Good technique indeed... I think different people prefer different ways of learning. As of myself, I learn way faster when I see someone doing whatever I want to learn right in front of me.

I do a lot of book-learning to, but I rarely find the SICP-kind of book that clicks on me. So book learning is more informative than practical... So the way I read many books (not the SICP kind, of course), is I quickly devour then and keep most of the stuff in the back of my head, so that when I'm doing the real thing I know what I don't know. After reading in a fast-pace, I try to do whatever I'm reading about and use books as references.