I think you are confusing information gathering with understanding. To give you a practical example: consider the book “How to draw portraits in charcoal” by Na

I think you are confusing information gathering with understanding. To give you a practical example: consider the book “How to draw portraits in charcoal” by Nathan Fawkes (great book btw). You can find all the main points of the book online condensed in bullet point lists. In fact here are the main three: get to know the 3d shape you want to draw and learn to project a simplified version on paper; simplify, group and design areas of dark and areas of light; keep the values in the areas of light separate in value space from those of the areas of dark (the value distribution should be roughly two peaks that don’t touch). So how much better are you at drawing portraits in charcoal after reading the list? Not much. What matters is putting the principles in practice. Good books design an experience to help you do that. They should be treated as bibles to look at for guidance, knowing that another human being that already acquired the skill has done his best to provide a good map to speed up your development.