To add to this sentiment: I increasingly find the idea of "reading a book" (in the sense of "completing a book") when talking about serious works of literature, philosophy (or even technical books) somewhat nonsensical.
In technical books people often criticize recommendations of TAOCP or SCIP because "nobody really reads those", however this misses the point that books of this nature are perpetual projects for the reader. I have moved my eyes over every word in SCIP, done ~20% of the exercises, but would still say I haven't "read it" in the sense of completing it.
This is even more true for works of philosophy. I would be far more impressed with someone saying that had spent the last 3 years working through the first section of Spinoza's Ethics (a fairly lean volume) than someone who claims to have read Heidegger's Being and Time over a break.
I was talking to someone recently who remarked that it's embarrassing to see a bookshelf covered with bookmarks visibly only part way through the text, implying the reader has never "completed" the work. I found this view somewhat shocking as the older I get the more I realize you never finish a good book.
In technical books people often criticize recommendations of TAOCP or SCIP because "nobody really reads those", however this misses the point that books of this nature are perpetual projects for the reader. I have moved my eyes over every word in SCIP, done ~20% of the exercises, but would still say I haven't "read it" in the sense of completing it.
This is even more true for works of philosophy. I would be far more impressed with someone saying that had spent the last 3 years working through the first section of Spinoza's Ethics (a fairly lean volume) than someone who claims to have read Heidegger's Being and Time over a break.
I was talking to someone recently who remarked that it's embarrassing to see a bookshelf covered with bookmarks visibly only part way through the text, implying the reader has never "completed" the work. I found this view somewhat shocking as the older I get the more I realize you never finish a good book.