How do you review multiple large documents quickly?

Part of my job is to read/review/assimilate long articles, white papers, short manuals, et cetera. I have a GTD context for “Read/Review” and guess what? Things stay there like they’re in quicksand. I need a way to “grok” big documents. Anyone got any tips or links? Something step-by-step would be helpful. I’m not talking about simple speed-reading; I’m talking about reading and evaluating but not spending all day on a single tome.