Actually, it&#x27;s <i>only</i> technical books (programming specifically) that I&#x27;m referring to. I do not read fiction that way (I actually prefer audiobooks for fiction mainly because speed reading fiction is less enjoyable).<p>To be fair (and to handle &quot;bullshit&quot; being called by another person&#x27;s comments), the books usually cover a topic I am already at least partly (and sometimes very) familiar with.  And many programming books contain pages of &quot;just code&quot; that are sparse in text.  Books on topics that I am less familiar with I read more slowly, but rarely take more than a few hours (3-4) to get through the first read.  I&#x27;ve explained in more detail in other comments, but the first read is a skim&#x2F;scan without notes and without doing <i>any</i> exercises.  It&#x27;s to get a 30,000 ft view of the book to help identify areas I need to study more deeply.<p>Subsequent reads I focus on exercises, but hone in on areas I am less familiar with.  The second read is <i>much</i> slower than the first.  The most recent example I can think was Bjarn Stroustrup&#x27;s &quot;The C++ Programming Language&quot;.  I&#x27;ve done little with C++ in about 10 years so this was almost all &quot;new material&quot;.  I started on Saturday morning and completed the first read in about 3 hours.  I spent the <i>day</i> Sunday doing the second read, taking notes, but still without exercises.  I spent the remainder of the week on subsequent reading doing exercises in 2-3 hour sessions every night.<p>This book would have taken me a month to read, the first time, before (I recall a Novell Netware book of 800 pages taking me almost a month to complete).  And I would have gotten <i>much</i> less out of it as a result of the gaps of time between topics.  I am not presently a &quot;C++ genius&quot; having read the book, but I&#x27;ve written a few programs and am comfortable with the material.  And I know I&#x27;ll read it again and refer to it.<p>You can&#x27;t become a proficient speed reader over night or with just &quot;some training&quot; or &quot;a course&quot; without a lot of practice.  I <i>love</i> reading programming books of any kind and approach it partly as an exercise to become better at consuming information, so every book I hope to get a little more efficient (though the law of diminishing returns applies).