Cast an eye

I open the book to where I'm up to. That happens to be the first place in the story that the main character, Jack Reacher, is mentioned.

Now then, although the book is in Swedish, a language new to me, I cast my eye quite quickly across the text. I do not study, inspect, guess, puzzle over, try to fathom, or wonder about what I don't know. I don't look up unknown words.  I simply glide my eyes at speed - at what I imagine would be the rate of normal speaking - without back-tracking, pausing or slowing down.

I cover the first chapter, taking 5 minutes that had taken me 3 minutes in English.  That feels about right, because in English I read more quickly than normal speaking speed. I'd probably take 5 minutes instead of 3, had I been reading aloud.

Nevertheless, in Swedish I already seem to be reading more quickly than a Swede would speak. I don't imagine that 170 words per minutes is generally attainable.  Those 170 words make up 11 sentences. That's nothing to sneeze at. If I were to spend ten minutes, I'd cover ten times the territory. That's a heap of Swedish.