Have you tried what's called the SQ3R method? It can work well for textbooks. First, Survey the material. Try to get a general idea of what it's about. Second, Ask Questions you want the answer to. For example, let's say you're trying to read a chapter in psychology, perhaps it's on Freud. So, here you are, skimming through the material, and you encounter the word "superego." Your questions might be: What's a superego? How does it fit into Freud's psychoanalytic theory? Third, Read the material, searching for answers to your questions. Fourth, Recite the material. Talk yourself through the information. When you get done, go back and Review the material.

The last psychology intro texts I taught from had this technique already built in. The usefulness of this approach is its call for active reading.

Of course, some students use highlighters as they read. The danger to this approach is that students might end up just coloring up the pages, but not really accomplishing anything. If you can write in your textbook (assuming it doesn't have any handy-dandy techniques built in), then you might try looking for the topic sentences of paragraphs and then how the author supports them. For instance, say the topic sentence is "Learning to read a textbook can be a difficult process." The author is obligated to support this statement. So, why is it a difficult process? Ideally, the author will develop the paragraph using words such as "first, second," etc. So, you might underline the topic sentence and then write the number "1" for the first point, and underline it. If such a nice approach is not used, then you will have to hunt for the supporting points and number them.

If word definitions are given (and not handily put in bold or such), then put "def" before the word, double underlining it and then underlining the definition.

Make sure to read all the chapter, including any introduction and any conclusion. If tables or figures are mentioned in the text, then stop and actually look at them. They are there to help explain the information.

If the book is not a textbook, then you might find taking notes helpful. My memory is somewhat poor now, so even when I read a novel for my book club, I take notes. (The other members kid me, but, hey, whatever works. Otherwise I tend to get confused about the plot and the characters.)

Note that each technique requires activity, not passivity. That way getting distracted is less likely.

When I was in school (in the Dark Ages), I would try to learn material as I went along. For instance, if I encountered a list of steps that needed to be memorized, then I would try to figure out a way to cue my memory. So, I might note the first word in each step and check to see what the first letter was. Then I would end up with an acronym--say, RMST. I would try to commit that acronym to memory, so when test time came, I would know the steps in order by recalling the letter and then what the rest of the step was. I also tried to use other cues. I learned the hippocampus of the brain is associated with memory by noting this word has the word "campus" in it, reminding me of a college campus. I also used acrostics--sentences made from the first letter of a list. Medical students historically remember the twelve cranial nerves in order by memorizing the acrostic "On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, A Fat-A**ed Girl Vended Snowy Tops." (The first nerve starts with an "O," the second with an "O," etc.)

BTW, yes, as someone said, attention is directly related to memory. If something isn't paid attention to, then it's not going to be remembered. Of course, that's probably obvious!

Finally (yay!),trying to re-read a text over and over is not generally a very effective method. When I used the techniques I mentioned, I generally only had to read a chapter one time.

Hope this long post contains something that's helpful. Happy reading and learning! (Oh, dear, did I put you to sleep?)