Rating: 
Summary: some good info but mostly outdated
Review: this course teaches methods that were popular about 20 years ago. who still wants to use a hand as a pacer while reading nowadays? its impossible to read in a relaxed position using the techniques from the book. I gave this book two stars because it has some good points on improvement comprehension, but in general its outdated. There are far better and more effective systems of rapid reading developed at this time, for example Rai Dudley's program takes only 15 mins A WEEK of your time (compared to 15 mins a day as the Kum's system requires) and you will be able to break 2000 wpm barrier, most impotantly (for me at least) don't have to use your hand as a pacer while reading. Perhaps the only better system to my knowledge is Joseph Bennete's which is similar to photoreading (where you can read almost as fast as you can flip the pages), but its hard to learn and as I know doesn't work for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Home-Study Course
Review: This is probably the best book that I've read on speed reading. In an earlier review, I suggested that Zorn's book, "Speed Reading," was the best. It is indeed a fine book. Kump's book, however, give a more realistic idea of the kind of work it takes to boost your reading speed. Other books give a smattering of exercises--often very good ones--without emphasizing the kind of practice that is necessary, or even that you won't necessarily be able to maintain high speeds across all types of reading material.Kump uses familiar reading exercises, and variations on them. The lessons are brief, and each lesson contains short (10-15 minutes) exercises; at the end of each lesson, you are instructed to do a series of drills. Kump wants you to spend about a week on each series of drills, and to repeat them every day. They can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more a day, depending on how much time you are willing to spend. I've found most--but not all--drills useful. The ones that were not useful to me drilled on skills I already had (recognizing levels of specificity within paragraphs, for instance). Here's an example of one particularly useful drill. Kump has you read for 2 minutes, as fast as you can with comprehension. Then you read the same material again, trying to read a little faster, and a little further, in the same amount of time. And again. You do this four times. A variation of this is to read for 1 minute, then a little faster for another minute, and then to "practice read" (i.e., move your eyes quickly across the words, without worrying about comprehension) twice the longest passage in the same amount of time. Then you practice read three times the original (that is, the longest of the first two 1-minute drills) in one minute. One REALLY nice thing about this book is that Kump has you use your own reading material, your own books. Other books include selections for you to practice with, most of which are tedious, simplistic, or just too brief. Kump's exercises work, and you can read your own books while you practice.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Home-Study Course
Review: This is probably the best book that I've read on speed reading. In an earlier review, I suggested that Zorn's book, "Speed Reading," was the best. It is indeed a fine book. Kump's book, however, give a more realistic idea of the kind of work it takes to boost your reading speed. Other books give a smattering of exercises--often very good ones--without emphasizing the kind of practice that is necessary, or even that you won't necessarily be able to maintain high speeds across all types of reading material. Kump uses familiar reading exercises, and variations on them. The lessons are brief, and each lesson contains short (10-15 minutes) exercises; at the end of each lesson, you are instructed to do a series of drills. Kump wants you to spend about a week on each series of drills, and to repeat them every day. They can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or more a day, depending on how much time you are willing to spend. I've found most--but not all--drills useful. The ones that were not useful to me drilled on skills I already had (recognizing levels of specificity within paragraphs, for instance). Here's an example of one particularly useful drill. Kump has you read for 2 minutes, as fast as you can with comprehension. Then you read the same material again, trying to read a little faster, and a little further, in the same amount of time. And again. You do this four times. A variation of this is to read for 1 minute, then a little faster for another minute, and then to "practice read" (i.e., move your eyes quickly across the words, without worrying about comprehension) twice the longest passage in the same amount of time. Then you practice read three times the original (that is, the longest of the first two 1-minute drills) in one minute. One REALLY nice thing about this book is that Kump has you use your own reading material, your own books. Other books include selections for you to practice with, most of which are tedious, simplistic, or just too brief. Kump's exercises work, and you can read your own books while you practice.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best investments I have ever made!
Review: This is the book for the skeptics. I researched several speed reading methods and doubted all of them. Mr. Kump's book seemed to make the least outlandish claims, so I chose to take a chance on it. It turns out that this is the best $20 I have ever spent! I am about to start a part-time MBA program at a prestigous university. I have a wife and two children and was desperate to try a technique that could improve the efficiency with which I learn. Now, I am so excited about starting my degree program, and so much of that is due to my completing this book. The book has taught me many simple techniques which have increased the speed of my reading, but much more important to me, is the fact that I now comprehend and recall much more of the info than I did in the past. I can now read technical material at three times the speed that I used to and my recall is far superior to what it used to be. No more having to read the same chapter 2, 3, or 4 times and no more "outlining" the entire thing in an attempt to remember everything. I cannot recommend this book enough. It takes work and effort to complete the exercises on a daily basis, but if you are serious you will find that the investment in time and energy will payoff many times over. It is my intention to teach this skill, it is a learned skill, to my children and I am trying to convince my wife to take the time to learn it also. Good luck and do not hesitate to try it. THANK YOU, PETER KUMP!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Better Speed Reading Books
Review: This is the third speed reading book I read. It is in my opinion the best of the three. You can read through these speed reading books pretty quickly because they don't have much content. They all cover essentially the same materials. The following is a summary of the main ideas in these books. People read slowly because of the following reasons: 1. Subvocalization: This is to produce the sounds of the words mentally while they read. This habit essentially limits the reading speed to the speed of subvocalization. Subvocalization also has a side effect of making people read sequentially. 2. Regression: This is to backtrack while you read. This may be caused by a lack of confidence. 3. Lack of Purpose: Without clearly defining the purpose of their reading, people tend to read useless material with the same intensity as useful material. The book suggests using the appropriate amount of care to the materials at hand. The book suggests various ways of overcoming the above problems. The book also gave some suggestions on notes taking to faciliate recall. I read this book in less than 5 hours using speed reading techniques from other books. The reason why I can do it is quickly is because speed reading books generally do not have that much content. Hence they are amendable to the techniques speed reading.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Better Speed Reading Books
Review: This is the third speed reading book I read. It is in my opinion the best of the three. You can read through these speed reading books pretty quickly because they don't have much content. They all cover essentially the same materials. The following is a summary of the main ideas in these books. People read slowly because of the following reasons: 1. Subvocalization: This is to produce the sounds of the words mentally while they read. This habit essentially limits the reading speed to the speed of subvocalization. Subvocalization also has a side effect of making people read sequentially. 2. Regression: This is to backtrack while you read. This may be caused by a lack of confidence. 3. Lack of Purpose: Without clearly defining the purpose of their reading, people tend to read useless material with the same intensity as useful material. The book suggests using the appropriate amount of care to the materials at hand. The book suggests various ways of overcoming the above problems. The book also gave some suggestions on notes taking to faciliate recall. I read this book in less than 5 hours using speed reading techniques from other books. The reason why I can do it is quickly is because speed reading books generally do not have that much content. Hence they are amendable to the techniques speed reading.
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