Ah, interesting. I did read Great Expectations at around that age (on my own, not for a class...

You also read poetry on your own, not for a class :P, and I'm clear on the fact that you are way, *way* more into literature than I am. Mind you, if I was the only one in my class struggling, I'd write it off as my brain and a perfectly valid teaching method, but if I was the only one scraping a pass and everyone else was failing and hating every minute of reading and refusing to read *except* for class...pedagogy problem.

But don't you still want spoilers for things like Ash (I thought I had remembered something along those lines) or am I totally remembering incorrectly?

Ah, yes, but different reason. Basically, getting the big picture first or generally approachings non-linearly makes things easier for me, so I want it in cases of

a) Difficult material.
b) Material I'm less motivated to read.

Fiction falls under "less motivated" these days. My brain started being veeeery reluctant to engage with new fiction around 2010. So spoilers these days make it possible for me to go from "not even going to read" to "will read" with fiction. That wasn't really a thing before 2010, because I was motivated to read fiction.

For new fiction that I'm really enjoying, which is really rare, I'm perfectly capable of linearly reading without spoilers, such as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I discovered in 2016. I was loving every page, and I didn't need it to be made easier to motivate me.

Whereas the two things that really brought it home to me that a non-linear approach works a MILLION times better for me were: abstract algebra in college, and a molecular chemistry textbook I was reading on my own several years ago. Aka difficult things where I *really* needed it made easier. In both cases, I banged my head in vain against trying to internalize concepts, and it became immediately obvious and effortless once I got to the chapter where I saw how the concepts were *used*.

That's when I learned not to bother banging my head against something (and taking notes is a way of banging my head) until I've seen whether I can internalize it effortlessly by just continuing to read. That's why I won't take notes until the second readthrough: it slows me down and I don't know what to take notes *on* until I've seen how and whether it's used.

I get enough intrinsic enjoyment from novels...With history I don't necessarily get that intrinsic enjoyment

Whereas I am the exact opposite! I don't get intrinsic enjoyment from novels, and I suspect a great deal of my desire to read novels every waking moment of my life as a child and teenager (and even early 20s) was because I was *learning* from them. Once I got to the point where far, far more nonfiction was accessible to me, and to the point where my vocabulary, reading speed, and understanding of how the world works were advanced enough that I learn very little from reading fiction, I think that's when and why my motivation to read fiction dropped off.

The payoff of amount I learn is way higher in nonfiction than fiction, so I'm willing to put in the effort to read 10-20 books on 1720s diplomacy and sort out what happened from the confusion in my head. But give me an easy-to-read novel like The Queen's Thief, and odds are I'm like, "I would rather be studying Greek and learning more about *actual* ancient Greece, then I would feel rewarded at the end."

I'm willing to go along with being confused while I don't understand what's going on

Whereas, as you know, I am not willing to be confused, not even a little bit. It's fine if I don't know what's going on up front, like with Piranesi (which I read without spoilers), but I can't be actively *confused* about what's going on. But note that the *only* reason I made it past page 1 of that book was trusting the author; I wouldn't have given it a second thought if it was by someone I didn't have reason to trust. In that case, I would have wanted spoilers. (I might try The Queen's Thief someday again with spoilers, but not right now.)

I'm imagining the AU where I was invested in the War of the Spanish Succession, and came to salon after each installment and capslocked at you guys about WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND WILL THIS SHOW UP IN CANON LATER.

Ha! We won't tell you, you'll have to wait to find out! But please tell us what you think of Marlborough's decision to mix cavalry and infantry units. Once you've done that, we'll tell you why you're wrong.

While we're here, selenak, please solve this differential equation. When you're done, cahn and I will tell you why you're wrong.

After several years of guessing and being corrected, I will have learned to analyze literature, cahn will have learned military tactics, and selenak will have learned diff eq. Or we'll be turned off for life. Who knows!