Finally someone has the courage to tell the truth. I mean, I get the part about the necessary skimming one has to to do not just get through school, but be a practical, working academic (as described in the HBR article). Or the way that techies need to skim lots of tech books to stay ahead in one's career.
But that's not reading (in the sense of works meant to be read and not just "understood" -- that is, fiction, or high-quality non-fiction). Which means getting in the author's head; making their language your own (to the point of it sometimes actually does become the language you use, in ordinary speech and writing); getting to know their characters to the point where they have at least a partial feeling of tangible reality to them (like people you actually do know from the physical word); and their stomping grounds, to a point where they feel like places you've actually live in.
That's why it often takes me weeks, sometimes months (and multiple readings) to "read" a book. Very part-time, mind you -- I suppose I could make it go faster, if I made a "system" about it. Yeah, I suppose if I put my mind to it, I could get through a good-sized book in a week or so.
But then I would probably just end up "understanding" the book. Not reading it.