Oh, my fond memories, I was lucky enough to find some old Russian book about how to read faster, with a handful of techniques, when I was 12. I applied them since, as I was an avid reader since I learn to read at age of 5. Now, decades later, my reading speed is something else.
And we use to read a lot in our family, as we had few thousand books in our house. I remember when my brother was like 10-14, we had a running contest, and I would pay him something like $0.1 for every book over 200 pages that he would read. He was reading 50-100 books per year, thinking that he robbed me blind (especially poetry, as there are less words in those books). Best money I ever spent.
Oh, that is cool! I did a speed reading course when I was 16 and got faster, but only by about 30%. My reading issues now are different though.
This used to be "common" in some way, right? A few years back (maybe 2014 - so many years back), I was in St Petersburg and was surprised at how people were reading everywhere. On the subway, on the escalator to the subway, at the cafés and restaurants. Everyone had a book - hardly any phones in hand.
This made me laugh!
Oh yes, the speed is not increasing to superspeed, but think about, that 20-30% increase in speed, how much time you saved over few decades.