How to apply thin slicing in speed reading?
The aim is to understand as much information as possible by reading as few words as possible and spending as little time as possible. Geologists do not have to test every bit of earth in order to know the composition of the ground – they just take test samples from different areas. We do the same with books. To get the message from a book in 20 minutes you do an extended version of ‘previewing’. You might look at headings and the blurb no the cover, and look quickly through the index. Check whether there’s an introduction or first or last chapter which gives a summary of the whole book. Read a page or two a little more slowly to judge the author’s style – do they get the information across clearly, do they give lots of examples, do they add lots of details, etc. Then look through the book to see what each chapter is about – which you can usually do by reading the beginning of the chapter, and then looking at the top of each page, or glancing at each page to see if you notice any key in
