>> It’s satisfying to start at the beginning and read straight through to the end. Some books, such as novels, have to be read this way, since a basic principle of fiction is to hold the reader in suspense. Your whole purpose in readingfiction is to follow the writer’s lead, allowing him or her to spin a story bit by bit.

Depends.

Here's how my (much) younger self used to read novels:

a) Start at the begining

b) Read a few pages until you're reasonably sure all major characters have been introduced.

c) Skip to the end to find out if they're all alive and well at the end.

d) Skip back, approximately to where you were before (c)

e) Read a few more pages until something major happens

f) Skip a few chapters ahead to see how the major happening pans out

g) Repeat from (d) until it all goes quiet again

h) Skip a random number of pages ahead (but no more than the size of the book; duh)

i) If that makes no sense, return to where you were before (approximately)

j) Repeat from (h) until you've read the whole book.

I read about all of Jules Verne, Hector Malot, Enid Blyton and A. J. Cronin like that (I know, right?).

On the other hand I remember a particularly tedious passage in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where several pages passed describing various molluscs found at the bottom of the sea. I actually read it all very carefully because I was curious to see how much it would last for and whether there was some bit of plot hidden in between the discussions of various species' chiralities etc. Jules Verne could eat Stephen King for breakfast when he got into his stride.

I only stopped doing that sort of thing to books when our lord Umberto Eco decided to write Foucault's Pendulum to punish me for the mistreatment of literary works. That hurt.