That is a fair counterpoint -- there is certainly a fair amount of padding going on. However I worry about our culture of "just give me the main idea". It is v

That is a fair counterpoint -- there is certainly a fair amount of padding going on. However I worry about our culture of "just give me the main idea". It is very rare for someone to get as much out of the cliff notes as they would out of the full text. They may be able to recite the thesis, but that is not the same as _understanding_ what the author is trying to say. Sometimes a book needs to cover the same topic from multiple angles just to force your brain to marinate in the ideas for a longer period of time. Yes, the thesis is repeated, but it is unlikely you fully understood it the first n-1 times. I think there is something to be said for how most religions teach important texts. Not only are the summaries not good enough, but you engage with the same text over and over. You memorize it. You read related sections in topical groupings. You listen to sermons on multiple themes within the same passage. Reading is not just about the ingestion of individual facts. You need to connect those facts to other ideas in your head (array them on a latticework [0]) and re-reading or a (seemingly) drawn-out explanation can be a good way increase the odds of making a connection. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9622640 https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9622640