Need some summarization

[+Lotus]

So a few years ago I began reading the WOT, but I hated Rand with such a burning passion that by the 7th book I was just reading about the other characters. Then, I just quit it entirely.

Now, bored out of my mind I need a book to read and I have returned, but don’t remember much about the first 8 books, and do not want to read them again.

 

would anyone be willing to give me a short summary so I can finally finish the series?

[Mat]

Oh lucky timing! I am currently suffering through reading book 9 so here is my best remembrance: (Obviously massive spoiler warning, and spelling warning. :/ )

Spoiler

BOOK ONE: The Eye of the World

Starts off in Emond's Field with everyone all just sheaparding and stuff. A Fade shows up, Morriane shows up, Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Thom all leave.

Basically they journey around, Nyneave shows up, Thom, 'dies', Rand meets Elyane, Shadar Logoth, Mat gets his cursed dagger, etc. They end up in the Blight and find the Eye of the World and the Horn and a bunch of other stuff. 2 Forsaken show up, they both die, meanwhile Rand fights Ishameal who he thinks is the Dark One. He wounds him and thinks he won the last battle.

Morraine declares him the Dragon Reborn in private

BOOK TWO: The Great Hunt

This one is more fuzzy... Rand meets Sarene who is actually Lanfear, Perrin accepts his wolfness, Thom returns, ends in Falme where Mat blows the Horn to fight the Sonshean and Rand again fights Ishameal who he still thinks is the Dark One in the sky where everyone sees it. He realizes he's the Dragon Reborn

BOOK THREE: The Dragon Reborn

For a book called this, it has surprisingly a lot of not Rand because he is running away from who he is. The three women are at the White Tower/Finding the Black Ajah in Tear for most of the book. End in Tear with Rand drawing The Sword That Is Not A Sword and killing Ishameal finally. Morraine kills Be'lal with Balefire.

BOOK FOUR: The Shadow Rising

This book is mostly Perrin and his saving of Emond's Field, he meets Faile and by the end they are married though that might be in Book 5. Either way he save Emond's Field and becomes Lord of the Two Rivers. Rand and crew go to the Aiel Waste and Rand and Mat visit Ruedean where Rand gets marked as the Car'Carn and Mat almost dies in another gateway thing. Rand gets a Forsaken as a teacher (name starts with A I'm forgetting)

BOOK FIVE: The Fires of Heaven

Rand is chilling in the Aeil Waste conquering stuff. Mat gets his army and Perrin is completely absent. Rand and Aveindea finally get together sort of. Rand founds the Black Tower and recruits Mazrim Taim. At the end Morraine sacrifices herself to kill Lanfear. Both die, flying into those red door gateways.

BOOK SIX: Lord of Chaos

Uhmmmmm…. I think this is the one where Egwene is raised to Amyrlin. Rand kills Rahvin in Andor. The bad Aeil kill a bunch of people at the end and Rand goes berserk, then he forces some Aei Sedai to swear to him.

BOOK SEVEN: A Crown of Swords

In this one Rand kills Sammeal, and becomes king of Illian. Min finally shows back up with Rand.

BOOK EIGHT: The Path of Daggers

Basically nothing happened. Lots of walking. Elayne becomes Queen of Andor, I guess. Faile gets captured by the bad Aeil.

There is bound to be better summaries somewhere else, but there you go, I guess. Good Luck finishing...  

[+Lotus]

Thank you!

[luckat]

Matrim's Dice gave a good summary, but there are a few things I'd add. 

In book 2, Egwene gets captured by the Seanchan for a time and is freed when Rand, Mat, and the Heroes defeat them.

Egwene starts training with the Aiel dremwalkers in book 4. Also, the White Tower splits at the end of book 4.

The Aes Sedai that oppose Elaida gather in Salidar in book 5. Min and Siuan go to Salidar, as do Elayne and Nynaeve. Also at the end of book 5, Nynaeve defeats Moghedien in the world of dreams, and Rand goes to Caemlyn to kill Rahvin.

The Black Tower stuff doesn't start until book 6. In book 6, both groups of Aes Sedai try to get Rand on their side, but Elaida's group kidnaps him, which leads to the battle of Dumai's Wells, where the Asha'man are first used in battle. Also, Nynaeve heals Logain, and he later "escapes" Salidar.

A large part of book 7 is Elayne, Nynaeve, and Mat looking for the Bowl of Winds in Ebou Dar so they can fix the weather (which had been too hot for a while). Also, Rand sends Perrin for Masema.

In book 8 it really does seem like not much happens. There are a few things though. It is when the Bowl of Winds is actually used. Rand starts fighting the new Seanchan invasion. Egwene leads the Salidar Aes Sedai to Tar Valon. Also, Faile gets captured by the Shaido (the bad Aiel).

 

If you want something more detailed, the summaries on wikipedia seem decent, and Dragonmount has pretty good summaries as well. For even more detailed summaries, Encyclopedia WoT has great chapter summaries (although footnotes sometimes refer to things that happen later), as well as a nice plot thread chart for each book, and great summary pages for characters (although, again it's easy to run into spoilers on those pages).