Do all the PR steps and get them out of the way then start study reading and actually using the new stuff your reading. Do everything every single night- do random PR steps very fast and get into state before you study. Multiple exposures for short periods of time is better than less frequent exposures for long periods of time.
[When reading a book that teaches how to do something, do you still just super-read and dip over everything as fast as you would in other types of books?] At first you do it multiple times but eventually you'll find what you need and slow down on.
[In books that teach these languages, there are snippets of code and sample programs. Should I study them as if I were regular reading them, or should I just super-read and dip as usual?] Spend your time on the important and not on the unimportant. Learning and remembering the codes is important. Look at what you already know every night for 5 minutes and preview what you'll learn the next day for 5 minutes. In the time most people spend just watching commercials you are learning something. I'm learning Spanish right now and I'm not struggling at all. I think I'm at the tourist level now but I want to be able to THINK in Spanish. It's the most dominant language on the planet. The PR doesn't seem to do anything but I'm not repeating things as much as I used to. In learning shorthand I noticed that bigtime. I would learn a sound or group of them like S,F,V (similar markings), I would do about 30 words and a couple days later its still in my head, I can almost see the page. If you can't get an instant skill from slow reading you aren't going to get it from PR. Looking for info for a specific purpose is not the same as learning something.
