After all this, I’m still learning to read in something resembling an efficient manner. Years and years ago, a beloved Lit professor told me that he read every single word of a book, including the publication info and title pages. As an impressionable young undergrad, I figured he must know what he was doing. (In retrospect, it was probably just an OCD quirk.) I never took the read it all mandate quite that far, but I have been in the habit of reading almost every bit of a book for way too long. And in this racket, it’s not even really possible. I’ve gotten better during the past couple of years just out of pure desperation, and have made some real progress toward efficiency since I started doing my exam review work.

I did read Adler quite awhile back, but was put off because a) you sort of need to read the whole thing, irony of ironies and b) because of everything I had learned about Adler’s philosophy during my Lit degree. Here are two things I wish I had read about five years ago (had they existed then). The next time a panicked first-year grad student shows up in my office looking for advice, I'm a-sending them here:
Rebecca Howard’s step-by-step method
How to Read in College, by Tim Burke