Booking Through Thursday: Life's Too Short
Suggested by JM:
“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation. That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.
Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?
I've almost always completed books that I've started. Maybe because I usually read books that have been well-reviewed or maybe because I'm generally an optimist and that even after a slow start I hope that it might get better, or maybe I have a stick-to-it-iveness that says if you're going to start something you might as well finish it.
Speaking of of finishing it, that does remind me of one of the few books I didn't finish -- "IT" from Stephen King. Clocking in at over a thousand pages and at the apex of his drug-addled, no-one-will-edit-him 80s long windedness (Steve: more isn't always better) -- I plodded along in this for about 400 pages and then said, "No mas!"
Oddly, I know several people for whom this book was one of their favorites, but I couldn't stand IT.
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I always felt that I had to finish a book. I would push through no matter what. Then complain about what a load of crap it was. But then about two years ago I stopped doing that and now I'm totally reckless. Not sure what made me change my mind but now I only give them a couple of chapters, then if I'm not enjoying them, toss them. I must admit I will try to see it through if I've paid for it. But in my new money saving mode I only buy books by authors I love.
my mothers motto is that life's too short to drink cask wine
I'm the same way, and for many of the reasons you listed. I'm more likely to throw in the towel these days, but it's still rare.
Isn't that strange? I used to have the same desire to finish lousy books even though I could never think of a good reason to do so. My new obsession is researching books to death before I buy them, it actually saves time because I'm not wading through lousy reads.
Thanks for the rec of Windup Bird Chronicles by the way, I'm so excited about reading it.
Actually --- now that you mention it, I never finished "Dune" either! I thought it was tedious.
Well, the book is about fishermen from Bahia, and in almost every paragrah I readed the same thing "Oh Janaína, Queen of Waters" (Janaína is a entity called Iemanjá too, and she rules the fishermen life)... Okay okay she is his personal godess but I didnt understand why the fisherman in the book is always calling for her...
It was so boring I trew the book in somewhere and I felt so guilty, "oh he is a famous writer"... But after a week I commented this with a friend and she said "I dint like the book too, I thought the problem was with me..." :)