How do you read books? With greed? Devour them? Or skim? Or dive in, here and there, when you have breaks, to snatch out a sentence or two? Or get lost and let yourself be absorbed? I suppose, all of those. Because I know. It's how I used to read too. Used to. Not anymore. It's a curse, in a way, I hate it. But I also love it. I'm a writer now. I can't skim or devour anymore, for two reasons. One, even if I try, I can't help noticing story elements, structure, new words, all these things that permeated my system. I write now. I do the same things. I know. Can't unknow it. It's there. It's like watching a movie and being aware of camera angles, and length of scenes, and continuity lapses, and actor's hair. Or socks. Or both. (Or lack of any clothes.) Anyway. I can't. At first I resented it. Until I realized the second thing, second reason why I can't read fast anymore. I'm learning how to write better, when I read. The more I read, the more I learn, the more I see, the more I read and learn again. It keeps growing like a snowball. Finally, I gave up on reading fast and am now savoring each book and also studying it, like I'm back in college. Only better. It costs next to nothing, I get to sit at home and do it at my leisure. 

So, you might ask, how DO you read like a writer?