The Secrets to Reading Faster and Absorbing Information Better

We live in an age of “Infobesity.” Every day, we are bombarded with newsletters, reports, Slack threads, and that ever-growing stack of books on the nightstand that we swore we would read this year. As a society, we are drowning in content but starving for wisdom.

The average person reads at about 200 to 250 words per minute. At that pace, making a significant dent in your reading list is mathematically impossible. This leads to a state of constant “information anxiety”—the nagging feeling that you are falling behind.

But the problem isn’t that there is too much to read. The problem is that we were taught to read incorrectly.

In school, you were taught to read linearly: start at the first word, pronounce it in your head, move to the next, and continue until the end. This is perfect for fiction, where the beauty lies in the prose. But for non-fiction, articles, and textbooks, this method is inefficient and obsolete.

To survive the information economy, you don’t just need to read faster; you need to read strategically. Here is the comprehensive guide to fooling people into thinking you’ve read the whole library, while actually extracting more value than the person who read every word.

Part 1: The Mindset Shift (Be Proactive, Not Reactive)

The first step to speed is realizing that books are not sacred objects. They are tools.

Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, argues that we must transform our relationship with information from “something that happens to you” into “something you do proactively.”

Most readers are reactive. They open page one and let the author dictate the pace and flow. This often leads to boredom, glazing over, and eventually quitting the book. To become a proactive reader, you must accept a hard truth: Most non-fiction books are redundant.

Non-fiction authors often start with a core thesis (the 20%) and then fill the remaining 200 pages with anecdotes, repetitive evidence, and fluff to meet the publisher’s word count requirements. Your goal is not to “finish the book.” Your goal is to extract the thesis.

Part 2: The “Cheat Codes” of Reading

If you want to absorb a book in two hours rather than two weeks, you need to break the rules. Here are the strategies used by history majors, professors, and CEOs to consume massive amounts of information rapidly.

1. The “Conclusion First” Protocol

Authors are often mysterious in the beginning, burying their point under layers of academic jargon or lengthy introductions. This is where most readers quit.

The Strategy: Cheat. Go immediately to the Conclusion or Epilogue. Any writer worth their salt will use the conclusion to provide a neat, concise summary of their entire argument. By reading the end first, you gain the “Answer Key” to the book.

• Why it works: When you know exactly where the author is going, the dense chapters in the middle suddenly make sense. You aren’t struggling to figure out the point; you are simply seeing how they prove it.
• Pro Tip: Skip the Prologue. It is usually just a “warm-up” introduction. But never skip the Epilogue—it often contains updated information or the author’s final, crystallized thoughts.

2. The Table of Contents is Your Map

It surprises many students to learn that professors rarely read books cover-to-cover. Instead, they treat books like a buffet. The Strategy: Study the Table of Contents. Identify the 3–4 chapters that seem most relevant to your specific questions or interests. Read those. Skim the rest. This cures “Boredom Syndrome.” If you are only reading the chapters that speak to your soul, you will naturally read faster and retain more because you are genuinely interested.

3. Don’t Read Every Word (The Evidence Trap)

Once you are inside a chapter, do not read line-by-line. The Strategy: Most paragraphs follow a structure:

• Sentence 1: The Point.
• Sentences 2–5: The Evidence (data, stories, quotes).
• Final Sentence: The Transition.

Once you understand “The Point,” you can often skim “The Evidence.” You don’t need to read five pages of examples proving that “exercise is good for you” if you already accept the premise. Find the claim, verify it quickly, and move on.

Part 3: Retention Tools (How to Remember What You Read)

Speed is useless without retention. If you skim a book but remember nothing, you wasted your time. Here is how to lock the information in.

1. Strategic Highlighting

Many people give up on highlighting because they end up painting the whole page neon yellow. The Strategy: Highlight only the Summary Statements. Authors often ramble for three pages and then finish with a sentence like, “Therefore, the primary driver of inflation was…” Highlight only that sentence. When you review the book months later, you should be able to read only your highlights and understand the entire argument. This turns your book into a condensed “Cliff’s Notes” version of itself.

2. The “Reader Response” (One-Page Summary)

This is the single most effective way to retain information long-term. The Strategy: After finishing a book, force yourself to write a one-page response.

• Paragraph 1: What was the author’s main argument?
• Paragraph 2: What were the 2–3 most interesting pieces of evidence?
• Paragraph 3: What do you disagree with? What was missing? By synthesizing 300 pages into one page, you force your brain to reorganize the data, moving it from short-term to long-term memory.

3. The “Jot Down Questions” Method

Never assume the author is correct. Staying critical keeps you awake. The Strategy: Keep a notepad by your side. As you read, write down questions:

• “Why does he ignore the economic data from 1990?”
• “Is this a biased source?”
• “How does this connect to what I read in ‘Atomic Habits’?” This turns reading from a passive activity (watching TV) into an active debate. You remember debates far better than you remember lectures.

Part 4: Social Learning (The Force Multiplier)

We are social creatures. We remember gossip and jokes far better than we remember dry facts. You can hack this biology to improve your learning.

Discuss (and Joke) With Others

If you have a study buddy or a colleague reading the same material, talk about it. The Strategy: Try to make jokes about the content. If you can make a meme or a funny observation about a complex topic (e.g., “The author talks about supply chains like they are a bad breakup”), you are condensing complex information into a relatable emotion. This is particularly powerful for Auditory Learners, who comprehend best when hearing and speaking.

Part 5: The Digital Advantage (Reading on Screens)

While the strategies above apply to physical books, reading digitally offers unique speed advantages.

1. Bionic Reading

New apps use “Bionic Reading” fonts, which bold the first few letters of every word. Your brain automatically completes the rest of the word. This guides the eye through the text with zero friction, allowing for “superhuman” reading speeds.

2. AI Summarization

Before reading a long article, copy the URL into an AI tool (like ChatGPT or Notion) and ask: “Summarize the top 3 counter-intuitive points in this article.” Use this as a filter. If the AI summary sounds generic, skip the article. If it sounds novel, read the full text to get the nuance.

Summary Protocol

To absorb a book faster, stop reading it like a novel. Treat it like a mine. You are the miner, and the information is the ore.

1. Inspect: Read the Conclusion first. Get the answer key.
2. Filter: Use the Table of Contents to identify the 20% of high-value chapters.
3. Skim: Read the first sentence of paragraphs; skim the evidence.
4. Engage: Highlight summary statements and write a one-page response.

By mastering these techniques, you move from being a passive consumer of content to an active architect of your own knowledge. You will find yourself reading not just faster, but deeper.