Reading

Phillip A. Covington

Personal Web Site

This section on my Web site is for pure fun and enjoyment. While it would be great if this sparks an interest in someone who is not a reader to become one, this section is likely to be of more interest to those who are already avid readers. As you can probably tell by now, I love to read! (And I guess writing is kind of fun too.) If you are an avid reader (a "book worm"), then you'll find learning about "PhotoReading," an accelerated reading/learning technique that I'll talk about later, to be one of the best things you have ever done!

[Home] This page last updated 23-Nov-1998

As for me, where did my interest in reading (and learning) come from? Well, just the other day my brother was commenting on how our mother read to all of us growing up more than anyone else's parents that he could remember. After my father got out of the Air Force he became a professor (and then minister) and was always reading and adding to both his personal library and the family's. While there were always games around the house, and a TV, reading was an activity everyone enjoyed. So while some kids were sneaking out of bed at night to play video games, I was often one of those using a flashlight to read a book that was too good to put down after bedtime. By the time I was a teenager my library had grown to several hundred volumes. Some given to me by my parents, but most paid for out of my allowance or by doing chores and odd jobs. By the time I was an adult my library had reached close to 1,000 volumes and space was becoming a problem. Actually, that's one I'm still working on! Bookstores' "Well Guarded" Secret Do you know how to tell if you are really an avid reader? when they give you a shopping bag at the bookstore! Those of you who have done it know I'm not kidding. For years the larger bookstores have had real shopping bags with handles just like clothing stores at the mall. Most people just never buy enough books to find out. If you ask most people what they would ever do if they had all the money they wanted, the usual answers include an expensive car, bigger house, etc. Believe it or not, though, one of the first things I'd do would be to hit the bookstores. I could easily buy several hundred dollars worth of books every time I walk into a bookstore, and read them! I usually like to dig right in and read a book straight through whenever possible. Before I learned PhotoReading I usually averaged a few hours to 3 days for most books. (Small books I often finished off in an hour or two.) Since learning PhotoReading, though, it now takes me only 1-1/2 to 2 hours for most books. If you know PhotoReading, when you are browsing Web pages over a 33.6 connection you can actually scan a page by the time it loads, and often before it has even finished loading. Hopefully the above says a lot about PhotoReading! The Obvious Link Between Reading and Learning I didn't include any information about PhotoReading in the section on my Web site about accelerated learning, only because the technique is so concentrated around the reading process. But reading and the ability to learn are obviously very directly related. Most of the world's knowledge, culture, history, and richness, are all stored in written form. In order to get the most out of life, and to be successful at it, a person needs to know about the world around him or her. The best way to that is, of course, through reading! And, believe it or not, even for those of us who are avid readers, there are still things we can do to increase the effectiveness of our reading and learning experience. How to Read a Book A classic tool utilized by many veteran readers is the book: "How to Read a Book," by Mortimer Adler. Adler was the first to promote the concept now called "Syntopic Reading," which involves reading at least two or more books on the same subject (even if your original intent was only to read one). The best analogy I can think of is shopping. Most people know that the worst method to apply to buying anything is to simply buy it from the first store or salesperson that comes along. For one thing, you would probably end up paying too much. Also, by comparison shopping you can learn more about the product you intend to buy, and other products that might be similar. Using this "syntopic" approach to shopping you are far more likely to end up buying the product which is best suited to your needs, probably of higher quality, and perhaps even at a lower price. The same principle applies to reading. If you rely on only one source to learn about a given subject how do you know that the information presented is accurate? Or, perhaps the information is entirely accurate, but doesn't present a complete picture of the subject. Information might have been left out due to space and editorial limitations, or perhaps even intentionally, that would be useful to you if you only knew about it. For these and many other reasons the syntopic approach easily offers superior benefits and results for the reader. There are at least three familiar phrases that, combined, formed the basis of syntopic reading long ago: "You don't know what you don't know;" "How can you know if you don't find out?" and, "The more you know, the more you know!" PhotoReading All of the above brings us to PhotoReading. First I should point out that PhotoReading IS NOT the same as speed-reading. Speed-reading techniques typically allow the reader to achieve no more than 2,500 to 5,000 WPM (Words Per Minute). In contrast, someone who has learned the PhotoReading technique is usually able to achieve speeds of 25,000 WPM, and faster! That equates to 1 to 2 pages per second! The PhotoReading technique is made available through the certified school of LSC (Learning Strategies Corporation), founded by Paul R. Scheele. Hopefully you will be interested in contacting LSC to learn more. However, I'll touch on a few of the highlights. Déjà vu By now most know that science has proven we use less than 10 percent of our brain capacity. You've also probably seen or heard about a phenomena well known by brain surgeons: that by stimulating various spots on the brain with the tiniest of electrical stimuli a patient undergoing brain surgery can recall events, otherwise long forgotten, with complete clarity. Hypnosis can also produce similar results. In other words, everything we ever see, hear, or do, is probably stored permanently somewhere in our brain. People who have "photographic" memories are seemingly able to access those parts of their brain at will. Most people just aren't able to access that information as easily. But it appears that is largely just because we didn't know how. Mentally Photographing The Written Page PhotoReading may not give a photographic memory to a person who doesn't have it. But, by using what is known about how the brain processes written and visual information, it does allow well over 90 percent of those who take the course to successfully learn how to mentally photograph the written page. That's one reason PhotoReading is not at all the same as speed-reading. In fact, the technique involves reading not one, but both of the pages of a book at the same time, in the same glance! At this point you might be a bit skeptical, and that's understandable. Personally, I wasn't skeptical when I heard about it because of, what else, syntopic knowledge! I had already studied accelerated learning for years, so many of the techniques involved made sense to me. I can also tell you that not only does PhotoReading work for me, but none of the friends or associates I've recommended it to have been disappointed. While I had no doubt that techniques such as those used for PhotoReading worked, I will admit that I was wondering what would happen when I tried the technique for the first time on a book about a difficult or technical subject. This is because the PhotoReading course has you start off by trying the technique on easy texts and/or books you are already familiar with. However, when I used the technique on a psychology book (difficult subject matter) that I was reading for the first time I was pleasantly surprised to find that the PhotoReading technique worked just as well as it had on easier texts. Learning Strategies Corporation teaches its 3- to 5-day PhotoReading courses at colleges, schools, and other locations worldwide. Or, like one friend I recommended the course to, you can go right to the source and attend a class at LSC's own school. LSC offers other courses as well, both onsite and home study, including an impressive offering of accelerated-learning-related material. Well, I guess that's enough about PhotoReading! Aside from all of the above, as I have time I'll be adding to this page a list of books which I've found to be of great interest or help, and which I heartily recommend to and share with others. Have you read a good book lately?

Reading-Related Resources Levenger (Tools, Furniture, and Accessories For Serious Readers) LSC (Learning Strategies Corporation)

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