I often skim the book a couple times, reading sections that catch my eye. After that I have a good idea what's in the book and can grab it later when I need to learn more about something. Then, as time permits, I'll read through it more methodically.

I've been developing over 30 years, and taught myself the majority of what I know by reading and trying what I've read. I'm very much a hands-on learner and like to tinker and tweak as I try out sample code if I'm unsure about something.

It's essential to keep learning if you want to make a decent living in programming. What technologies you know now and think are hot will be stale and over crowded in five years so you have to keep learning. Developers don't have the luxury of learning one thing and then relaxing. That's partly good and partly bad because the burden is on us to keep learning, but I think most developers love the creative challenge so we accept that price.