice at Three Times Your Reading Rate Chapter Thirty-two: Read Your Newspaper Instantaneously Practice Your New Techniques Where It's Easy; Familiarity Breeds Faster Reading; News Articles Have the Easiest Form of All; A New Way to Read the Newspaper; Narrow Column Hand Movements; Exercise No. 45 Chapter Thirty-three: Don't Waste Your Time Reading the Mail The First Rule: Handle Everything Only Once; Evaluate a Letter's Importance Right Away; Exercise No. 46 Chapter Thirty-four: Develop the Book-a-Day Habit First Decide What You Want to Read; How to Get More Books Read; A Book-A-Day Approach; Patrick Buchanan Reads Three Books in Two Flights; The Form of Fiction; A Structural Review of "The Cop and the Anthem"; Exercise No. 47; Names Can Be a Problem; Why Read Novels? Chapter Thirty-five: Keep Up with Your Magazines and Informational Reading Use Wisely Whatever Time You Have; Stop Being Compulsive!; When You Find You're Slowing Down; Exercise No. 48; Handle Nonfiction Books the Same Way; Try the Drugstore Drill; Exercise No. 49 Chapter Thirty-six: Find Out Just How Far You've Come Devise a Six-Month Plan; How Thomas Wolfe Became a Speed Reader; A Few Tips Practice Drills for Continuing How to Maintain a Certain Practice Reading Rate Index