I started to read an English Biography book recently, and I noticed that there are a few English words that I dont know on every page. I usually skip them, and try to get the overall meaning instead. By doing this way, I may lose the chance of learning new words, but I feel more enjoyable in reading than looking up words in dictionary time to time.
Do you lookup dicitionary when you read a word that you do not understand?
I tend to do the same thing because I think that if you look up many words in the dictionary you will lose the understanding of the story and probably get bored of reading. On the other hand, do you really think that you are going to be able to remember all of them? What I do, is to look up those words that are common (appear frequently) or the ones that don't let me understand something.
Anyway if you use ebooks this is a lot easier, as you can press on a world and you get meaning, with paper books is slower.
Thinking before your checking, please, whenever you run across an unknown/unfamiliar word. That will help you soon comprehend the word and know how to apply the word.
Good luck to your learning.
I am a well-educated U.S. native English speaker, in my senior years. I have a very good vocabulary. Even so, I probably encounter a word I don't know about once a week. (Often I will recognize the word but realize that I have picked up the meaning from context and am not sure I really know the exact meaning). I have a print copy of the American Heritage dictionary on the shelf six feet from where I'm sitting, and I have an electronic dictionary in my tablet.
When I am not sure about a word, I look it up.
I also keep an atlas nearby--as well as Google Maps, of course--and I often look at maps of the places I am reading about.