When children who are struggling to learn to read suddenly find the key to solving their problems, it’s as if someone has waved a magic wand and transformed their lives. Reading opens doors, helps people learn new ways to think about things, and provides information on any subject. Without the ability to read, we would be missing out on many things that enrich and improve our lives.

Although we often associate people who have a hard time reading with the uneducated, the lower class, and people living in poverty, conditions like dyslexia affect people at every level of society. In an interview earlier this year done to promote a literacy and literature festival in London, Princess Beatrice of York, one of the granddaughters of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, talked about how she discovered that a love of reading helped her overcome literacy problems caused by dyslexia. As quoted in The Daily Telegraph, she said that once she started reading the Harry Potter books, “… suddenly reading was fun. Reading was inspiring and I was motivated … I couldn’t put the books down.”

Reluctant readers will not become speed readers. If you’re reading at a slower pace because you don’t enjoy reading, look for something that will spark your imagination. When you’re reading more, you’ll have more opportunities to work on your reading skills. You can practice using the sweeping technique to learn to read smoothly and easily, or work on widening your focus so that you can read more words at once and increase your reading speed.

Pick up a book and start reading now. As you can see, even if you choose a work of fantasy, your speed reading dreams will soon be a reality, if you just keep reading!