"1 through 3" VS "1, 2 and 3"

Solution 1:

Both mean the same, though it you had read to chapter 20, you might chose the former rather than the latter out of concern for the exhaustion of your listener. In fact, I think if you said "I read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, people would listen carefully assuming you were going to skip a number. It'd be unusual enough compared to "1 through 20", there would probably be an expectation of a deviation from the expected.

Another point worth pointing out is that "1 through 3" is actually an Americanism, in most of the rest of the English speaking world they would say "1 to 3".