Speed reading: Pro's and Con's

Quoted from Wikipedia

The importantance of comprehension and absorption when reviewing unique and unread material should be measured only by the speed with which the reader can obtain a full understanding of the authors planned or intended meaning.

There are various techniques when learning to speed read. However few are entirely successful without many hours of dedicated practice.

Pianoer said:
Reading is linear. I had always figured reading was a linear process; you know, start up front and grind through to the very end in the exact order it was printed in. Reading is no more linear than thinking is, (or I eventually discovered, than writing; few writers start at the beginning — indeed, they usually “write the first part last.”

Not everyone can benefit from increasing ones reading speed.

For example a person who does not comprehend what is being read will be unable to learn by misunderstanding faster. Therefore learning appropriate methods so that one can understand more of what is being read are more beneficial than just learning to read faster.

Before starting, you should ask yourself what you are reading, something which includes technical data should be read at normal speeds, whereas a small fictional story requires less concentration and can be scanned much faster without losing definition of the content.

How many times do you have to read the below text before understanding it?

?dias gnieb si tahw ylluf dnatsrednu uoy erofeb egassem siht daer ot evah uoy od semit ynam woh ,lla retfA

I'm willing to bet that it was more than once!

OK so that test was a little unfair, because we are not generally ready to read something that is presented in a fashion that we're not normally accustomed to. It's for this reason we should pay alot more attention to articles we not only read but are passing judgement upon...