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Last night we gathered up the books that had to go back to the library and I had a "Do I?" or "Don't I?" moment. I wasn't finished reading a particular book and could have kept it for another day (library is only a short walk) or tried to renew it. But did I really want to? I really liked the idea of the book but I had trouble getting into it. Any attempt to finish reading it in a day would have taken a substantial effort and I didn't believe it was worth it. Into the library bag it went. Yep, I did not finish reading the book. And it felt good.
I know readers who think that once they start a book they have to finish it even if it takes them years (or just feels like it) and even if they only read one book at a time thus making the hate book their only reading material. I used to be like that. Then in the course of one year I ran into two books that I just could not get into. I was a student at the time with very little time for recreational reading. I decided that I forced myself to read enough material for school that I didn't enjoy that I wasn't going to do on my time too. And that was the end of that. Now when I read a book and it's just not working for me it gets put back on the shelf. (I still believe that when reading is assigned for class, be it high school or college, that you do the reading even if you have to prop your eyelids open with toothpicks to get through it. I once did not read a required book for a class and filled with guilt about it to this day...I'll probably read it some day to make myself feel better.)
When it comes to your personal reading time that's for enjoyment and recreation. How do you decide when to give up on a book? Not all reading needs to be easy, a challenging read can be good for our brains, but it should be enjoyable. Everyone has their own ways of deciding when to throw a book aside. It varies for me but, generally speaking, if I want to hurl a book across the room after reading only a few pages there's a good chance that I don't want slog through the entire thing. Language, how the dialogue is structured, the use of dialect, subject matter, the likability of characters - these all play a role in my decision. Others live by librarian Nancy Pearl's "Rule of 50" which she expounds in Book Lust - if you are 50 or younger give the book 50 pages before chucking it, if you are over 50 subtract your age from 100 and use that number as your page guide.
The Rule of 50 is a big hit with many bloggers because when a librarian gives you permission to not finish a book it's like a small child getting permission from a parent to eat ice-cream for dinner - mind blowing. So Many Books, So Little Time found it liberating.
Oh, the liberation! The freedom to read, or not read, or stop reading! I love it.
Under a Red Roof follows Pearl's advice and says, "Life is too short to suffer through a story, no matter how much praise it has received."
There are other cases for not reading books that you've started, less fun ones. Belle Lettre Law and Letters talks about such a case in a post titled (and I really wish I had thought of it) I Wish I Could Quit You, or The Book That Got Away.
With my paucity of free time and mental space, I do not waste time on books. If I don't like a book, I stop reading it. But when I stop reading a book because I got too busy, or if I just gave up on it without being sure that was the right decision--well, it bothers me.
I fall victim to getting too busy and frequently put books aside because of it. By "too busy" I mean that I got probably distracted by something shiny in the form of a book that someone told me I must read, usually by way of it finally making its way to the top of my library request list. I have a kindred spirit in Pattinase on those fronts
