Saturday, January 28, 2012

Putting a book down

Hey you, reading that book you're not so into?

Yeah, you.

It's okay to stop reading.

I've done it a few times.  A part of me doesn't like to do it because I feel like I'm quitting, I'm giving up, or I've invested a lot of time into this story, and while I can't seem to care about the characters and can predict the plot from a mile away, it feels wrong to just set it down.

Set it down.

Don't waste your time.  It will frustrate you to see how a book this bad could be published.  The characters will enrage you to the point where you want to throw the book across the room.  And then, when everyone starts to get really into the book, you want to scream at them because, hello, this is the worst book ever written.  Why can't anyone see that?

Trust me.  I've been there.

You're not going to get a reward for following through and finishing the story.  If anything, your brother will ask you, "Don't you like Book?"

To which you'll reply, "Um, no."

And he'll be all, "Then why'd you read all of them."  And then rub it in at various points in your life because he's going to hold it against you for that long.

It's okay to put the book down.  You didn't fail.  The author did.  Don't waste your time.

1 comment:

  1. I always finish all the books I start. :)

    Many reasons for that: 1) I never stop believing. Maybe it will actually get better. 2) In a very twisted way, I actually enjoy bad books. As a writer, I always try and understand what the editor and publisher saw in them, and what someone else may see in them. 3) So I can write a snarky review.

    Okay, I sometimes make exceptions... Like if the book is written in another language than French or English (though most of these unfinished books are optimistically considered "on hold"). Or if I haven't paid for the book, that the author is a total nobody, and nobody knows I started reading that story in the first place.

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