I'm in m first semester of grad school and for one seminar we have five books, with pairs/trios initiating discussion every week on whatever book we're on. I realized that most of my classmates read the books from beginning to end...and I don't. All i do is read the preface/intro (and the back cover), look at the chapters, look at the chapter headings, then make questions based on those headings and answer them. (I did a google search on how to read in grad school and took the advice I was reading).
Last night's discussion was on a book that was 335 pages, and even though most of my classmates actually read it, they did skim the last chapter because it was getting "too redundant." I didn't speak as much as I did previously because 1) I was tired, but mainly because I couldn't really follow the discussion. My classmates were talking about things in the book that I only skimmed and I felt bad.
So, my question is that am I reading wrong? Should I really read these long books cover to cover, like my classmates?