Finish What You Start
I can’t remember exactly where or when it was, but the topic of books people never finished came up. I became curious about what books people haven’t finished because I can honestly say I have finished every book (with the exception of school textbooks – Algebra is just not that interesting) I have ever read.
It doesn’t usually occur to me that I can just stop reading…
As a reviewer who puts up reviews every week, reading a bad book means I finish it so I can give a complete review even if it is a negative one. Before my reviewing days I suppose I held to the hope that the author of the horrid book would somehow figure out to pull it all together so slogging through the mud all that way was worth it.
Needless to say, I was disappointed every time.
Even when I read bad books as a young girl, I would finish it and sit back, wondering how in the world something like that got published. Even so, I always finished.
Maybe I’m just nosey. Maybe even in a bad book I need to know what happens to everyone. Or maybe I’m hopelessly optimistic. Who knows? If/when the time comes that I’m no longer a reviewer, we’ll see if I can wean myself away from wasting my time with bad books.
After all, life is too short to read bad books, right? Unless you’re a reviewer.
What about you? Have you ever not finished a book? Why or why not?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Oh, I totally won’t finish a book. I had a professor in college — Reginald McKnight, who writes brilliant fiction — who pointed out that life is too short and there are too many books waiting to be read. Move on.
And so, I do.