WHAT I BELIEVE IS MISSING OUTin all the attempts is finally why we need the book and what we want to comprehend.any book has a theme.Primarily one has to look into how the entire book is divided .The author in her/his table of contents provides a theme.but that doesnt help much cause we understand only when we process the information conciously in a certain way .That certain way is guided by our purpose.let me elucidate further.take a book.lets say we are motivated to read it.now whatever process we adopt to read ,we need to first get to know whats the big picture.then we need to know how that picture is painted or described by the author .Then we need to be clear what we want from the book.Let me explain further.I am reading Tony RObbins latest book "Money,Master the game" for me its an easy read.616 pages.the first few activation helped me divide the book into the following:
part 1 motivation and fluff( i love it though!!!)
part 2 debunking myths
part 3 investment strategy
part 4 interview with billionaires.
Now my purpose is "to develop a investment strategy for a lifetime and get my finances handled so that i can enjoy a great life and protect my wealth."now because i arranged the book consciously into the 4 parts above where do you think i will spend more time!!! Part 3 of course.Mind you most of the investment ideas TOny speaks may not apply in India.But the philosophy is amazing.
He not only helps uus with understanding how to set our goals he also tells us to create asset allocation adn then explains how to get income from the investment when we retire.Its full cycle .

What photoreading helped me is to get to the stage i am in now to activate further.Out of 616 pages 200 odd pages are at most helpful so i will be developing my questions and strategies to activate these first.

Once i get answers through these section i dont feel motivated to do any other parts.I may , for example ,on the interview part is going to do "one rapid read".Cause tony asks questions and the experts answer.In case on review i need to understand further i may activate again.

Now Paul and other experts like Alex give you a generic way to attempt the books but one needs to understand what they mean .the power of photoreading is multifold.2 of the most important aspects as per me are:
1.its goal oriented.
2.the skills dont deteriorate in time. once you learn to categorize books and ideas and consciously work on deciding where you must focus ?what is your purpose? and do it more and more and more consciously you will extract the required info from the books faster and faster.

That's why so much emphasis has been laid on mind maps.

Mind maps do just that it categorizes information.But then one must go further and decide and use the mind map to understand where to focus further based on what they want from the book.
where do you want more and where can you find more.
My mind map for the above tony robbins book is only on the part i want info on...i will not mind map the whole books.Earlier i used to go chapter wise and do the entrie drill and over a period of time i kept honing my skills i asked myself what do i really want and now its easy .in fact the first 4 or 5 activation session i dont mindmap at all i have a general form in my mind about the authors tehme and i decide by then what i want and zoom into the parts i want.

Thats why paul says "mind map what you want from the book" not the entire book.

We are not conditioned to be goal oriented so Photo-reading appears cumbersome and repetitive.

the first few Activation sessions should help us decide where we want to focus what is our purpose and then zoom into the areas we can get more.

That's why activating textbooks doesn't help us to develop skills in this way ,cause in a textbook everything is important,especially when it comes to preparing for an exam.Of course if we activate textbooks for a particular skill ,the game is different.But developing skills help us with texts book also,one cannot describe it but the game (activation)gets easier and easier !!

And i am not saying anything new all this has already been said many times on this forum

My question to you is why have'nt you quit photo-reading if its troubling you?is there anyone pointing a gun on your head and forcing you to do it?

I doubt it!!!

And since we develop skills in super reading and skittering to pick words and phrases to get the content of whole paras and pages Novels also become great fun.And mind you its because we have already photoread the book we get the full import of the text by reading the words and phrases (the 4 to 11 % that contain meaning).Get to getting good with that and you have got into the game.Get to proving to yourself that the 4 to 11% will get me the full meaning of the text and you will get creative enough to activate!!!Thats the challenge,thats where the mind-probes help you!!

But you get there by lots of activation ,you get to getting the entire import of words and phrases by lots and lots of activation.So thats why do more and more of the 5 day test and dump frustration.Dump frustration doesnt mean you are going to get it in the next book but you are certainly going to get frustrated with the next book so dump it again.

Get the bigger perspective first and arrange and categorise and summarise and then zoom into what you want.That in a nutshell is my view of photoreading!!!

THe biggest obstacle is "I want to know it all"

Really? even i have been doing this...i used to take a book and get down to the whole drill and due to professional and personal commitments i used not get time to get to the book for a brief period or for a longer time in some cases.

Then on coming back i used to feel hey !! i don't need to go further i have had enough info .So what was missing,my self analysis told me "did you set a good purpose did you decide what you want from the book where you honest ?" so that's why i now make time to make that clear and get brutally honest with myself every time i activate.may take more time but helps me get the info i want very fast!!

The time the period the the gap the intervals where helping me clarify what i want?That's the whole idea behind Purpose?

Even Novels can have a purpose ...to enjoy and that's a big purpose ,of course ,"to enjoy ",now with the time available the choice to activate at super speeds or recite it like a poem is a choice we have to make based on our circumstance and that's what photoreading ---prepare tells us "get honest" what do you need and how much time and effort are you willing to make?" don't lie to yourself you just have 10 mins and you want to read through "war and peace like wanting to script to a movie ?" really can you?No zip through the essentials and come back to it when you retire!!!

have a nice day!