Francis Bacon said in his article that that spends too much time on reading is sloth. And a Chinese sage refers to the same phenomenon as reading without thinking is efforts lost. A veritable intelligent reader will first of all be an efficient time- user. Unfortunately I am a lousy reader, spending most of the time on reading and getting the least from it. Now in hindsight, I have been frustrated by this defect of mine. The fact that you find your smart classmates devote less energy and less time on the courses but get the most satisfying results has mocking effects on your studies, even on your life, and most important, on your self-respect. When you find this, what is badly needed is to find a way out of this predicament as soon as possible.
Now from personal experience, I think there are two key points for one to notice in studying academic books. If you attend classes, the first thing you should do is to reinforce your memory of what you have learned on classes, or to rearrange your notebook. Whatever, the most efficient is to get that stuff imprinted on your mind as soon as possible after class. Of course, it will be better if you have a very clever way to memorize those things to save that step. If you study by yourself, then making notes will save you quite amounts of time to review it, and make your collection of the content immediately after the reading, which is an indispensable step for efficient reader, more effective.
