Learning to understand proofs faster? There are many books, written by highly decorated academics, which feature proofs that I can hardly comprehend in an acceptable amount of time. Roughly each week, it happens that I find myself having spent around three hours to convince myself of a single proof - usually, the proofs are from textbooks for undergraduates. Sometimes, I am horribly slow at finding detailed arguments which connect the presented conclusions (and which are necessary to convince myself that the conclusions are beyond question). Then, I feel that the authors take steps that are not small enough for me; and I wonder whether I should digest every proof (or merely use the theorems).
I am not particularly gifted. Still, I strive to improve myself. Do you think that one can learn or train to understand proofs faster?

I think you can try the book "How to study as a Mathematics Major" by Lara Alcock, published by Oxford university press. She has some advices on how to understand proofs efficiently and possibly construct own proofs. The book is based on the results from mathematics education.
