If I have to get through boring material, like technical manuals or things written in a tedious fashion, I use a text-to-voice synthesizer (balabolka on windows). I have hacked balabolka to use the Cortana voice, and over time I have increased its reading speed. Now 'she' sounds like a chipmunk on meth. If I need to get through a book, I buy the paper copy, then obtain a pdf and run it through the synthesizer... I read the book while the synth squirrel-speaks the words. If I find something interesting, I'll turn off the synth, then slow down and go over the good spot in slow motion, reading and link-think what I'm reading to other things I know.