This works for me, but might not work for you. I can't pick up and learn an entire how-to book. But I can use a how-to book to help me complete a project. Once

This works for me, but might not work for you. I can't pick up and learn an entire how-to book. But I can use a how-to book to help me complete a project. Once the project is done, and I have an incomplete mental schema for how the new language/platform/framework/tool works, I'm ready to read the book. At this point I can quickly sail through it, skipping the parts I already learned during the project, and then diving deep on the parts I didn't. The key is using the hands-on project as a reason to build up a filing system in your head. Then as you're reading, you know where -- and whether -- to file all the new information.