How Do You Cheat-Read?
Right now, I literally (pun intended) have three books that I need to read by Friday and I am pretty sure I won’t get any of them done.
Each book is for a different project but they each need to be read ASAP, which adds to the stress.
And it’s not like I waited–I just found out about all three books yesterday. One in the morning and two late yesterday afternoon. I got copies of two of the books late last night and the third book I own a copy of it already. (Except I am having trouble finding it. It’s not in the bookcase where I thought it was.)
So like I said, these aren’t going to get read by Friday. Skimmed perhaps but not read.
Which brings up another point, in addition to these books, I have three chapters that I need to read before tonight’s small group. (At least it’s a book I’ve read before so I can skim the chapters quickly). And a script to read (and more importantly–to memorize) before Sunday.
There are a couple of other books I need to read, also. My friend Mark released a new book (I blogged about it here). I can’t wait to read the final version. I read an early copy of the manuscript a few months ago (which is why it keeps getting pushed behind the urgent books), but I can’t wait to have the luxury to read the final version.
I also have a couple of books on my night stand that I need to read for some potential future projects.
None of this even takes into consideration books I read to improve my skills in writing, speaking, or marketing, or the books I need to read to know what’s current in the genres I write in.
And read a book for pleasure? Well that’s so far off the radar for me right now that I can’t even consider it.
I’m wondering if there is a way to cheat on my t0-read-list? Is there some type of shortcut that will give me the essence of a book in a tenth of the time it would take to read the whole thing? Surely there are people who know how to do this–college students come to mind.
So what do you do to cheat the reading you need to do?
Do you read only the first and last chapters?
Quickly skim each page?
Read the back cover and random pages inside?
Have you taken a speed-reading course that helps you to read more in less time?
I need your help! How do you cheat-read?
~Jennifer
One Response to “How Do You Cheat-Read?”
-
Adrienne December 5, 2009
When I’m cheat-reading, I read the first sentence of each paragraph, and only stop to reread a whole paragraph if the “first sentences” no longer flow. That’s an indicator that important information that I need was in a paragraph I’ve passed, and I have to go back and pick it up.
This works well when I’m getting bored with a writer’s style because they state their idea at the beginning of the paragraph but then restate the same idea throughout the rest of the paragraph. It does not work well with extremely good writers!
