I think that is a very good observation that every chess player recognises. We take up a chess book, assign to it the "text book" role then conscientiously attempt to read from cover to cover with a sense of guilt if we miss something !
The trick may be to regard the book as servant rather than master.
Well, you don't need to try to memorize the variations, they are just there to demonstrate a point most of the time (except in opening books). So if you feel like you really know what is going on, just skip some of them. Better yet, if they are only 5 or six moves deep, instead of moving the pieces around and back on your chess board, try to visualize the variations in your head while understanding what they mean. It is good practice to do this, and at 1800 level, visualizing 5 or 6 moves deep shouldn't be too hard.
I haven't read Nunn's book, but in general when reading books I don't like to visualize long variations in my head, as it's easy to lose focus on the lesson being taught. I play the variations out in Fritz instead. (As for visualisation practice, I get that when I solve hard tactics puzzles — the kind which take me perhaps an hour to solve.)
On a side note, I think that using something like Fritz to play out the moves in a book is very useful, as you can play over the moves (and variations) again at the end, which enables you to recap the game.
Hi, I'm currently reading "Understanding Chess Move by Move" by John Nunn and although it has less lines /variations than most of his other books, there are still some variations which are more than 5 or 6 moves deep.
I used to read lots of chess books and go over every single variation carefully, but quite frankly, I'm sick of doing that. It's very time-consuming and I don't feel like I have learned a lot because I usually forget all the different variations after I finish the book.
I have heard raving reviews about how great this book is and I'm hoping it will help me alot, but do I really need to go over all the variations to reap all the benefits of the book? Thanks. (BTW, my rating is about 1800 OTB, if that makes any difference)