I’ve spent the better part of the last decade trying and failing to finish Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time.” The book is supposed to be a masterpiece of world-building, but it is also a 14-book exercise in mental endurance. With over 2,700 characters and political subplots that span thousands of pages, it is all too easy to get mentally exhausted to the point where the narrative just gets too complicated to follow along.
For years, my solution has included everything from making my own notes to fan wikis and Google searches, but the problem with that approach is twofold. First, wikis tend to be full of spoilers that can ruin a character arc you haven’t reached yet. Second, in my experience, using a general-purpose large language model like ChatGPT isn’t ideal. It’ll often give spoilers, or hallucinate details and mix up fan theories with actual story lines. But in 2026, I’ve made it my mission to finally read the entire series all the way through from scratch, and I’m making use of NotebookLM to help keep me on track.
