Be candid about your chess books.

I also own embarrassingly many chess books but I have only finished 2 :

Chess Openings by Basman
and
The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Spielmann

The Art of Sacrifice gave me very little when I read it many years ago. Perhaps I would get more out of it today.
The Basman book is an opening book for new players and is quite good for that target group.

Now the real question for those who have read dozens of books is what single book would you recommend to read cover to cover to someone who doesn't want to read many books?

Long ago I skimmed through (without board) parts of Michael Stean's Simple Chess, and noticed some improvement in my play. Then some years later, I read about 30% of My System, with board, and again I noticed some improvement (at least I started doing over protection and stuff, haha). After that I have not read anything.

GREAT Relief after the Flood!!
Now I do not walk with the weight of the world on me but joyously float along unimpeded by CHESS BOOK ANCHORS.

I now classify 200 chess books as having been fully and completely read from cover to cover by me.
I had about 300 chess books plus lots of magazines stored away in boxes BUT I was rescued form having to read them all.

We had an undetected slow water leak in our house and eventually the hot water tank fully ruptured and flooded. I then discovered that about 200 of my chess books had serious water damage. I got some money from insurance but critically got GREAT RELIEF!

Currently, I have only a 40-60 year sentence for unread books using my most self-deceptive and unreasonable assumptions. Joy.

@barkbagarn said in #31:
> I also own embarrassingly many chess books but I have only finished 2 :

Choose 10 books or less and pack the rest away and focus only on these 10!

Long ago, I read an improvement article by the Canadian GM Kevin Spraggrett.

Overall, he said learn to get into a chess zone where you can engage 100% and work hard.
The FIRST Step: Pick out 10 or less varied chess books and pack ALL the rest away in sealed boxes and store them in an out of the way place. [Who does this guy think he is to tell ME what to do with MY Books?!]

My 10: BCO Openings, plus Practical Chess Endings Keres.
Game and Tactics Collections: New York 1924, AVRO 1948, The Complete Games of Paul Keres, Closed Games of Paul Keres, Zoom 001 Larsen et al., Zurick 1953, Pawn Power plus a Neishstadt tactics book.

Repeat the Guess the Move approach multiple times with your non-reference books. I repeated the Collections like 3-7 times with special focus on Keres stuff, Pawn Power and Neishstadt tactics. BTW, I was smart enough to skip groups of pages and several stinky chapters in Pawn Power.

The low-tech Guess the Move approach employed a small piece of scrap paper to hide the next move.

PS: I think that you do not have to finish a book from cover to cover. I say pick out say several chapters of most interest and do a good job on them. Mileage may vary!

@SixtySecondsOfHell said in #10:
> devoured dozens of books

ME TOO!!
I literally devour chess book slathered with generous dollops of ketchup topped with a delicate sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Yes I am a book-ibal - cannibal.
I confess to having major problems retaining a functioning library card.
Grin

Right now, I have been trying to complete My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. I thought chess books were going to be an okay read until I actually read a chess book and then my whole perspective of them changed. I had no idea just how tedious going through them was going to be. However, I have decided to not give up and so far, I am reading his 9th game in the book where he challenges Keres for the first time as a teenager. I think it will still take me several months before I truly complete one but I hope to finish it someday.

I have a lot of books, some quite rare, bought most of them from a used book store around 1994-97 when I first got into chess. They provided entertainment and a way to pass the time. I still have them, and imagine if I live long enough to retire I'll dig 'em out and possibly learn something from them. ;)

@playsforfun23 said in #36:
> ... My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. I thought chess
> books were going to be an okay read ... I had no idea just
> how tedious going through them was going to be. ...
"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2001)
web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
"... The books that are most highly thought of are not necessarily the most useful. Go with those that you find to be readable. ..." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)
"... My Sixty Memorable Games ... Fischer and co-author GM Larry Evans ... their intended audience includes players from mid-tournament range (at least FIDE 1600) up to grandmaster. Many of the games have no notes to the opening moves until Fischer decides which line or variation he wishes to play, within well-known tabiyas. So, there may be no notes for the first five or ten moves of the game. There are some that have earlier notes, but the intention is clear: Fischer and Evans are not trying to teach the reader about opening principles or even why those tabiyas were popular – that is assumed to be common knowledge by the intended readership. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2005)
web.archive.org/web/20140627023809/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman50.pdf

"Many of the chess books are almost to analyze the game and acquire some skill, but they won't always teach you an opening, (except if it's hers), but rather. Really worth it? Something that you can learn by playing a game and honing those mistakes in your next chess games isn't really worth it."

Wow, the responses in this thread have been impressive, and revealed that there are some serious and learned chess players here, and more than a few wits. Oh, wait. It's a chess server. So "serious, learned and often witty" isn't a surprise.

But one of the most recent responses just reminded me that I have yet another great book to feel seriously guilty about not having actually "read" yet -- Fischer's 60! Maybe I should have started with that one (for the fifth time?), instead of making up my mind to tackle My System & Chess Praxis by Nimzowitsch. After all, Fischer (and Evans) certainly deserve getting some serious study time, chesswise.

I think @kajalmaya mentioned "Simple Chess," too. Yet another really, really good possibility for a determined, thorough "reading."

Well, too late now THIS time I'm going to stick to my original plan and get it done. THIS time I'm not going to let a whim change my focus and make me change my quest, even though other really good chess books are now winking vigorously at me from the shelves.

Already in the first day of the newly attempted quest, I've found that going over Nimzowitsch slowly and carefully, playing a bit of "guess the move" (as a poster wisely mentioned) and then receiving the computer's wise counsel, is revealing lots of food for thought. And somebody much earlier suggested using a computer screen (in my case, ChessBase) instead of a hard board -- and yes, that seems to make things easier.

I will come out the other side of this quest (God willing), perhaps a year from now, and while I might not be any stronger when I do, at least I'll feel a bit less embarrassed when I look at the bookshelves, and I will have developed a bit more self-discipline.

Old dog? Meet new trick.