After I had registered for college and bought my textbooks at the bookstore, I saw the enormous task ahead of me and signed up for a speed-reading course.

As I recall, the course was offered in the evenings by a private company and cost quite a bundle; no, a Bundle with a capital "B" because as a cash-starved collegian I considered it a good day when supper was anything more than macaroni and cheese.

Still, I figured it would be well worth the expense to be able to read my textbooks and my library assignments at a much faster rate. I financed the course and settled in for a long semester of macaroni and cheese.

I had forgotten about speed-reading until I recently came across a folder of those reading assignments, notes and statistics of my ever-increasing speed. If I can believe those notes, I got up to nearly 15,000 words a minute toward the end.

That figure seems amazing to me today. First, I don't know how I turned pages that quickly without their bursting into flames. Second, the literature that accompanied the notes said the average college student reads only about 300 words a minute.

Did I really get up to 15,000 words a minute? My notes include scribbles in the margins in which I divided the number of words in each book by the time spent, so apparently I did. There are also quizzes showing that I comprehended the material perfectly as I sped through it.

Do I read that fast now? Not even close. I would bet my speed is about, oh, 300 words a minute.

Moreover, I don't remember having read any of the books described in my notes. Never mind that I don't recall their plots or characters; I don't remember having even opened them.

One book, it seems, was The Theater: An Introduction. That must have been the textbook for drama class, but I have no memory of that book, nor any of the other books I evidently sailed through with racing eyes. To tell you the truth, I didn't even remember having taken that class. I studied drama?

That was a long time ago, of course, and a lot of money ago. Today, after having read news stories daily for decades, I have the attention span of a flitting hummingbird. I read dozens of stories a day -- at normal speed -- so when I pick up a book, I find it tough to cover more than a few pages before moving on to something else.

I can't even build up decent speed when reading in bed, where a good book is the best sleeping pill I've found. The next night, I have to backtrack and reread some pages because they were lost in the haze of drowsiness. I would say that in bed I read a lot slower than the average college student.

Since college, I haven't tried to teach myself to read faster. Reading is simply too much fun. I like to spend time with a book, to touch its words and -- if it is old -- to smell its musty, dusty pages. Sometimes, there simply is no need for speed.

MOORE ON WORDS: My reading comprehension might or might not have been good in that course, but one thing I learned by reading is the meaning of "comprehension." Reader's Digest Family Word Finder says it means a grasping with the mind, having come to us from the Latin prehendere (to grasp or seize).

That word also gave us "apprehend" (to seize), "reprehensible" (seized in order to blame; hence, deserving blame), "prehensile" (adapted for use in grasping, such as the prehensile tail of some monkeys) and even "prison" (a place where seized people are kept).

If you don't believe me, you can read up on it.

Reach Glynn Moore at (706) 823-3419 or glynn.moore@augustachronicle.com.