Hey Hey,

I don't know what you're reading... but one of the series of textbooks we had to read for school was the Cisco Press books... First CCNA Study Guides and then the CCNP books... Let me tell you.. nothing could be worse... It's like torture to try and get through....

Our solution... was two-fold...

First... never read the first time.. especially if it's overly technical.. your mind won't deal with it... it'll wander.... if you skim the first time through you'll get the basics of the concept... then when you start reading it.. it won't be new material to your mind... it'll be something you're familiar with... the second time through... read it indepth.. as soon as your mind wanders.. take a break.. do something completely unrelated.. if this was our study session.... we'd talk about chicks, cars, alcohol... then we'd go back to the IT world until we wandered again...
Now read it a third time and take notes... this forces you to fully concentrate as MLF has mentioned.... Then read your notes and explain it to someone else.. or write a tutorial for the site ....

Letting your mind wander can be natural... you just need your own way to deal with it's jaunts into randomness... Besides with above method.. you'll be laughing at the end when you realize how easy it was.. then you can sit down and get intense, think stuff through.. reevaluate it.. and question it... because you have a solid understanding of the material.. it becomes a game at that point.

Peace,
HT