In May I graduated from college, 6 months later I learned how to read. 

Ill admit, in college I rarely read my assigned reading, the reason wasn't necessarily that I didn't want to read it (I didn't want to read it), cuz sometimes I did (rarely), but rather because I didn't have the time to read for each class with an 18 hr credit load while competing at the D1 level in athletics.  Often times my best approach would be to prioritize which class-reading needed to be skimmed, but certainly not read.  But that all changed after I graduated, no longer was I forced to read books that someone else thought I should read, but I was now able to take control of the books that I WANTED to read.  And if I wanted to read the book that meant I was interested in the information contained within the book.

But, I am not a speed-reader, my eyes cannot follow my hand down each page in 2.007 seconds like the handsome bearded gentleman on TV, though I did take a fruitless class on how to do that.  Even worse than being a slow reader, is that I have a hard time retaining the information.  So, what could be a bigger waste of time than sitting in front of a book for hours and walking away not remembering anything I just read??  Maybe watching TV, but not much else comes to mind.  This was a problem I never dealt with in college because I didn't care if I remembered the information beyond the time and depth required for the test, but as soon as I was able to read books that I wanted to read, I was frustrated with not being able to retain the information.  So I developed a system, and this is it:

I read with a pencil in hand, in fact I use a pencil as a book mark.  I use this pencil to underline or highlight select passages as I read through them that I thought were an example of beautiful writing, or information that I thought pertained to me in my quest for knowledge.  I read the whole book, marking the things I want to remember.

Then, when I finish the book, I go back through and write out all the highlighted parts.  For this I copy all of my highlighted notes Google Documents, because it allows me to access, work on, and save my documents from anywhere, making it easy to update your book lists while you're traveling, which is when I get most of my reading done.

Finally, I read straight through the highlighted notes one time, then at the end I write a summary of the book.  This way all the important parts to me are fresh in my mind.  It doesn't have to be a book report, just a summary of what you have gotten out of the information.  Saving this information allows you to come back to the info if you want to check it out later.

Using this method you see the information that you want to see 4 times. First in the initial read, second as you highlight it (this usually requires a brief, initial re-read), third as you copy down the passages to another document, and fourth as you read through the highlighted passages document prior to your personal summary.

You can get more intensive, or less intensive depending on the book.  For example, I am trying to gain a base understanding of real estate, so in my real estate books, when I go to copy down the highlighted parts I also indicate which page each bit of information was on so I can go back and re-read when I need to, which will likely be when I actually am ready to pull the trigger on purchasing real estate.  But when I am reading a book where I only want the "gist" I leave the page numbers out.

Two things I would like to say in regards to this very rudimentary system, buy your books, don't mark up your friends' books, or library books, make them your own, this way you can mark them, reference them later, and at the same time you are building a personal library.  To get books check out half.com, and bookmooch.com, in edition to the well-known amazon.com.  Secondly, if you are reading a novel, don't annotate it, just read it and enjoy it.  If there is a thought or a particular piece of elegant writing which strikes you in your soul, underline it and write it in your journal.  In this saturated world of self-help books, there is absolutely nothing wrong with reading a book for pure enjoyment, your heart needs it sometimes.

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