Yeah, that's pretty much how I "summarize" things, too.

Take part "X" and "Y" from the page, reword said parts to my liking, re-reword said parts in a way that it reads in a smooth and coherent manner.

I usually read the part I'm going to summarize first as a normal read-through, afterwards I'll go back and start re-reading that part of the book and start summarizing. It's a great way of rehearsal.

Fabs

BooksAndArticles

Do you guys actually comprehend the books you've read?

I try to mark the pages I like, or bend the corners on ones I own. So that I can quickly lift the quotes that resonate for me and summarise in digital notes.

I also like rather than to summarise the book, to just lift the best quotes directly and reformat them in the order that provides a decent summary.

Wasn’t always that way but it’s been useful to refer back to, rather than needing to necessarily pick up the whole book again. 

One downside is that it means I can stop mid page to write down something of interest. Therefore it has slightly changed the way I read books now.