I might think you were exaggerating, except ... when I was in 7th or 8th grade they tried to get us to read faster. There was a machine that would breeze by the words displayed by a projector.
I remember I could read maybe 250 words per minute. Everyone was pretty suprised that someone they thought was so smart read at the same speed as the goof-offs. The fastest reader could do 900 wpm ... a speed at which I couldn't make out the individual words. This guy had no training. He could just read fast. I loathed him, btw. He was a pretty typical sports bully. But he definitely understood stuff, as we were tested after we read the stuff - and he always did well.
Tech stuff or fiction, I always read slowly. 250 wpm - 300 wpm was about my maximum, but my cruising speed was a good deal less, maybe 100 wpm, sometimes less. For some tech stuff, I have spent 2 or 3 days mulling a single paragraph - and often I'll spend several hours on a page or two. For fiction, I just don't enjoy it if I read quickly. For sf, I like to ponder the ideas. For non-sf, I like to ponder the relationships. Either way, I'll read in spurts - concentrating for .5 hr - 3 hrs, and then thinking about it. Sometimes, I'll get a particular passage just stuck in my head and want to read it over and over and over.
I can't keep up with reading groups. They're trying to get me to head up a tech reading group where I work, but I don't have time - also I don't like *having* to read something.
