I really liked your reading tips. It's too bad I didn't read this a few years ago, since I ended up learning most of it by trial and error.
One thing that I do when I read is to skip over most of the stories of people changing their lives (in personal development books) or case studies (in business books). I know some people like those types of stories, but I usually think of them as filler and would rather get right to principles that I can experiment with right away and see if they work.