For me, it was "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis. I was supposed to read the book and write a report on it in high school, but I could not get into the book at all, the characters annoyed me, and I was just not in the proper mindset to get anything at all from the story.
So, I read the first chapter, the last chapter, got the Cliff's Notes version of the book to find out what it was supposed to be about, and then used a middle chapter to pull the quotes out that I needed to back up the important points of the story.
Got an A on the paper.
As an adult, though, I have no compunction about admitting I haven't read a book to completion or staring blankly when people mention a book I'm unfamiliar with. None of my real-life friends have the same reading tastes that I do so I'm used to getting the blank stares from them, so I just return the favor.
