Wayne Harridge wrote:
>
> I don't like to abandon a book part way though, sort of like admitting
> defeat, however it's probably better to do that than put it down and promise
> to yourself that you'll finish it later.
>
One of the epiphanies of my young adult life was about this. Through my
teens and much or my 20s, I was a voracious reader of Sci-Fi. Although
mostly crummy used paperbacks, I had the majority of it that had been
published. Finally, I got a copy of a "great classic" that was quite
rare. As I got into it, I was seriously bored.
I trudged on for a while, convinced that I needed to finish any book I
started. And it was a Classic, so it was bound to be good, right? Then,
as I soldiered on, I realized it wasn't going to get any less than
painfully boring and I honestly didn't care how it ended. So I closed it
up and never went back.
What a weight off my shoulders! It was like I had been relieved of some
heavy burden. Now that I am several decades older, I know well that
there are more books out there, or at least will be, worth my time and
enjoyment than I'll ever have time to read.
So now I'm happy to drop out of a book that isn't for me and move on to
something else. Sure, I sometimes get fooled, and finish a book I could
have well done without, but generally, I don't end up reading things
that don't appeal to or educate me in ways I appreciate.
One category of book that seems to me to invite partial reading is the
ones that have a nice article's worth of content stretched to book
length. A fair number of personal growth, religious and spiritual books
seem to fall into this category. I get through the first couple or three
chapters, scan ahead and find that the rest is just a spinning out and
restatement that I don't need. I don't think I miss anything when I
close these.
An Optimal Moose
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