Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Edmund Burke
I stumbled upon a short text by Paul N. Edwards (School of Information University of Michigan): How to Read a Book (v4.0). It’s a quick and interesting read, although (as the author stresses) the implementation of theses recommendations will take a while. It is also very interesting for people who want to design a good reader, for iPads, Kindle or — I don’t know, for a reference manager (like Papers that could really need a good reader, Sente that has some interesting features but could improve, etc.). Seriously, it gives you the requirements on a silver platter. 🙂
BTW, read past the table, the detailed (but still pleasantly short) explanations are more comprehensible.
Highly Recommended — Edwards, P. N. (2008?). How to Read a Book.