What are the best methods to read academic books faster with comprehension?

Answer 1

It is difficult to comprehend everything within any source or book, whether academic or not. If for whatever reason you are limited on time and need to read something, I recommend at least reading the first and last sentence of every paragraph, since that should at least provide you with the main ideas of the piece, though it may leave out specific evidence or details. Nevertheless, if you can successfully read through the source once, you can speed read through it a second or third time just to grasp the most important topics.