How to read chess books and not be overwhelmed

Hi guys,
I enjoy reading chess books, but the countless variations are overwhelming. Because of my perfectionism, I try to go through all the variations the author presents, but it's really hard for me to keep track of the main flow of the game. How should I approach such books?

Different books are at different levels. The ones that offer endless variations are usually for advanced players.

It is good that nowadays you can often read samples of books to see what level they are at.

Assuming you are referring to opening books, focus initially and exclusively on the highlights, understanding (as opposed to memorizing) the fundamental ideas of the opening and only the variation(s) of most interest to you. Leave secondary details for when it becomes evident that you need to deal with them, if ever. That is, put off expending time and energy on sidelines until such time that it becomes clear to you that you should deal with them.

Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond

Chess Openings Resources for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/openings-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

I do know this problem very well, since I trained myself with books and magazines back in the days where this was the only available option if you could not afford a coach. That, for me, was in the 90s.

The two first years, I was unable to reconstruct a position to mainline after going into a variation. And I was also unable to "watch" the variation just by reading the text.

So I had basically the choice between skipping the variation, or look it up, then replay the whole game from start so I could continue reading.

It is not "overwhelming", it is simply tedious, annoying, time consuming. But that was the deal if you wanted to become better at chess.

Good news is, I eventually got used to the geography of the board, to the point I could tell instantaneously if a square was dark or light. I could replay on a board a game I played in tournament, up to a week after playing it, without using the score sheet.

Eventually, I ended up being able to "see" some variations without moving the pieces on the board, and, also, to go into a variation, and reconstruct the original position from memory.

So, it's hard, but not an impossible, "overwhelming" task. It's sports.

You'll have the very same problem with any annotated/commented game in any chess publication, like strategy books, engame books, and chess magazines.

Not, it is not "overwhelming, it's only tedious and annoying. If it takes "too much time" only depends on the time you're willing to give to it. As for the effort, if that's too much an effort to you, you should not engage in any sports competition unless you're happy with low level stuff.

Good news is: the effort and the pain are the things that makes you memorize/remember stuff for good.

I have a whole shelf and a half of chess books, games books on strategy, openings, middlegame theory, you name. I find the best thing to do go over the main line, how the game was actually played, get to know the story of the game first, even if you have to play the game a few times and come up with your own analysis. THEN go over the variations. A lot of times these games have diagrams at certain stages of the game, so you only have to start over from there instead of at the very beginning of the game. A good series of books to do this with would be "My Great Predecessors" by Gary Kasparov. You'd also get a look at the history of chess as well as learning to be a better player. But you can do this with any one chess book as well, such as "My 60 Memorable Games" by Bobby Fischer. Good luck.

its so critical and hurts my brain ngl