Obsession of reading books from cover to cover

The obsession of reading books from cover to cover is a common phenomena among people whose parents were readers. Those parents probably taught them the importance of reading when they were kids, and also instructed them on the importance of reading books from cover to cover.

What does “from cover to cover” mean?

It is about feeling the necessity to “finish” a book that was started. I even came across readers who hated the book that they started but somehow felt obliged to finish it fully.

I also had this tendency of finishing the books that were already started. I managed to break this tendency in recent years.

I understood that there is not actually any necessity to finish a book. If you start a book and you feel that you understand the main point, it is perfectly fine to close it and start another one. Likewise, if you feel that you are not enjoying the book or it doesn’t give value to you, there is no reason not to leave it.

There are so many wonderful books to read, and reading an average-written one is not time well-spent.

Recently I extremely rarely read fictional books, and most of the books that I read are on the topics of economics, history, philosophy and physics. I consider books as islands of information. Staying on a boring one is not worthwhile. Keep visiting different islands, spend as much time as necessary to understand the depth of the island, and continue your journey. 

And for people who complain that they cannot remember the details of the books that they have read:

I think, in general, being able to summarize a book in 1-2 sentences is sufficient after reading it. I do not feel the necessity of summarizing books that I have read, as I personally believe that reading carefully codes the information in your consciousness and subconsciousness. Even if you are not aware of the fact that you understand and analyze a situation, you can, and books are great helpers on that.