Reading a technical book

When reading books such as Programming in (A LANGUAGE), Learning This and That, how long do you read it (500 pages)?

Honestly, do you actually sit down and try to get a good grip of the topic before you move on to the next, or do you just read it, do a little or no hands-on?

Specifically, I mean books that are Computer Related with emphasis on Programming, Web Designing, etc.

The more experienced a programmer you become, the easier the books are to read. You learn the basic logic of programming, and reading a book on programming really just becomes learning the 'grammar' of the language.

I can usually absorb a 500 page book in less than a week, give or take a few days depending on how much stuff I have going on. For the most part, the topics aren't new, it's just how to go about implementing the topic in the new language that has to be absorbed.

I still though, try to get a good grip on each topic before I move onto the next. That much hasn't changed. It's just easier to get the concepts now. The first time I tried learning references, it took a while to get through each paragraph and excercise. Several times later though, it's really just a matter of learning how they're handled in a given language, and working though the code is much easier.

I usually do the "structured" programming books (prefer the SAMS Teach Yourself x in 21 Days format.

I usually will make sure I understand the concepts of each chapter and will try and do the exercises blind, then read the instructions on it and see what I missed or could have done a better way. The chapters tend to build on each other, so if you don't take the time to get a good comprehension of one chapter, you will have problems with this method throughout the rest of the book. I have found that as I do more of them, I do tend to take less and less time to go through them. I'm down to about 3-4 days per book now!

Amen. The books become less books and more references the better you get. It gets to the point where you don't even need to look at the bookshelf. You whittle your collection down to the few that really help you and you leave them never further than an arm's reach away.

My favorites:

Programming Perl (so good I have 2 copies - 1 for work , 1 for home)
UNIX in Plain English
Linux in a Nutshell