(Extracted from Mark Manson’s Motherfucker Monday 13 Jan 2020)
Most of us feel as though we should power through and finish 400 pages. This makes no sense. With one exception, we should all quit more books.
Our ability to read quickly mostly depends on focus. Our ability to retain information mostly depends on memory. Humans focus on things they enjoy. They also remember things they enjoy. Therefore, the first and most obvious rule of reading and retaining more information is to be ruthless and only reading books you truly enjoy reading.
My general guidelines in my own reading is that I give a book 10% of its length to win me over (400 page book means I read the first 40 pages, 250 pages means I read the first 25, etc.) If I’m not won over by 10%, I check the table of contents to see if I want to skip to a later chapter that looks interesting. If that chapter doesn’t grab me, then I put the book away.
Quitting books also goes for chapters or even sections. Non-fiction books repeat themselves a lot. If I’m reading a book, and a chapter is about research that I’m already familiar with… I skip that chapter! No regrets. Books are meant to serve you, not the other way around.