I want to address the question of reading speed directly. There are speed reading courses that claim you can learn to read at 1000 words per minute without comprehension loss. These claims are false. There are studies. Reading faster requires trading comprehension for rate above a certain threshold.

This matters because reading speed is often treated as a measure of how much you read, and the implication is that reading more is better. I don't think this is right. Reading a hundred books a year with 60% comprehension and retention is not better than reading forty books with 95% comprehension and retention. The second is a better reading life.

There is genuine value in reading more. But the appropriate way to read more is to allocate more time to reading, not to read each book more superficially.