how to read
a textbook

a textbook is a reference that happens to be bound in order. treating it like a novel — begin at the start, proceed to the end, absorb — is why people spend four hours on a chapter and retain almost none of it.

read the questions first

the problems at the end tell you what the chapter is actually for. read them before the prose and you now have something to look for, instead of trying to remember everything equally. most of the chapter is scaffolding for a handful of moves, and the questions show you which ones.

the worked example
is the content

in a technical subject, the prose explains and the worked example demonstrates. the demonstration is the part you need. cover the solution, try it yourself, then compare line by line — not to check the answer, but to find the first line where your approach diverged. that line is the lesson.

two passes, not one slow one

first pass: headings, bold terms, diagrams, the summary. ten minutes, no notes, just build the shape. second pass: the parts that the questions showed you actually need. this is faster end to end than one careful read, and you retain more, because the second pass has somewhere to attach.

start at the summary

the chapter summary is written last, by someone who knows what mattered. reading it first feels like cheating and is simply efficient — it is the map before the territory.

if you are not writing,
you are not reading

reading with a pen forces you to decide what is worth capturing, and that decision is most of the comprehension. notes worth re-reading covers what to actually write down — questions, not statements.

when it will not go in

sometimes the book is genuinely badly written, or it assumes something you were never taught. that is worth identifying rather than re-reading the same paragraph six times. the specific missing piece is a good thing to ask about — see asking a question that gets an answer.

related

notes worth re-reading · why re-reading does not work