The way I read books has changed significantly after I read the book How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler.
I stopped chasing speed reading and started moving towards the thought “The smarter you get, the slower you read.” by Naval Ravikant.
Until recently, my reading process looked like this:
1) Read the summary or watch a review of the book to understand the main essence;
2) Read the description;
3) Read the table of contents;
4) Browse through pictures, graphs, and excerpts;
5) If it still seems to us that the information is valuable - we start reading from cover to cover and underline smart thoughts (which will later go into the Second Brain).
Recently, in our community where we learn together in online courses and discuss them (by the way, join us if you haven't yet https://t.me/+JrrXEFpSgJVjNWIy), an interesting thought was expressed that before reading a book, it’s worth studying more about who the author is (what kind of life he had, in what context he existed, does he have real experience in what he writes about, does he share a scientific approach).
This gives us two bonuses:
1) Even more information on whether to trust what is written in the book;
2) The reading itself changes and takes context into account.
Starting a new book The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, I must say that this fundamentally changes the matter! I can now visually imagine Clayton Christensen sharing his scientific conclusions. I am sure this also improves the memorability of the material.