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Tony Buzan was born on 2 June 1942 in Palmers Green, Enfield, Middlesex, and is known as the proponent of the Mind Mapping techniques and of mental literacy.

Buzan began expressing his ideas to the public in 1970 on his BBC series. Those ideas were later written down into a series of books: Use Your Memory, Master Your Memory, Use Your Head, The Speed Reading Book, and The Mind Map Book. Buzan’s been the author and co-author of more than 100 books, which have been translated into 30 languages.

The topics discussed in Buzan's books are numerous and are all related to the mind: “genius quotient (GO)”, spiritual intelligence, memory, creativity, and speed reading.

One of Buzan's best-known works is The Speed Reading Book, now in its third edition. It is one of the best books on the market on speed reading.

The structure of the book is fairly easy to follow and will guide you through the main ideas of speed reading and speed reading techniques. There are five divisions:

Exploring your speeds

Here, you can discover your personal reading speed, what speed reading is, and its history.

Your amazing eyes

Discusses the correlation between eye movement and reading speed and how you can use different techniques to make use of text skimming, for example.

Super-concentration and comprehension

Discusses the main impediments to concentration and comprehension problems that occur when reading, such as sub-vocalization, finger-pointing, and back-skipping.

Developing your advanced speed reading skills

Covers different aspects of speed reading reconnaissance by developing certain aspects of your vocabulary: prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

Becoming a master reader: Advanced use of your eye-brain system

Provides tips for different styles of reading depending on the type of literary work you are reading.

All the chapters and the divisions present exercises that help you monitor your progress.

After following Tony Buzan’s speed reading advice, some adherents have said they have improved their speed reading capabilities from 248 wpm (words per minute) with 66% comprehension to 550 wpm and 85 % comprehension — and this, after reading just half of book.

So, if you want to increase your reading speed, The Speed Reading Book by Tony Buzan is a useful tool, especially in conjunction with speed reading software, such as the popular 7-Speed Reading software.