I read every word, or I feel like I'm not really reading. In high school I took speed reading, twice. Maybe I don't get it. Maybe speed reading isn't actually reading fast but rather failing to read most of what is supposed to be read.
I have a pile of books here I want to read. All books on things I want to learn. I don't even bother trying to read for enjoyment when it just takes valuable time that could be used to slowly work my way through things I want to learn about.
Does anybody have a realistic solution? I have to pick up the pace or I am going to die with a short list of things I learned about and a long list of things I failed to learn about.

GO!

TL;DR

Seriously though, I have the same problem.  I have a pile of books on things I'm interested in but I don't take the time.

I'm a relatively fast reader, I think all I've done is find books that are fun to read and read a lot of them. I took up the reading habit as a kid and that helped, I am sure.

The speed reading really should help you, depending on how you're taught. I find I read words in visual "clumps," not painstakingly reading. every. word. I still "get" every word, but not by being so deliberate while reading.

That's my issue. I can't just put the rest of my life on hold while I slowly and methodically work through each book. I would actually like to spend 20 or 30 hours a week holed up in a dark room with a cup of coffee and a book on something I need to learn or want to learn. But I have actual work to do to pay the bills.

Not a professional but I'm my personal experience learning to read well takes practice and lots of it. I started reading things I really enjoyed (Tolkien actually) and got voracious about it.  By the time I was done with the trilogy of the rings and the hobbit I could absorb stuff very quickly.  Reading for enjoyment is different than reading for knowledge. Learning material for me requires a slow processing of the information so I fully understand it. For enjoyment not so much analysis, more imagination.

There is no shortcut.  Read more.  Sit down and force yourself to focus.  I read a book or two cover to cover before law school, no exaggeration.  I was a slow, clumsy reader and spaced out every few sentences.  

No different than any other skill, there are some who are naturally gifted but the vast majority have to grind through hours of practice to become proficient.

If I do that I end up going back to pick the stuff I missed, and I definitely do miss stuff. I may have the wrong approach.

I'm thinking "No".  Or, at least, "Not Much"

It has to do with Intelligence, Processing, Retention, etc.    Most of all, the ability to Focus.

I'm a world class speed reader, until it's time to learn important work related stuff.   Then, I'm a functional retard.  

I have to read it slowly and repeatedly, and sometimes, make flashcards.      Honestly, it's pretty frustrating.

It's all about the Focus.   Perhaps you can learn to focus at will (or get some Ritalin)  

I've never been great at it, and it gets harder with age.

Huh. Thanks. Very interesting. I'm actually going to print out your words as a reminder. Maybe it really is just as simple as "work on the skill".

Why worry about speed over retention ? I've seen readers that could read a book in a matter of hours but couldn't even tell you what the book was about.

I started as a child, reading Nancy Drew books. When I was a teenager it was those cheesy romance novels. Light fiction was perfect for me to learn how to read faster...it was fun, no stress, and if I missed a detail now and then, who cares? It's just a stupid pulp novel.

OP, I think several of us are saying to read for enjoyment, practicing that way. Pick up your speed and comprehension along the way.

Nonfiction and more serious books always take longer to read. But if you practice with the fun fiction, your speed will improve for EVERYTHING, including the heavy-duty serious books too.

Fwiw, I think your question may be addressing two different skill sets.   If you are trying to retain info, to master a skill, that is very different than reading a book for fun.      

What skills are you trying to learn?

There are speed reading apps out there, but don't know how well they work.

For me though I find I read through a book with less distraction (and thus faster) with on a Kindle compared to same printed material.

There it is.

Reading, like playing guitar or fixing cars, is a skill. It requires practice to master.

You aren't going to learn to read thoroughly AND quickly without first learning to sit down and *just* read. After a couple of thousand hours of doing that, you'll naturally *be* faster. After a couple of more thousands of hours, you'll be able to anticipate how words are structured by specific authors and how ideas are forming ahead of of time. After a few more thousand hours you'll be able to absorb written information in "clumps" and really understand it. Pretty soon you can grind a 300 page softcover novel out in a few hours or a technical manual of approximately half that size.

There's no "trick" to learning to read quickly. Just like there's no "trick" to learning to play guitar or turn a wrench.

You must learn to read, first. Then, you can learn to read fast.

Sorry, but you're just complaining about how life is.  Some stuff is just hard to learn and takes time.  But you might also have an unrealistic expectation that you are essentially going to memorize the book when you read it and be able to recall it forever?

Actually, there is something you can do to teach yourself to read faster though it should've been addressed when you were much younger. You're focusing on each individual word as you are reading it. You need to be reading more from the periphery of the dead center of your field of view. It's a flawed analogy but I tend to equate it to someone driving down the highway staring at the road right in front of the car. If you want to drive fast you need to be looking down the road a ways. In the case of reading it's just a word or two away. The way you do this is through an exercise that requires some one to help you (though there may be a computer program for this now).  But what you'd do is to read aloud while somebody else uses a folded piece of paper or a tongue depressor or something similar to cover up the word that's coming out of your mouth. Then, they gradually control the pace by speeding up the word they're covering. It forces you to read from your peripheral vision. Adults tend to get a little frustrated with this. Old dogs new tricks and all. To kids, it's a fun game.
Give it a shot some time and see what happens.

Speed reading is not reading, but instead teaching your brain to see paragraphs like you see pictures.  If you're trying to "hear" everything you read you're never going to read faster than you typically speak.  Like looking at a picture, you can focus on one spot (in the case of reading one word at a time), or you can see the whole picture at once  Group up 4+ words together, disregard filler words (is, it, and, the, etc).  When I took a speed reading course, I started out around 150 words per min with 90% reading retention/comprehension and when I finished the course I was reading 600+ words per min, with 80% or better comprehension.

At this moment it's landlord skills and crow hunting skills.  One is like a text book, the other is like a more entertaining text book.

I can tell you what helped me. I tend to reread some books I reall enjoyed and find things I missed the first time.

I have a favorite that is about 1200 pages. I have read it about 10-12 times. I missed things even the  5th and 6th time. Now I can read it in less than 5 days when traveling. I read when I have to eat alone.

It really seemed to smooth out new books I read now. When I reread some of my other favorites I pretty much got 100% out of them.

You might try finding a favorite and reading it at your normal fast speed. Then go back in a couple months and you will find things you missed. Do this again latter.

It helped me remember stuff in new books that I would have completely missed. I even remember names of people who may have only been mentioned once.

One other thing is my book was made into a miniseries and I've watched it 3 or 4 times. Really easy to pick out where they differ.

Practice makes perfect.

i used to be a slow reader but am doing a lot more reading and have found the more i read the faster I get and the more i retain. Not exactly earth shattering or anything but its a simple no frills way of getting faster.

If you are reading for pleasure, why speed read.  That is like eating a Ruth's Chris steak by gulping it down instead of savoring it.  If you need to get through something fast, speed reading works, by skimming.  You skip words.  "The emergency fire alarm is mounted on the wall and is red."  Your eyes flow over the complete sentence but you  brain only sees "fire alarm red".
You can learn it by practicing, a lot.

Try and find some 'youth' books.  They tend to be quick reads and not too long.

Robb White wrote a lot of WWII books in the 50s and 60s that are really good reads and were targeted to teenagers.

The more you read the quicker you'll get.

How slow of a reader are you?  

does it take you 20 minutes to read 2 pages in a book?



merely Reading

and Reading and comprehending are also 2 different things.

remember how you sucked really bad when learning to tie your shoes?  or ride a bike?  practice makes perfect.