According to A.G. Sertillanges, in his book The Intellectual Life, there are four different kinds of readings.
1. Fundamental Reading (self-help/improvement books or improvements in the virtues)
2. Accidental Reading (textbooks, academic reading, etc.)
3. Stimulating Reading (motivational books, biographies that inspire, etc.)
4. Recreative Reading (not for study or academic growth--just for relaxing)
You seem to be talking about accidental reading and how to read these kinds of books faster. The problem is that these books are usually heavy or dense and are not made for you to breeze through them. These books require "active reading," which includes taking notes, writing paraphrases, underlining, and doing things of that sort. The real question should be "How can I comprehend these books better?" rather than "How can I read them faster?"
Different types of books have different kinds of gears. For example, recreative reading can be read casually, so reading them fast wouldn't be too much of an issue.
As a doctoral student, I could say that we need to read many books. However, try to focus on understanding the books and getting the big picture of them (with a dictionary with you). The most important thing is that you don't give up. Your hard work and efforts in studying and reading many kinds of books will reward you. Try to learn as much as you can in your studies, and I strongly recommend that you don't read these books too fast.
This post was edited by DK007 on Aug 20 2024 12:56am