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50+ Free Resources for Effective Reading

Learning

(I plan to continuously update this page as I discover new resources. That’s why I use 50+ instead of a fix number for the title of this post.)

Articles

Overview

  • Reading
  • Speed Reading

Definitions

  • Meta guiding
  • Skimming
  • Subvocalization
  • Vision span
  • SQ3R
  • Fixation
  • Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)

Speed reading

  • Speed-Reading Techniques
  • Speed Reading – How to Increase your Reading Speed
  • How to Learn Speed Reading – WikiHow
  • Double Your Reading Rate
  • Speed Reading Basics
  • Speed Reading – Substantially Raising Your Reading Speed (PDF)
  • Double Your Reading Speed in One Hour

Marking

  • Twelve Ways To Mark Up A Book
  • How to Mark a Book

Motivation

  • Read a Book a Week
  • Ways to distinguish yourself – #12 Be a reader

Miscellaneous

  • PhotoReading
  • How to Read a Scientific Research Paper
  • How to Read a Textbook
  • How to Improve Reading Comprehension
  • How to read a non-fiction book?
  • Top 10 tips for effective blog reading
  • A Quick and Dirty Reading Strategy When Time is Short

Collections of articles

  • Articles about speed reading (links to 57 articles)
  • Links to a Better Education – Reading (links to 51 articles)
  • Links to a Better Education – Reading (SQ3R) (links to 17 articles)
  • Links to a Better Education – Reading Textbooks (links to 20 articles)
  • Links to a Better Education – Underlining (links to 16 articles)
  • Study Guides and Strategies (links to 9 articles in the “Reading skills” section)

Courses

  • 7 Day Free Speed Reading Course
  • Effective Reading Course

Books

  • On the Art of Reading (or download from Bartleby)
  • The Guide to Reading – the Pocket University Volume XXIII

Videos

  • ZapReader tutorial
  • Speed Reading Interview Part 1, Part 2
  • Learn to Speed Read
  • Speed Reading Practice #1, #2 
  • Marshall Speed Read
  • bWare Speed Reading Exercises: Eye Muscle Exercise 101
  • bWare Speed Reading Exercises: Word Recognition Exercise 101
  • bWare Speed Reading Level 1, Level 2, Level 3

Tests

  • Speed reading test
  • Speed reading test online

Applications

Speed reader

  • Spreeder (web-based)
  • ZAP reader (web-based)
  • RSVP Reader (Firefox extension)
  • Paragrasp (Firefox extension)
  • Dictator (Windows or Linux)
  • Speed Reader (Windows)
  • Reading Acceleration Machine (Windows)
  • Qwik Reader (Windows)

Summarizer

  • Automatic Text Summarizer (web-based)
  • Open Text Summarizer (Windows or Linux)
Published on April 18, 2007

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Comments (18)

  1. Also check out WordFlashReader, which is another RSVP application which works on both Windows and Linux.

    wvarner - April 18, 2007
  2. Thanks, wvarner! I will include WordFlashReader when I update the list.

    Donald Latumahina - April 19, 2007
  3. Hi Donald,
    very comprehensive list. I am very fond of reading and this was very helpful to me,

    Sham

    Sham - April 19, 2007
  4. Incredible list! Thank you for putting together such a valuable resource.

    Kim - April 19, 2007
  5. @Sham and Kim:
    I love reading and I really feel the need to improve my reading skill. That’s why I compile this list. I’m glad if you also find it useful. Thanks for stopping by!

    Donald Latumahina - April 20, 2007
  6. […] Become a Speed Reader… […]

    Friday Link Roundup « The Optimized Life - April 20, 2007
  7. […] 50+ Free Resources for Effective Reading. (via Book Glutton) […]

    Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant » Roundup - May 1, 2007
  8. Superb Collection I am a school administrator and teacher. Hatsoff to you.I want you to address my teachers through video conference. thank you vey much
    V.Muralidharan
    CEO & Correspondent
    Veera savarkar Netaji Matriculation School
    Agaram, Chennai -600082
    India
    Tel:04426703145

    Venugopalan Muralidharan - June 22, 2008
  9. V.Muralidharan.
    Thanks for your kind words! I would love to help you. Unfortunately, my Internet connection is not fast enough for video conference.

    Donald Latumahina - June 23, 2008
    1. thanks for your reply. I am sorry for the delay. can you pls send your email ID

      Muralidharan - October 22, 2011
  10. Excellent resource. You can also check out Speed Reader-X, which is an online speed reading program.

    Peter - December 8, 2008
  11. I’m looking for speed reading program that can support reading Chinese text. Please provide me leads for such resources.

    Thanks in advance.

    Yu Shen

    Yu Shen - June 10, 2009
  12. You might also want to add this free speed reading software to your list as well.

    valknut79 - July 26, 2009
  13. Thanks for posting links to my videos: “Learn to Speed Read” and “Speed reading practice”. You can find more information on my official website: krismadden.com

    Kris Madden - September 26, 2009
  14. Hi, you might like to try my RSVP reader extension for Firefox, called Reasy, it has a different presentation:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7928

    I have also begun a Chrome version:

    https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hhfiiflbfkgfmeinikcgikgiijegkhgf

    Rob Reasy - April 16, 2010
  15. Hey great stuff – that is a comprehensive list with some excellent resources that my readers will also appreciate :-)

    Dave Eaves - August 10, 2010
  16. I recommend free online programs to speed reading on
    http://www.fasterreader.eu

    Michael - August 12, 2010
  17. I use Ubuntu and it seems that there is no compatible speed reading software available. This site is a great idea, but the last time it was updated was in 2007. Hopefully there have been developments since.

    Gordon - November 5, 2010

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