If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say “Once I’ve started a book I just feel like I have to finish it”, then I’d be… well, not rich, but I’d certainly be able to buy a couple of new hardbacks.
I’m all for people being able to read what they like, when they like, and to approach their reading however they want. But I don’t think the “I have to finish every book I start” approach is all that helpful. I am not entirely sure of the motivation to finish a book you are not enjoying. It may be because reading is generally considered “good for you” (which I agree with) and therefore you need to soldier on and do what is good for you (which I don’t agree with). Just because reading is good for you, does not mean that reading this particular book is good for you. If you don’t enjoy it, I would argue that may well be bad for you.
Perhaps the motivation is not wanting to feel like you are giving up. Choosing not to finish a book is not giving up. It is simply acknowledging that the particular book is not the right book for you at the right time. Maybe it will be the right book for you another time. Maybe it never will.
I have known some people who will soldier on through a book they do not like simple because it is a “serious” literary work that won an award as if that in itself is reason enough to soldier on. Like it’s medicine or something – tastes feral, but good for you. I happen to quite like a lot of what gets called “literary” fiction. But if you don’t like it, don’t read it. If you usually like that sort of thing, but don’t like a particular title, then don’t read it. Just because it won the Booker prize, doesn’t mean you have to read it. Grab something else off the shortlist. Or the long list even. Find the ones you like.
To do this is not necessarily a criticism of the author or the book. Just because a book fails to click with you at this particular time does not mean it is badly written. It is just not the right book for you. Or it is the right book but at the wrong time. Of course, it may be that the book is badly written, but that’s another issue.
Nancy Pearl, something of a cult figure among some librarians since she became the model for a librarian action figure has formalized this approach as her “rule of fifty“.
If you’re fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100. The result is the number of pages you should read before deciding.
If you are currently in the midst of a book you do not enjoy. If you are struggling through a novel that you only plan to finish out of some view that says putting it down is a failure. Then feel free to stop. Get another book. One you actually enjoy. One that makes you want to read on and on and on. I have a masters degree in reading books (well in library science, anyway) and I am hereby giving you permission to put down a book halfway through and stop reading it. Don’t worry. The earth will not open up and swallow you. Librarians will not scoff at your weak will and lack of perserverance. People will not point at you in the street and laugh.
On the contrary, they will be amazed. They will stop and say, “There’s that person who managed to stop reading the wrong book and start reading the right one.” You will be happier. Your face will glow. People will find you more attractive. The world will be a better place. You may even win the lottery.
You will not miss the book. Not once you get stuck into the right book.
So go get that book you are reading. The one you don’t actually like. The one you are only reading because it won an award. The one you are only reading because everyone else is reading it and it’s being made into a movie. The one you are only reading because your Mum gave it to you for Christmas. Take your bookmark out of it, return the book to the library, put it back on your shelf for next year, sell it on eBay, take it to the Op shop, make recycled art out of it.
And go read another book.
There are far too many really good books in the world to waste your precious time reading one you don’t like.
What about you? Do you have to finish everything you start, or will you happily put down a book that fails to grab you? If you do stop reading, how do you decide when to let it go?
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What about that Australian Literary Fiction that your brother loaned to you, that you have been trying to read for years, but can’t quite keep the momentum going because it wrenches your poor heart apart with each turn of the page?
Yes, I am ready to tell you that I just can’t bring myself to finish ‘The sound of one hand clapping’. It truly is a well written book, and a moving story, but every word breaks my heart, and I can’t bring myself to continue.
Richard Flanagan is the exception, you should finish all of his books.
Sorry, of course the correct answer is, don’t finish it.
It may be one you come back to later. It may not. Just put it on the shelf and read something else.
Have you tried David Mitchell? You might like his stuff.
And for the record, “The sound of one hand clapping” made me cry. The only book to do so. Although Shaun Tan’s “The red tree” came very very close.
The Iron Man by Ted Hughes made me cry. On a Sydney Road park bench.
And The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Although not in public that time.
…actually, I may have read that on the tram, so it probably was in public…
Maybe I should write a post about books that make us cry?
I completely agree. Particularly with the idea that books that have won awards won’t necessarily appeal to all. I recently hired a heap of ‘Booker Prize Winning’ titles, and while I have enjoyed most of them, one of them is really tedious and I just can’t get motivated to finish it. It’s about a guy with writer’s block and seemingly not much else. It’s bad enough having experienced writer’s block yourself, let alone reading about someone else who has it. It has a quote on the front from a critic who said “I read it in one sitting! I couldn’t put it down!”. Each to their own I guess, but I can’t help wondering how bored the critic was.
ash – I hope you have stopped trying to get through that one and moved on to something else
A Bridge to Terabithia made me cry. On audio[the book not me]. In the car. Sitting outside work at midday. Lucky I work in a library and we had a copy on the shelf ’cause I had to eventually go in and finish the last bit.
Love the new blog!!
Marita – thanks for stopping by. I can’t help but wonder if you finished that book while on the reference desk and whether you were still crying?