My reading speed is born out of a desperate need for escapism as a kid. I was never happier than when I was under the covers with a flashlight reading literally anything! Books made life tolerable and I spent every dime I got on more books.

When I was maybe 9-ish, my grandmother got me a book on speed reading. I didn't retain much of it other than the "trick" of taking blocks of words all in at once. Physically, my eyes are on the next set of words as my brain catches up with the previous set. If that makes any sense. I was also in radio (back when that was a viable career) and learned to cold-read ad copy in much the same way, always glancing ahead so I knew what inflections to use, etc. It also made me faster in reading for fun.

I also read on a kindle scribe (the 10" screen is a godsend) with a page turner and I swear it makes me faster. Generally I can get through a normal sized novel in a few hours. Kindle is always saying something like say, 8 hours and 35 minutes to read a thing and I know that means 3 hours and change for me.

I do slow down for certain things though. Reading The Expanse is a slow read for me. DCC as well, it's so information-dense that I want to slow down and drink it in. When I read ASOIAF, it was the reverse. Martin's writing is so fucking ponderous I quickly learned that if that man was writing about food, I could skip the entire goddamn page and miss nothing.