I once read a about a small scale study on some super-duper speed reading method. By small scale I think there were like two participants. One was a an expert in the method. The other was the guy doing the study. There were 3 main findings. 1. Yes, you will "read" much faster. 2. If you take a standard reading comprehension test on what you've read, you will score much lower. 3. If you don't take such a test, you will be under the mistaken impression that you absorbed more than you did from the book.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/2000001...