Fast reading; why?

Recently I have given a lot of thought to the speed of reading. Why? Well, I talked it over with my colleagues, and one of them had actually measured his own speed to a hundred pages an hour. 100! Wow, I thought. I must be slow.

Well, he gave reasons such as he's been reading a lot all his life. At that point, I might have skipped a few years of reading during the must crucial years, having tried to catch up later.

But is fast reading really something to brag about? Not being one, I would immediately say no. I feel that with my slow reading (and yes, I do read slowly) I am able to digest the material in another way. As I read, I pick up details and find myself able to enjoy beautiful sceneries or catch moods in a more profound way.

I tried reading fast. It worked for a while, but I found I was constantly thinking about reading fast, not about the material I was reading. Slowing down picked me up again.

Oh btw, I'm still reading "The Wheel of Time", now on book 10 out of 12. Meanwhile I've been reading other stuff, specifically Riftwar saga by Feist. I'll come back to that later.