Speed reading

Two email correspondents challenged my claims for the benefits of speed reading. I didn't say speed reading is perfect; nothing in life is. Speed reading enhances comprehension and retention, but when I became the editor of a large reference textbook, I found I missed typos and transposed words and phrases, when I tried to read galley proofs at top speed. I was forced to slow down, and over time my visual field may have contracted so I could no longer consistently take in a paragraph or a paperback page at a glance. Reading the books about Lizbeth Salander's dragon tattoo, playing with fire and kicking a hornet's nest restored much but probably not all my proficiency. Speed reading is not the way to read poetry (nor is the sepulchral tone some poets use to read their own work).  I read Auden, Wilfred Owen, other favourites, as I would sip a fine wine or single malt whisky. I can't imagine gulping down The Love Song of  J Alfred Prufrock or The Waste Land as a thirsty man gulps cool water.