This year's Fall Into Reading Challenge is heading into its last weeks, and I haven't been very good about participating in the weekly questions. I've been reading everybody's answers, but haven't offered up any answers myself yet. So I decided it was time to chime in on this week's topic:Once you begin a book, do you feel compelled to finish it? Or have you been known to give up in the middle of a book, to walk away from a book that is just too annoying, boring, etc.?Well, since I've spent a large portion of my life doing editing and proofreading, I have to admit I've read plenty of manuscripts and books I found annoying, boring, confusing, vexing, and downright awful. Such is the editor's lot.
But if we're talking about reading for pleasure, then I never have a problem putting aside a book that's not holding my interest. The old saying about life being too short to read bad books (or drink cheap wine – but that's another story) is something I agree with completely. And even though I try to give each new book a fair chance by reading at least a couple of chapters (the old "first fifty pages" trial, you know), there are some books that I can tell are not for me, right from the opening paragraph. And in those cases, I have absolutely no question about what to do – I just close the book, pick up another one, and read on.
I'm one who slogs through to the bitter end. I need to learn to give up on books when they're not working for me.
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