Proper reading conditions are very important for reading and comprehension ability. Despite the difficulty of achieving this, an extremely quiet environment is best. You just cannot focus, absorb and retain the information nearly as effectively if you're reading in front of the television or while listening to music.
I also don't bother reading non-fiction/educational material until I'm actively trying to implement or learn the technique/language/software/idea I'm reading about. This is because I forget the information too quickly to make it useful in my job unless I use it right away. Reading on a regular basis is important to keep the skill up, though, so I read lots of fiction and magazines with long-form content (Scientific American, The Atlantic, NYT Sunday Magazine). The New York Times is the only newspaper I read because most others are severely lacking in depth and quality. This isn't a political persuasion, it's an intellectual/taste concern.
Re: the so little time problem. If you set aside regular reading time, even 20-30 minutes per day, it's amazing how fast you will be finishing books. If you can read a page per minute (~average depending on the text). That's a 200-250 page book every two weeks.