I love books. Whether I like a particular book or not, I still find myself reading to the end because gorramit, I started reading the book and had already invested a lot of time into it. Stopping in the middle of the book would kill all that time invested into the book. And besides, the book may get good later.
That’s what I’ve always told myself. If I’m going to start a book, I’m going to finish it, no matter how long it takes.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, but very few. I never did finish reading Wuthering Heights, a book I chose to read for fun in high school. I tried to read it during my 11th grade honors literature’s free reading time. I really did. But after a few chapters all the Heathcliffs confused me more than they helped me, so I put the book down.
And sometimes a book turns into even more of a time commitment, such a very large book or when the book is really part of a series. Committing to reading that one book can feel like committing to reading the whole series. This is how I felt while attempting to read the Game of Thrones books. I read the first book and gave up halfway through the second book because I wasn’t enjoying the series that much and didn’t want to trudge through the rest of the books. The same thing happened with the Wheel of Time series. I finished the first book but I was not going to commit to the rest of the series. Not when so many other books were out there, so many that I wanted to read.
And that’s what happened with the book I started last weekend. It had been on my shelf for awhile, so I figured it was about time I read the book and get on my merry literary way. I started the book and… just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t like the narrative style, the story didn’t grab me, and if I had to put up with 300 more pages of this it better be worth my time.
So I made a big decision. I put the book down and didn’t mark my place, then set the book in my “to give away” pile. The book will probably go in one of the Little Free Libraries near me.
Then I started reading something else because that’s what I do.
(For those wondering what the book was, it was Interview with the Vampire.)