I was a slow reader. That is, I was slow getting to be fast. I remember having a hell of a lot of trouble reading in the third grade. I learned how to read in the fifth grade, I think it was. But that’s puzzling, because, although I remember having a lot of trouble when I was in school because I couldn’t read, I also remember that I was reading Malory’s Morte d’Arthur with love and astonishment then. It was the first book I read that I remember with absolute clarity. Yet that was before I officially “learned to read.” By the time I was in the seventh grade I was a speed-reader. I became a member of a speed-reading team. Speed-reading teams were at that time fairly common. Our high school had a team of readers, and you went out and read against other schools, and then did these comprehension tests. One year I was the speed-reading champ of the state of Ohio. I read slowly now. I learned to slow down, and read properly, when I started reading philosophy seriously, and, as a consequence, finally learned to read poetry properly too. Now I’m practically a lip reader again, although I can still go like hell if I have to.
I was a slow reader (William H. Gass)
Biblioklept 
I bought a photographic reading course. They really tried to get me my money’s worth having me read all these books photographically using subliminal thoughts into the brain. I kept at it for a while even used it for a marketing class. I still find that I have to read. Speed reading is not just about reading fast but knowing what you actually read. Reading the front of the book and the back of the book. Actually reading the introduction where there is usually an outline of the book and table of content. That’s what I learned taking a speed reading class. You are lucky you had a speed reading club in High School. We had no such thing. I find setting goals for myself to be helpful. Say I will read 60 pages in an hour. Pretty slow but fast for me. I have to time myself. I also have to think about what I just read and to be able to summarize what I read. To keep going over it. Some books can be read over and over while others are just good the first time through. I write about my school experiences in my blog http://www.muddywritersblock.wordpress.com if anyone is interested.
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Haha, he is a devious brilliant man, was my mentor at a writers conference years ago. I adore him for all his difficulty, but never will get over his enthusiastic pronouncement (over my humble, cobbled together early poems), “So much like Dame Edith Sitwelll!” Man, that still smarts
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I was reading the other day about subvocalization vs techniques of speed reading. I don’t feel comfortable skimming stuff, I like to read each word which I guess is what slows me down a bit. I feel like I’m cheating though if I’m just kinda getting the gist of things.
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