Nobody actually knows when speed reading was first used, but it may well have been a long while ago. For centuries, reading was the privilege of a minority of the most highly-educated individuals in the world, the overwhelming majority of whom were monks and priests. This tiny, select group of men guarded their privilege and were loathe to instruct the general public to read. Moreover, throughout those hundreds of years there were relatively few books to read compared with nowadays. Books were also very expensive as they all had to be copied out by hand. Perhaps the only fact that has not altered is that the Bible was the most widespread book in existence and even now the Bible is the most prevalent book.