I don't think it's practical to read a technical book from cover to cover. There's just too much to learn and it's too easy to forget everything you've read if

I don't think it's practical to read a technical book from cover to cover. There's just too much to learn and it's too easy to forget everything you've read if you don't immediately apply it right away. I tend to read to find what I want to know. When something I tried in the real world breaks, I come back. If my concoction continues to not work, I come back. Eventually the book gets finished. I do the same thing for math books. You have to play with the concepts for them to stick. In college, it was always hard to play with things because of time constraints and having to get to the next exam. Outside of college, if you're not time constrained, there's no reason you shouldn't be screwing around with every concept that's shown on the page.