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I’m not a very fast reader, but I’m a very thorough reader. As a writer of books I learned to hard way that it is vitally important to use the exact word, in the correct context, you intend your reader to understand.
Therefore, I take care to understand each word I’m reading. What’s the point of reading if you don’t understand — or misunderstand — what you’ve read?
When was the last time you used a dictionary? If you don’t know the meaning of each word in the sentence, you won’t understand the sentence. Simple.
Reading is a form of communication. Our environment is saturated with verbal, visual, musical and printed communication. Too much communication prevents communication. We can’t process all of it, so we begin to ignore it, reject it and treat it all the same. When that happens we loose are ability to differential, which is our ability to reason and make rational judgements.
A good rule of thumb about reading is this “QUALITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUANTITY“.
The “Dumbing Down of America” (and the world) is happening because we are reading more quantity, but the quality is dwindling grammatically. The content of Twitter, television, films and popular media is diminishing our ability to evaluate the relative value and validity of information. Are minds are literally being drowned in drivel! The Draconian education policy of “No Child Left Behind” is designed to drag everyone down to a level of dim-witted incompetence.
Don’t fall for this bullshit. Understand what you read.
Here is a great tool to measure your reading speed and comprehension:
100 (OR SO) BOOKS I HEARD IN 2016
THE HARRY POTTER SERIES (7 books) by J.K Rowling
DUNE (6 book series by Frank Herbert)
ASHELY BELL by Dean Koontz
NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman (second reading)
BAG OF BONES by Stephen King
THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by John Joseph Adams (editor) , Robert J. Sawyer , Christopher Roden , Michael Moorcock , Anne Perry , Neil Gaiman , Anthony Burgess , Laurie R. King
GHENHIS KHAN AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD By Jack Weatherford
THE RED RISING TRILOGY by Pierce Brown
THE DRUID CHRONICLES (8 books) by Kevin Hearne
HOW TO SAFELY LIVE IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE by Charles Yu
THE DRESDEN FILES (15 books) by Jim Butcher
ALEX VERUS SERIES by Benedict Jacka (7 books)
THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North
THE EVERYTHING BOX by Richard Kadrey
MAGIC 2.0 (3 book series) by Scott Meyer
THE MANY SELVES OF KATHERINE NORTH by Emma Geen
READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline
TESSER, A DRAGON AMONG US by Chris Philbrook
AGENT TO THE STARS by John Scalzi
ALL OF THE BOOKS OF DOUGLAS ADAMS (re-read for the 4th or 5th time) 
HEARTSTRIKERS (3 book series) by Rachel Aaron
WATCHERS by Dean Koontz
THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
WE ARE LEGION (WE ARE BOB) BOBIVERSE BOOKS 1 AND 2 by Dennis E. Taylor
COLUMBUS DAY: EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (book 1) by Craig Alanson