Speed reading in a foreign language

Anyone have experience in this?

I have been thinking of learning to speed read, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with speed reading in foreign languages and whether or not the benefits of reading at a slower speed (picking up vocabulary, sentence patterns, etc) still exist.

In my opinion, speed (fast) reading is only useful when the information you need is the type that could be put into a table. Discrete, objective units. Otherwise I am reminded of a Woody Allen scene when he said he read War and Peace after his speed reading class. When asked what it is about, he replied: “Um… some Russians.”