Hey Veeky Forums

Hey Veeky Forums
Is reading summaries of the book basically just as good as reading it? I tried reading the Iliad but I got farther just by reading the wikipedia sum up and it got me thinking as to why we even read the entire think unless for extreme detail that would only be useful in limited situations. If you are trying to suck in as much information as possible than even wikipedia summaries do better than reading a big door stopper of a book. Am I wrong to do this?

You should always read the book regardless unless you have no interest in actually understanding it. Are you wrong by social terms? No. Are you wrong by Veeky Forums's terms? Yes, read the book you degenerate.

If you think of books as a collection of facts to be memorized and then regurgitated to impress people at fancy cocktail parties, then yes, summaries are more than enough.

All the key concepts of a book can be in the summaries too

tl;dr pls frame your question in greentext

One good reading is better than 1000 summaries.

Obviously wrong

Some of us actually enjoy books and don't just try to get the high score on classics to brag to our buddies.

STOP POSTING CUTE GIRLS THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ESCAPE

Don't worry. For women, there is no escape.. from The Wall.

I'd guess at least 80% of people read for plot, in which case the answer is yes

>i'll never bust a load on this face

why live

Still a QTp2Ttbqhwy

christ this is depressing

Here is a test. Ask me any question about the Iliad, Odyssey, Crime and Punishment and I will prove that I know just as much as you just by reading summaries.

Don't ask about trivial things though, just the important stuff

You will lose the reading the experience and important "details".
But if the book doesn't appeal to you, it might be a good idea to just read the summary

What important details would be excluded from the summary?

not in the slightest, buddy

what would that even be a test of though?

Can I ask you a question; why are you interested in literature?

I'll grant that you probably could tell me all the relevant plot points from the Odyssey just by having read a summary. But a story is as much the telling as the content. One is an epic poem, the other a toneless synopsis.

That I know everything a book can teach you just from the summarry

I am interested in what it teaches.

To pass tests, obviously

Are you him?

The parts where le epic plot becomes about fucking human beings. Literature is about men writing what no one says, is about understanding human emotion in the face of a simulated eventuality of a made up person whose sole purpose is to stand in for something else, more often than not, the human heart at conflict with itself. Raskolnikov kills some bitch and her sister, goes to jail and gets out says nothing about crime, punishment and redemption. Think of it like this: if I see you at the street smashing your face against a glass door, I'll know only that it sucks to be you right now. I'll know nothing of what you make of that situation. Yeah, I saw it, I know how the fuck it went down, but I missed the essential part of it, the magical part where you get to tell me how fucking gay you felt, and then I get to respond to it. Maybe even learn something about myself by learning about you. That's art, but specially literature.