Carefree reading:
If you are one of the lucky carefree ones and happy with only getting the gist of the text, then just try reading without doing anything. It may prove more effective than obsessing about every word that you can't understand. The first page or two pages or perhaps even ten pages may be tedious, but just like you can't always expect a novel to be breathtaking from page one, you've got to give this some time as well. Just be patient, continue reading, and see what happens. Words that are very important and that you don't understand at first will most likely reveal their own meaning by repeated appearance in context.
Kato Lomb's way:
Kato Lomb was a Hungarian polyglot who strongly advocated using books as a tool for learning languages. You can read about her method in her book "How I Learn Languages", but the main point is to choose a book where you just have to continue to read in order to find out what happens next. A detective story, a silly love story (Harlequin is okay if it is used for language learning!), anything you want, but don't obsess about single words. Kato Lomb's method is mainly just "Carefree reading" with a pen in your hand. Scribble away all you want in the margins of your book, but write down the things you actually understand and can figure out by yourself, "Base your progress on the known, not the unknown". Lomb advocates using books early on in your learning.
I've heard of Kato Lomb before and this method. I've been thinking of doing it. Thanks for sharing! Now I think the post has given me an extra push for doing that.