Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading & Learning Program

The second of three books I've read on the topic. Not more or less impressive than either of the other two. The author did strike my pet peeve by spending plenty of time telling me how wonderful the author is. That type of writing style makes me feel like a blonde sitting alone in a bar after I've already bought my own drink.

I purchased this book in about 1991. Due to my constant struggles with undiagnosed ADD, I didn't actually read it until about 4 years ago. In fact, up until that time I had read maybe 10-12 books in my entire life. Despite everything I tried, I couldn't stay focused on most books longer than about 3 minutes. (Yes, that explains why I failed so many classes in high school for not completing reading assignments, book reports, reading the instructions, etc., etc.)

I browsed through the first few chapters, probably ignoring most of it. But I kept at it even after having to re-read entire pages where my mind had wandered. After several hours, I finally made it through the initial reading speed test. I still have the paper that says I read 250 words a minute and I figured I had about 15% retention (basically nothing, like normal - and that is only if my mind didn't completely wander off). Using the simple subsonic reading techniques described in this book I was immediately able to get just over 600 words per minute with an amazing retention of, well... everything! I was stunned! My wife quizzed me about the sample chapter I read and I answered everything correctly. I was simply amazed!

I found the simple techniques for subsonic reading superb and worth ten times the amount the book cost me. As for the rest of the topics in the book, such as student priorities, scheduling, essay writing; I really didn't care about because I wasn't a student. However, the introduction to mind-mapping was good and provided an excellent jump-off point for learning more.

But, I would like to comment about those people who are looking for a book to try to achieve the "super-sonic" reading speeds or whatever it's called these days. Those people should probably just accept that if anyone can actually do that it is because they had at least 95% of the talent/ability before a book or program helped them discover it and not because of any magic technique.

By the way, I have read well over 100 books since reading Remember Everything You Read, both fiction and non-fiction books. My current reading speed is a comfortable pace of about 800-900 words per minute. But, even still, the absolute best part about having read this book is that I remember what I read! And, that has truly changed my life.

I didn't really like this book because it made you feel like you had to read really fast on everything! Not true!

Amazon.com is the only place I could find this book! Go figure! It has helped me learn to read faster, and so to get through my university classes faster and easier. Why isn't it on the all-time best-seller list?

I purchased this as a gift for a 72 year old friend that was having trouble reading. He has said this has helped his memory and the speed of his reading is ten fold from waht is was.