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Every kind of reading has its own speed.

A novel, a contract and a research paper do not break in the same place when you read them fast. Each guide below gives a starting pace in words a minute, the steps, and the one mistake that costs people their comprehension.

• Speed read non-fiction books

  Start at 350 words a minute. Non-fiction repeats itself.

• Speed read fiction

  Start at 300 words a minute. Fiction is easier text than non-fiction, which is why the adult average is higher for it: 260 words a minute against 238.

• Speed read textbooks

  Start at 250 words a minute. A textbook is built to be studied, not read once.

• Speed read research papers

  Start at 250 words a minute. A paper is not written to be read front to back.

• Speed read the Bible

  Start at 250 words a minute. At about 783,000 words, the King James Bible takes the average reader near 55 hours.

• Speed read PDFs and work documents

  Start at 400 words a minute. Reports, contracts and decks are mostly boilerplate around a few sentences that matter.

• Speed read articles and news

  Start at 450 words a minute. News is written upside down on purpose: the facts are in the first two paragraphs and the rest is background.

• Speed read podcasts and videos

  Start at 400 words a minute. People speak at about 150 words a minute.