I find that re-reading the books help. For instance, it wasn’t until my 3rd read of The Goal that I felt as if I completely understood the underlying themes. A

I find that re-reading the books help. For instance, it wasn’t until my 3rd read of The Goal that I felt as if I completely understood the underlying themes. As others mentioned, being able to relate to the content of the book helps immensely. For instance when reading The Innovator’s Dilemma I kept finding parallels to my previous industry and company. This struck me so much that I can list most of the content of the book simply by thinking back to those insights. As a last note, non-fiction books are seldom gripping. Reading a few pages before going to sleep doesn’t cut it for me, words zip past my eyeballs without hitting the brain. I need to actively focus on the content, much more so than when reading fiction. I try to force myself to pause and actively think about the content every few paragraphs: does it make sense? Can I follow the logic of the argument? Does it resonate with my experience? It’s the only way for me to actually get anything lasting out of the book.