I've started reading a lot again, and I've realized that a good way to increase returns from reading something is to come up with concrete steps to change your behavior after reading something. Here, reading is always for non-entertainment purposes. My argument:
Reading is useful iff it changes a person's behavior. If someone reads an argument and does not have non-trivial changes to their behavior, then that time was not effectively utilized; it was as if they hadn't read the text. This follows from two goals of reading: gain new information and update your views: as Luke Muehlhauser put it, we should ask "How should I update my view in response to this?"
Sometimes, changing your views isn't enough. Reading something transformative can stick with you and permanently change your views. However, people have many habits, which can be seen as the momentum of previous beliefs. Reading may allow views to become better, but they do not necessarily translate to a significant change in habits or behavior. Worse, new views are easier to forget than habits, and habits constantly pull views towards themselves.
Action and change must be purposeful. Something I've been doing after some of my readings is writing down some things I think I should change to my own behavior upon reading something. I think its easy for reading to become an automatic, relaxing task. That almost always hurts the utility of reading. On average and to a certain point, the more work one puts in, the more they get out. I've found that writing down concrete changes forces me to put in the work in an effective way, and allows me to change my "momentum" for the better.