My first thought after reading the PhotoReading book was, "I've been doing photoreading and syntopic reading on my own, in bookstores, for years!"
Over the course of a few hours in a bookstore I can become something of an expert on virtually any subject. After defining my topic, I start with one book and whip through it looking for relevant information. Very quickly I absord the key points, and find references to other books. I run around the store like a crazed scholar, soaking up knowledge, making connections, soaring on what I can only refer to as an intellectual high. I'm in a wonderful state of intellectual curiosity. Having determined which books are the best on the subject, I buy them. I've done this ever since I was a little kid.
Then. . .back home that night, ot the next day, or a week later, I sit down to "read" the first of the stack of new books. And it's agony. Now that I'm "reading," not "researching" or "browsing," I feel compelled to read every word, every sentence, and it takes forever. I uually end up putting the book down and picking up another. The cycle repeats itself over and over, and this accounts for the stacks of partially-read books all over my apartment. It's maddening, because I know from my bookstore experiences that I'm capable of so much more.
Any suggestions on how to get myself into that fantastic accelerative learning state (one which I can seemingly enter at will with no rituals while browsing in a bookstore), when I'm trying to get through a pile of books at home?
Would the tape course help?
Thanks!
Mike
