PhotoReading - Triple Your Reading Speed

My readers save up to 51% on PhotoReading courses - read on!

This is my review of PhotoReading, which is a system that promises to help you learn to read at a much faster rate.

I evaluate a LOT of personal development products, partly because publishers send me review copies of their offerings. Most of those products you'll never hear me mention because for one reason or another, I didn't find them to be good enough to recommend. PhotoReading is one of the few I can genuinely recommend, mainly because it will teach you a valuable new skill that you can use for the rest of your life.

My first impression of the PhotoReading system was very positive because the packaging was all pro: full color binder, professionally recorded CDs and DVDs, and an easy-to-follow manual. It sure looks great as you take it out of the box. As I went through the program, my impression only got better. Paul Scheele's voice is pleasant-sounding, positive, and encouraging. From the first CD, I realized this was going to be something unusually good.

Before studying PhotoReading, I'd already learned traditional (Evelyn Wood style) speed-reading. PhotoReading is a lot more than that. I wouldn't exactly call it a speed-reading course. It's probably more accurate to call it an information extraction course.

The rapid photographic reading is the most attention-getting part of the system, but PhotoReading is really an integrated system of flexible reading strategies. If you think of speed-reading as a hammer, PhotoReading is the whole toolbox. With PhotoReading you learn to efficiently extract the key ideas from whatever you decide to read.

Learn to Read More Intelligently and Efficiently

Before I went through the PhotoReading system, I considered myself an avid reader. I've read at least 1,000 personal development books, averaging about a book a week. That's pretty good, isn't it? But even with speed-reading, I still read in a very linear manner -- page by page and word by word. I thought that was the best way to read, aside from trying to read even faster. However, when I learned PhotoReading, I realized that linear word-by-word reading just isn't very efficient... and that there's a better way to get information out of books and into my brain.

PhotoReading takes advantage of the fact that all books are not equally valuable to you. There's tremendous variation in the information value of different books. Some books are a complete waste of your time. Other books will only contain one or two useful ideas that you'll remember -- the rest you'll quickly forget. A few books will have you hanging on every word. But regardless of each book's value to you, you still have to invest a lot of time to read each one. The Catch-22 is that you have to read each book to determine whether it was worth reading in the first place.

PhotoReading solves this dilemma by training you to use a nonlinear, multipass method of reading. You don't just blindly dive in and read books word by word. Instead you'll make multiple passes through each book, going deeper each time until you reach the point of diminishing returns. Sometimes you'll finish a book in 15 minutes (if that's all it takes to extract the ideas that are important to you), while other times you'll spend 2 hours with a book that's loaded with great ideas.

With PhotoReading your first pass through a typical book takes about 5 minutes. In some cases you'll stop there because you've extracted all the key ideas you wanted, and it wouldn't be worthwhile to invest any more time in the book. In other situations you'll continue making additional passes until you've squeezed as much juice out of the book as you're going to get -- that might take you as long as 2 hours total. With PhotoReading the amount of time you spend on each book is proportional to its value to you. The system will give you the tools to do this. I was quite impressed with how synergistically the various techniques work together -- it's very engaging and actually makes reading more enjoyable.

The Power of Nonlinear Reading

I appreciate that PhotoReading taught me a new way of thinking about reading. I used to think reading meant processing every word in order. Now I understand that reading is really about value extraction. In most cases it's very inefficient to read a book linearly from start to finish if your goal is to extract the core ideas you can apply. PhotoReading's progressive reading methods are much more efficient. Not only does PhotoReading save you time, but it also increases your comprehension and memory because your focus is on value extraction, not word scanning.

Keep in mind that after you learn PhotoReading, you can still read books linearly if you choose to. If you want to read a fictional story like Harry Potter, I'd recommend that you slow-read it to immerse yourself in the story and enjoy the surprises and plot twists as J.K. Rowling intended. But PhotoReading is great for nonfiction books where the goal is simply to extract the ideas that are important to you. In that case, the sooner you can extract and apply those ideas, the better.

Why PhotoReading?

Here are some of the key benefits of PhotoReading -- I've personally experienced all of these:

• Read books at least 3 times faster. I'd say that's the low end. Some books you'll be able to read 10 times faster -- or more.


• Read more books. You can PhotoRead a lot more books than you can slow-read. This will expand your horizons, allowing you to explore subjects that you never had time to get into before.


• Read ebooks faster. I've PhotoRead a number of ebooks. In some ways ebooks are easier than regular print books because it doesn't take as much practice to turn the pages quickly.


• Extract ideas more efficiently. PhotoReading's nonlinear, multipass reading strategies allow you to extract the key ideas from a book without getting sidetracked by the fluff. In the personal development books I read, there's usually a lot of fluff I don't really need. I just want the core ideas.


• Avoid reading lousy books. In just a few minutes, you'll determine whether a book is worth reading -- or discarding. This is great for when you visit a bookstore.


• Improve your memory. Because you're focused on idea extraction instead of scanning every word, you'll retain more of what you read. I have much better recall of the books I PhotoRead vs. the books I slow-read, even years later. I think there are many reasons for this, but one of them is that when I'm PhotoReading, I'm concentrating on the ideas, not the words.


• Enjoy reading more. PhotoReading keeps your mind fully engaged, so reading becomes much more stimulating. I must say it's pretty nice to digest a whole book in a single reading session and then shelve it.

Since I first recommended PhotoReading in 2006, the feedback I received from readers who've completed the course has been very positive overall, especially from students and people who do a lot of research. PhotoReading enables them to consult many more outside sources in addition to getting through their usual materials more quickly. One suggestion for students is to PhotoRead all of your textbooks during your first week of classes -- I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more you learn and retain.