Strange to me so few comments, none based on my skimming mention either, 1) reading code, 2) shakespeare.
There's levels of reading. Sometimes you skim, sometimes close read. Sometimes you read to glean something about the author, sometimes for pure enjoyment. Different codebases have to be read in different ways. Shakespeare can be appreciated without "getting it" just enjoying the meter and an occasional bit of word play. You can see cool programming tricks without grokking the entire codebase.
Read, reread, get what you want or need. Come back later on if you find there's more value. There is no right way to do it.
There's levels of reading. Sometimes you skim, sometimes close read. Sometimes you read to glean something about the author, sometimes for pure enjoyment. Different codebases have to be read in different ways. Shakespeare can be appreciated without "getting it" just enjoying the meter and an occasional bit of word play. You can see cool programming tricks without grokking the entire codebase.
Read, reread, get what you want or need. Come back later on if you find there's more value. There is no right way to do it.