nothing beats actual game with stronger players.

I find that playing out pro games can give you a feel for how pros respond in various situations. The rest is just reading, which should be easy, right?

What I understand from "midgame reading" is something like "if I cut these stones he will cut me back, then we will end up with so many separated groups". Reading so far (at least the standard moves) is not so difficult. The more difficult part is judging who has the advantage.

While agreeing, I would like to add that I find recent pro games a bit too complicated. I think old japanese games, like shusaku games, giving emphasis on good shape are better to study. Of course they are also too complicated for a kyu player but at least the fights are not unreasonably crazy and you may get a better shape feeling.

I am kind of skeptical about the value of replaying pro games for people at the OP's level, reason being that the "normal" moves pros play are the result of pruning the inferior variations. Unless you are strong enough to visualize the variations that don't get played out, you are unlikely to appreciate the pro moves that do get played out.

Other than playing with stronger players and having the games reviewed as others suggested, you might also benefit from watching stronger amateurs play. Watching the game with a crowd would be even better, as chances are some stronger players in the crowd might be kind enough to answer your questions as they arise. In any case, I think it would be beneficial for OP to have the variations (good or bad) played out in real games to appreciate the merits of good moves.

I think fighting games are more popular now in part because the time limits are shorter. I attended a lecture by Yilun Yang where he touched on this. He said that if you have several hours of playing time, maybe this classic Japanese way of making shape everywhere and counting a lot is correct, but that with shorter time limits he wasn't so sure. Then he showed a position and how a Korean might play it. "Here, touch a weak stone" and then proceeded to develop it into a position that was easy for both players to mess up. I forget exactly what he said, but it was something like, "if both players had hours on the clock, this probably wouldn't be ideal, because there might be an answer. But with less time, the opponent may not be able to find the answer."

But the idea is overlearning the normal shapes by replaying them many times. I see it like reading simple books that usually contain regular phrases when learning a foreign language. If you start learning english with james joyce, you will make your life unnecessarily difficult. Not that it wouldn't help you, but it is not likely to be more efficient than overlearning simple patterns. Of course it's a personal choice.