Re-reading novel, but skipping, I gathered (8)
I believe the answer is:
garnered
'gathered' is the definition.
('garner' can be a synonym of 'gather')
're-reading novel but skipping i' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
're' is present in the answer.
'reading' could be 'r' (one of the traditional three R's of education) and 'r' is found in the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for garnered that I've seen before include "Gathered, collected" , "Assembled, stored" , "Gathered or stored up" , "Collected ripened crops" .)