Improving reading comprehension for research and others

[Bird Larry]

I haven't valued reading very much. Whenever I did research, I used youtube mostly. The only time I read was for doing research papers for school. (Don't like reading for pleasure) Reading self help books are easy. But when it comes to a bit difficult books from literature, philosophy, research papers, or scientific essays, my reading gets way slower. Have no problem reading spirituality, but any reading material that's remotely difficult, my comprehension skills drop almost to 50%. Is this the same with you folks? Am I the only one? 

Are there resources, books, videos, classes I can take where I can improve my reading ability? I tried those udemy classes where they say i can do speed reading, but it proved to me not effective, and very gimmicky. It seems the biggest detriment to my comprehension skills is i suck with vocab. People say i gotta read more. I am already doing that. Reading hard shit. Is there more I could do?