What Does It Mean to Have ‘Read’ a Book? | Read It Forward

Parks neglects to mention a major component of reading: people lie about finishing books all the time. And the reason they lie is because society has implicitly disagreed with Parks' conclusion. You read it all, or you haven't read it at all. (Or, at least, you have to acknowledge that you started but stopped.) Whether or not the act of quitting does a disservice to the writer is, more or less, a private matter, whereas the second question relates to our public lives and our interactions with others. Furthermore, what does such an interpretation of reading suggest? That only someone with the entirety of a work in their mind can justifiably discuss it? What about books you read many years ago that you don't fully remember? How many times, in fact, have we all received this as a response to "Have you read this?" "Yeah, but it was years ago," they'll say. Assuming these people are telling the truth (though the "years ago" reply is often a cover-up for having not read the book but feeling guilty or less intelligent for having not), and it has been a long time since they engaged with the book, what of this situation? Would they have to reread it in order to offer an opinion?