My question is to readers of academic books. Is it ok to say that I have read a book if after midway through a book I am convinced of the main points an author is making and do not wish to continue to the very end. For instance, I have been reading Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge for a while now. I have made it to halfway and think I have got his main propositions. Is it ok to claim I have read this book? What are your views on this?
If I start mowing my lawn and about halfway though I say, “I think my lawn realizes what I’m trying to accomplish here”, and stop, I have not mowed my lawn.
This is what happens when you are too eager to create a metaphor without realizing subtle differences that completely undermines the metaphor.
Reading a book is not like mowing your lawn. Its more like watching a movie. And there are some parts of the movie one can speed up or even skip without missing the whole of the movie. This is especially so for academic books, which was the explicit context. Of course I would not say I have read One Hundred Years of solitude if I have only read it till the half. But academic books do not follow a suspenseful plot. Most arguments are raised at the beginning and then there is a progressive explanation and detailing of particular views. My question was for people who read this style of book.