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I've had success reading less: take a non-fiction book, figure out the parts you care about, and only read those. Use the table of contents, the index. Scan the chapters for relevant parts, and then come back and read them at the normal rate, or even slower. If someone is saying they read 1-2 books a day, and they seem to know what they're about, that's what they're doing. There is no additional, hitherto unknown gear in the human brain that you can engage to let you read thousands of words a minute and understand them.[1] I've had success reading more: take a fiction book, read it once quickly — even irresponsibly fast — then read it again for comprehension. You get a lot more out of it, and it sounds like you appreciate getting a lot of out of books. But, this way, you will end up spending more time reading, not less. The other trick I know is to stop reading. If you are trying to work your way word-by-word through a book, and it's not rewarding you, either skip to the good part, or put the book down and pick up another one. You don't owe the author anything, and the world is full of more good books than you can ever read anyway, so why waste time on bad ones? An English Lit professor told me to make a choice after the first 50 pages whether I wanted to continue or not, so that's my rule of thumb. At first you think "Oh no, I've failed, I'm a bad reader," but over time you see how much more you read and learn because reading becomes pleasurable, and not a chore, once you want to do it. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading#Controversies_in... |