How Fast Should You Read? 

Waiting until I see John Fish give a TED talk

This is so on time I was just wondering about my reading speed

I read so slow like take me 30-40 minutes for non-fiction 25 pages

800 to 1200 words per Minute....hOW THE HELL?!?!?!!?

Normally i wouldn't care about a "how fast should you read" video, bu it's John Fish lmao

PS sorry for missing a couple of weeks, I got sick for a week and then planned on taking spring break off anyways, so it compounded weirdly. Nice break, and I'm glad to be back at it!

I read like 3x slower than everyone else 😢

Do it a bookshelf tour video, it'll be really nice! Great video :)

your vids are so wholesome, like even this vid about reading makes me feel so at home and warm for some reason it motivates me but it doesnt pressure me love it

Dude, you're not gonna believe this but i was just thinking about this

I think speed reading is a skill which everyone should learn . Some might argue that it does not let you enjoy the book but thing is that you might need to read books which have content that you're familiar with or it has a lot of redundant material so you have to speed read to skim through it quickly and find those parts which are of real VALUE to you. And when one is reading literature you can slow down your speed and contemplate evey part of it so that you fully enjoy it. Speed reading does not mean that you have to read at a fast speed everytime it just gives you the freedom to switch between different speeds according to your needs.

When I start watching your videos - I've started reading books, and changing my life! Hello from Ukraine!

I feel like if this guy was my master but also my homie

Notification gang. Keep up the great work John.

I am currently ten and I really wanna pursue my academic goals and get into Harvard. I use you as a source of information and motivation to keep going and give me a different perspective on certain things.

I love the way you talk. It's so clear in logic and somehow calming...

I’ve missed your videos. I’m so glad you’re back!

Hi. I have just recently subscribed and I must say that I find your videos both insightful and inspiring. As both a university student at Cambridge University, UK, and a vlogger on youtube, your videos have given me a lot to consider on how to do things differently. Thank you :)

Hi john, could you make a podcast? It sounds a lot fun to listen it from you. Tq

if while your reading the pages don't catch on fire from the laser hot focus and the speed at which your reading at then, your doing it wrong.

Been waiting for weeks, finally new video thank you. I love it when you make videos about reading so inspiring, you are the reason I am starting to get into reading books

I love your videos. You go through complex subjects like this in a very organized and easy way to understand. And this video personally inspired me, cause I've been reading very little and feeling bad about it. But now I feel really motivated to go back and contemplate my stories

Such a great video! You are awesome at communicating your ideas with clarity. 👏🏼

This was exactly what I needed! Your content is always on point!!

Listening to you talk is so soothing.

You’re so inspiring! Thank you so much for this excellent content!

I really like the video. It demonstrated very well quality over quantity. Thanks John Fish.

Pretty Useful. Regards from Costa Rica. I appreciate this kind of videos!

John, whenever I watch your videos I want to get my a*s off the couch and start doing something! Keep it up man!

This is so on point for me because i’m actually struggling to read To the Lighthouse in a week. Loving it so far but it really takes contemplative reading. Thanks for the video, it’s like you read my mind :)

Yay! I always get so excited when you upload, love your videos! :)

My favorite thing about your channel is that you educate people without talking down to anyone or acting like you’re better than everyone else. I really appreciate that about you. 👍🏻😁

This answers so many questions in my head. Such a relief!

John, you encourage me to think a little deeper into everything I do. Cheers from Buffalo, NY!

I read one passage and get lost in thoughts for half an hour. Good luck to me.

I love your vids man , amazing work honestly.

John, ur a really great guy! Your content is well made and contains much Info in a realtively short time. Thanks for the awesome video!

I was in the dilemma and you solved it. This video has changed my perspective towards reading. Thanks man.

such high quality content always, thanks for inspiring me all the time!

Your advice about reading is really benificial,thank you! Love u 3000.

This guy is really good. Wish him nothing but the best. God bless.

i finish a book with 50 pages within a month and proudly say im a fast reader.

Thanks for being so inspiring in your videos!

Yes!! Have wait to see you again.💛🌸

Hey John, I'm a 20 year old from Brazil, currently going through law college (it's different from law school in the USA), and for most of my life I've been struggling with being a good student. I mean, I was smart, always had "normal grades" but could never have better grades cause I never really studied. Don't get me wrong, I've tried, but just like everything else in my life, I gave up. So after a while I gave up trying to be good in anything and just accepted I was going to be ordinary for the rest of my life and that that was okay. So in the last few months I realized that I wouldn't be able to achieve my dreams being ordinary, and that I had so much potential, but again, I wasn't able to put up the work needed to turn my potential into reality. And that's when I found your videos while scrolling randomly through RU-vid and it changed my life. You inspired me to be the best version of myself, and I'm using some of your tips and adapting them to my reality. I'm not as organized and focused as you are yet, but I'm a lot better then when I first started. Sorry for the long text but I just wanted to thank you!! You're an amazing and inspirational human being! Thanks!

I loved this video, thank you! -Carmen from Mexico

Welcome back John!

Another great video John!

I agree. I always feel like comprehension is more important than speed. A lot of people think I read really fast (60-80 books per year) but I never skim. Some books I read slow, some are faster. I also find when I read fiction slowly it is very hard to visualize what’s happening whereas is if I speed up a little it’s like watching a movie and I remember and enjoy much more

I bet you can write very well. Readers know how to write as well... So jealous!

Good to have you back John

Good video--I hadn't thought about the "are you wanting to read a few books deeply or a lot of books quickly to get the gist of what they say" points. This is helping me prioritize my summer reading. I've been listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook, which has really helped me get through it.

John, i think it would be great a video talking more about your career, what did you liked it and how do you go with it. Thanks for the video! love n peace!

I have been thinking and getting confused about this a lot lately. Thank you for this video.

Very true. Every book I had to read for English class in high school, I read in a day. I liked them. I was lucky enough to have teachers that made us read interesting books. Even though I've always been a fast reader, when I had philosophy in my last year of high school, I found myself stuck in the same page for about 10-15 minutes!! Sometimes I couldn't get it done and finish on time. First of all, make sure you like what you are reading and that you are not simply doing it "to be cool" or something.

Brilliant! Many Thanks mate🙋

Wow, good stuff. This is a penetrating insight into a much overlooked area. Reading is something we often take for granted, and fail to explore its nuances. Indeed, as regards such an important activity as reading, we could gain great insight from thinking about it abstractly. This helps to develop strategies and to account for variables that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. I think you are making groundbreaking discoveries simply by applying your analytical skills to this much neglected subject matter for thought. I couldn’t agree more that more is not always better. Some authors were educated beyond our imagination, and we are fortunate enough to have their writings, if even just a small treatise or two. Yet some never left us any writings, or worse, their works may have been lost forever in the course of the various upheavals and calamities of history, such as the burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. There is a bridge that was destroyed to the ancient world, but it was reconstructed-though not perfectly. But even so, not all books are created equal, for not all writers are bringing the same level of experience and/or education to their writings. Some of the most profound writings are very short in length, such as The Art of War by Sun Tzu, or some of the works of Descartes and Wittgenstein. But each of the principles laid forward is forged by some of the greatest insights of the human intellect, and they have the power to instruct and enlighten for millennia. These are those works which one should not think suffice with one or two or three or even a hundred readings. The progression of human thought can resemble a tree: many branches stem from a central trunk, which itself has roots deep within the earth. In like manner do many of the thoughts we have stem from what has been previously thought. It is not hard to notice the similarities-at least in structure-in the new works which come out to the central works of old. One can see much of Shakespeare in many of the best-selling novels of today, and one can see much of the old strategic thinkers such as Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz in the strategies for business and politics today. Spending time with these deeper roots of human thought can provide incredible insight for the present day and also for the future, and therefore should not be passed over quickly.

I love your videos! Thank you you're an inspiration for me.

Omg, being a super slow reader, this is so interesting. Thank you!

The video is bang on my dilemma on the speed of reading. Thanks John

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Good topic to talk about, John.

The coziest corner on RU-vid is the comment section of John Fish’s videos! Such positivity and support!

I was always curious about how fast I should read, this was a great advice!

I made a new year resolution of finishing books I started last year or other years and never finished, and finishing one book a month. One book a week seemed too much for me. But I'm already ahead of my schedule, threw in a small book in-between, so it has been greatly encouraging to surpass what I expected my rythm to be. It' has also been a good start point to see how fast I can read different types of books, without pressure, and then adjust my goals

Can’t believe you went to SJAM. You’re amazing. So proud of you!! For some context, I’m also from that area.

Answered my questions perfectly. Thank you

YOUR VIDEOS ABOUT READING ARE THE BEST

I love your videos John!

I love that the answer wasn’t just “do what works for you”. I appreciate the practical advise you offered regarding it. My question now is, do you push through on a book you get bored with 30% through? I am reading about 4 books at once because I get bored with a book and move on to another and I never actually finish a book. A video addressing this would be great !

Much needed video.. Thank you. ❤️❤️From a small study tuber.

Hello John! - can you do a updated morning/ night routine? Like how you manage time for studies,RU-vid,extra activities etc; It would be so great to watch!

Halfway into She by H. Rider Haggard and I felt bad for being a slow reader. I don’t read books ever. But I’m deeply enjoying it and looking forward to the start of many more to come. So who cares as long as I enjoy the book, right? Inspiring content as always, thanks man. (Don’t mind my small brain vocabulary, putting Siri to work!) lol

I’m grateful. Thanks for helping me get back the love of reading books and studying well. I love your videos, boy and you’re a big inspiration to me. Big hugs from Angola, Southern Africa. 🇦🇴 Keep grinding, man. 🙌🏾❤️

Very well articulate!

Thanks for this, John. Haunted by the shoulds on reading that I've stopped reading in a way.

Very insightful, thank you!

I never get bored from watching Joe's videos. Readers are brothers. Salutations from Morocco

John you can't be so casual with some of the things you mention. I looked up spark notes and ended up finding a great revision tool. Thanks

Can you provide resources on strengthening contemplation reading? Also, this was a helpful video because when I would be assigned readings I’d often speed read but I wasn’t giving them enough thought. Thank you :) Love your video style x

Ty John for inspiring me soo much 😍

Thank you so much！You are changing my world and making me fulfilled in my undergraduate life！Best regard from China！！！

Hi John, I welcome you. Arabs love your style

I loved this video. Super helpful

Finally you posted!!!

You look like so good person, and give us a lot of advices for the study's world. I really aprecciate that

How do you speed read tho? I’m so slow at reading

Great video! Would appreciate if you could recommend a few speed reading courses and also those super inaccurate online reading speed test. Thanks!

you are so inspiring!!!!

Here in my garage...just watched this new video, fun to learn about speed reading....

Thank you the beautiful advice 🙂

Good timing, I was getting ready to start the next book in the series I’m reading.😂

Ok now that i've finished watching i have to say that this video is one of your best, by far. I don't know if it's because of the way you talked, the colors, or what. I just loved it.

I was feeling disappointed with my reading lately. I was thinking of how fast I should be reading in Order to make the book sound real to Me, like someone talking to me as a conversion. So I briefly thought of my speed of reading last week and was needing help advice with that. And now since you posted this video, I learned somethings. Thank you John

Thank u john fish!

Very humble. I like it

Love you Bro!

Could you recommend some specific resources to learn speed reading?

One should read fast enough so that one answers 52 questions correctly in 65 minutes

I'm 14 and have always been able to read fast. Recently my English class was assigned a book to read, and we were allocated 5-6 lessons to read the book and however much time we want outside of class (the teacher read out-loud for the first few lessons). During the lessons that the teacher would read out-loud, most of the students in my class would listen along, however, most of the 'smarter' kids would just read. One of my 'smarter' friends chose to listen and when checking what page we were both up to, found that I was far ahead in comparison to him. What took me by surprise is how he stated the teacher read the book fast (spoke). It was in this moment that I realised that I had been training myself to speed read books my entire life and it has become a good skill. For the most part I single out words in a sentence and guess the rest of the sentence using memory assigned to those words, allowing me to affectively read less than half of a sentence but still understand what is fully being said. TL;DR, I realised that I'd been skip reading my entire life and have found it to be very useful.

Can we get a Track & Field workout video???