 "Nearly Self-Defeating" | 2009-07-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1V84A9EO1GS54 |
"Reading Smart will help you get the most out of everything you read," or so the book, by Nicholas Reid Schaffzin, says on the back cover. Reading Smart; Advanced Techniques for Improved Reading sounds like a good resource for the average reader wanting to read better. However, on closer inspection, "advanced techniques" could really be reworded, "average techniques-and a lot of them." Reading Smart would be more useful were it concise, less repetitive, and consisted mainly of exercises.
First of all, if the book were more concise, it would be easier to read. Each chapter is written in an informal voice, as if a friend is talking and explaining everything. Because of this informal style, things get too wordy. Too many adjectives and flowery words are used to try and make a point, add humor, or explain; and in the end it detracts from the purpose of the book. The reader is given references to movies and actors all throughout the pages. This could be useful in further explaining a topic, but generally the references are for humor only, and break off the thought of the paragraph. Besides, the actors and movies are not current, and do more to distract than to elaborate. When Schaffzin expounds on a concept, corny analogies are used. The most glaringly distasteful comparison is the brain being portrayed as a large storage area where elves work. The book explains that if the reader does not understand a new concept he is learning, that giving it some time and some sleep will do the trick. The elves supposedly sort through the information you are receiving, and once they get everything in the right piles, you will understand the concept. The book never explains the real scientific processes of the brain, or expands on this analogy. If Reading Smart were written in a more formal, direct manner, with less flowery explanations and more instruction, it would be easier to follow, not to mention that it would take less time to read. Ridding the book of irrelevant references to actors and movies would add to a clearer understanding of the topics. Instead of silly analogies, a straight and logically fashioned set of rules for reading more quickly and efficiently would better answer the needs of the reader.
Secondly, if the book were less repetitive, it would save the reader time and effort. There are nine chapters of material in the book, not including the introductory chapter and exercises. Every chapter could be feasibly written in one paragraph or list of helpful rules. However, each chapter seems to bring in ideas from the last. They are not hard concepts to understand, and do not need to be repeated over and over. There are only a few concrete points that the book includes, everything else is just a re-stating of those points. In order to learn how to read smarter, the instructions you follow should be concise and brief, allowing you to process the information and test your new techniques for reading as soon as possible. With Reading Smart, the reader has to drag through chapters full of a rehashing of the chapter before it, taking a great effort to pinpoint the main facts and disregard the excess.
Lastly, Reading Smart would be more useful if it had only one chapter about how to read, and was otherwise filled with exercises. The exercises in the back of the book work on reading faster and reading comprehension; the goals the reader has in mind when purchasing this book. As with anything, learning to read well takes practice. The exercises in the book are its best feature. There are tests throughout the book to gauge what progress is being made. They are very useful for seeing if the book is helping the reader to improve, or not. Other exercises show how fast a person reads. With one, clear, concise section on how to read and plenty of exercises, the reader would be well on their way to reading success, without having to struggle though a wordy and incoherent book on how to read.
In conclusion, Reading Smart has wonderful exercises for evaluation reading level, progress, and for practice in reading better. The book also has great rules for how to read faster, more efficiently and with greater comprehension. However, it repeats these rules over nine "chatty" chapters, leaving the reader drained from too much information. Should Shaffzin republish the book with a single, concise section on the main rules of good reading and include many effective exercises, the result would be a much more useful resource for average readers wanting to get ahead in their reading. |
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 "A Must Read" | 2008-12-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2IGT53A8JESJV |
| This book is written so well. It explains the poor book reading habits we all have like sub vocalization, and eye tracking. The ideal way to learn to read is explained in a simple and fun way. If a child could get their hands on this early enough... wow. The author has a great sense of humor. Most of his advice and tips are simple to understand and put into practice with only a little effort. I've read two other reading books and this was my favorite. I've already given one as a gift and wouldn't think twice recommending it to an avid reader. |
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 "For the Dedicated Reader" | 2007-03-26 |
| - Reviewed By maxzhou |
This book is for people who want to read quicker and at the same time retain more information. The book is somewhat meticulous, but I don't see how the tediousness could be lifted from it in any other way, so I guess the book performed to what was expected.
As the exercises goes, if you are very focused and intent at improving your reading, then this book will help you immensely, as it did for me. Now I can read much quicker and my eyes just fly through the page. But, a lot of the stuff that was recommended I already did subconciously, jumping from groups of words. But, this book helps you by giving you sound advice and exercises so that you can plot your improvement. I can now read normally at a pace of 270 wpm, and at a peak of nearly 300 wpm, and my wpm is still improving.
Here's my tip: Don't do all the exercises in one day. If you do, then your eyes will be tired and you won't have learned anything really permanently. If you do it over a span of, lets say 5 weeks, then the repetoire that the author suggests will be built into your head and this way, you can really put your skills you've learned to good use. I suggest using the skills they provide on the text of this book too. |
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 "Ok, but leaves some to be desired" | 2005-01-03 |
| - Reviewed By shanebrewer |
Reading Smart is a book intended to help people develop their reading skills, including preparation, speed, and retention. While the book indeed was right that teachers tend to just teach us to read properly but not well creating a need for education directed at improving reading skills, I felt this book came up a little short in that area.
Reading smart does indeed have some good ideas, but it tends to state them at the beginning and then repeats them and rides them for the rest of the book. Ideas like marking up your book, prereading, think about why you are reading the selected text, what do you want to take away from it, etc. There is a speed reading chapter, however while I found the idea to be accuracte, I found the amount of text and practice to be inadequate.
The exercises were quite painful.... as in painfully boring. The text selected for the exercises was from areas that I was not in the least bit familar with (Art, Politics, etc) which I found caused my comprehension to be lower than normal. However it is still important to be able to read uninspiring material and be able to retain the material. However I really didn't want to practice that in succession with improving retention, speed, etc.
While I think this is a good book to read, I would have trouble saying that this is definitely a MUST read. It has some good tools but I would look for a book with a more complete set of areas and corresponding material. 3 out of 5 stars. |
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| "Major on reading smart -minor on speed reading" | 2003-01-20 |
| - Reviewed By darkguardian2 |
| I bought this book thinking it was a speed reading book. I quickly found that it describes the different styles of writing and how to dig the information I need out of a piece of writing. Some speed reading basics are covered. How to read newspapers, poems, short stories. How to question the source of the writing, what the author is trying to communicate. Is it an opinion or a fact? A must read for beginning students and those starting research. A great place to start for those going back to school like me. |
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| "Reading Smart" | 2001-08-17 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Reading smart was a great book. The book described different techniques on how to read differing types of literature from short stories to plays to articles. It's well written segment on how to use fixations and saccades to read faster has greatly improved my own reading speeds. But it's most helpful asset was its segment on reading comprehension. My levels increased from 50% to 90% and that was a great, GREAT surprise. For results, I suggest this book. |
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