Actually, it's only technical books (programming specifically) that I'm referring to. I do not read fiction that way (I actually prefer audiobooks for fiction m

Actually, it's only technical books (programming specifically) that I'm referring to. I do not read fiction that way (I actually prefer audiobooks for fiction mainly because speed reading fiction is less enjoyable). To be fair (and to handle "bullshit" being called by another person'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 "just code" 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've explained in more detail in other comments, but the first read is a skim/scan without notes and without doing any exercises. It's to get a 30,000 ft view of the book to help identify areas I need to study more deeply. Subsequent reads I focus on exercises, but hone in on areas I am less familiar with. The second read is much slower than the first. The most recent example I can think was Bjarn Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language". I've done little with C++ in about 10 years so this was almost all "new material". I started on Saturday morning and completed the first read in about 3 hours. I spent the day 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. 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 much less out of it as a result of the gaps of time between topics. I am not presently a "C++ genius" having read the book, but I've written a few programs and am comfortable with the material. And I know I'll read it again and refer to it. You can't become a proficient speed reader over night or with just "some training" or "a course" without a lot of practice. I love 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).