@Flash, how do you read fast yey still retain the information on a story? I have novels that I neglected to read yet I want to see if I can finish before next month.
Ironically enough, reading's probably the fastest thing I can do. It's not just speed reading, I can absorb most of the information off a page in about 3 seconds, make sense of dialogues, descriptions and everything. This post, for example, I could read in about half a second. I learned how to read and write when I was about two and a half years old, and my grandfather took care of me. It was really difficult for me to adapt to regular handwriting in school instead of the book typography I was used to writing by then, but I eventually got used to it. I mostly learned about car brands and stuff. Then I learned english by myself in elementary school when cable first came to Portugal, and I discovered Cartoon Network. From there, I just devoured books, but found the usual Enid Blyton-type stories incredibly boring to read.
Then I found some classics in the school library, was reading Franz Kafka and Fjodor Dostojevski, Homero, James Joyce and others. I just kinda... started reading really really fast, because I loved the stories, and managed to absorb lots of information at once.
So, the trick is to focus your eyes on the big key words, filter out worthless and meaningless sentences which don't add anything to the story, and as long as you're used to reading, you can get through books incredibly fast, because through those words, the story will form inside your head because of pure routine.