on the wisdom of not reading books all the way through

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested," said Francis Bacon. Lennard J. Davis gives you permission to skip the second course.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I've never read all of War and Peace. I picked it up in sixth grade, finding the war parts good enough but the peace insufferable.