[npalli]

Not every book needs a detailed reading of every word. If you are reading poetry or a key technical book, sure, you will need to focus on each word but there are lot of books where either you can assume lot of filler (business books, light fiction etc..) or where you are familiar with the subject matter that skimming works best. You can always narrow and focus in small sections if needed. I suppose the real lesson is to not feel guilty of skimming as most books are not worth the time to do detailed reading. The other major time saving is to bail out of a book without feeling guilty. If you frame your repulsion to skimming as wasting time you might find skimming more acceptable.

Some years ago an FT columnist assessed that even the most voracious reader can possibly only ready 5000 books in their lifetime. You should be thoughtful on where you want to spend you focus on.

https://www.ft.com/content/79bfc92a-e3e7-11e7-97e2-916d4fbac...