How can I read better and faster?

Question:

How can I read better and faster?

Any ideas?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

This may sound stupid, but you have to know what you reading before you read it. In college i read a lot of obscure works that were written in a very different "English" than we read or speak today. I found what works best for me was to read a summary of the plot and whatever other information i could find (try sparknotes.com). Then, by the time i read the book or play or whatever i had a general understanding of what was going on and could focus on the real important stuff in the book. I better understood what i was reading and didn't have to double-back to understand one basic paragraph.