This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is one I actually want to respond to, since it’s something I’ve often wondered about myself.
“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?
Funnily enough, I was thinking this morning post-shower about books that I’ve disliked and why I’ve chosen to finish them anyway. A good majority of them can be chalked up to homework, also known as required reading, so to not finish them would be a mistake. I could perhaps file Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn under this category, though I didn’t completely hate it, it was a tad torturous. Some of them I stick with hoping they turn out better than I expected. Some of them I finish stubbornly (see my review of Lord Foul’s Bane), gritting my teeth and barreling through. And then there are the ones that I do set aside (this means you, Jules Verne and your 20,000 Leagues). They’re boring, they don’t catch me, they don’t entertain me; but even more than that, they make me want to poke my eyes out. That is the defining characteristic for me of a book that I know I should, and eventually do stop reading: the overwhelming urge of wishing I could poke my eyes out because said book is _________ (insert appropriate adjective here).
For those books that I quit, I feel guilty. I feel like I’ve cheated, or hidden the vegetables I was supposed to eat, or stopped working out 28 minutes into my 30 minute routine. I don’t feel good about it, and said book usually ends up back on my To Be Read bookcase. But Verne’s been there for years now, and I find I have way to many other possibly good books to pick up than to force myself to read something that kills my soul a little every time. Sorry. :(
What about you and your guilty conscience? Do you finish everything you start? Post your answer here or at Booking Through Thursday.
I do feel guilty when I don’t finish a book and I always used to see it through, especially when I was reading for university so had no choice! Nowadays though I give it a really good go and there has probably only been two books that I have given up on this year.
Ha! Oh yes, I completely understand the feeling of wanting to poke my eyes out because a book was so bad. It’s just not worth it!
I’ve never been able to read anything by Jules Verne, either – even though I do enjoy most other early science fiction writers. So far, I haven’t really had to read anything that made me want to poke my eyes out – thankfully!
So very true!
I used to feel guilty, but not anymore. UNLESS it is a book that I have received to review….THEN I feel guilty. I do my best to finish it, but sometimes I just can’t. I think the older I get, the less tolerant I am of a lot of things…..uninteresting or confusing books included!
I should have had another little list: Books I finished even though I didn’t want to! I’ll have to ponder that one for awhile.
Hi there,
THanks for befriending me on Book Blogs. I really like your blog. I have a print of one of your blog header pictures. AND I have The Swan Thieves on my TBR list.
Michelle
No I don’t finish everything I start. I do feel guilty if it is a book to be reviewed — those I do finish even if I dislike them.
Agreed. Poking your eyes out is never good.
I definitely don’t finish a book if I’m not into it but I always am left wondering…what if I quit right before it got good…
Guily – Well convict me because if I am bored or consider it bad I stop reading and give it away immediately, not interested in coming back to try again
Guilty – even the word guilty didn’t want me to write it, lol
“they make me want to poke my eyes out”
LOL! Definitely put that sort of book aside!
I love your idea of guilty forcing you to keep reading. I don’t think I’ve ever reached the point where I want to poke out my eyes, but I guess if I ever do get there, that will be my sign to put down the book.
LOL. This is a great post! Yes, the urge to poke your own eyes out is generally a sign the book is not for you! I’m so glad, too, that I’m not the only one who feels like I’m cheating if I don’t finish a book.
I always put it off for a few days. I look at it. I think about it. I tell myself I’ll finish it, but once I pick up a new book I know there is no going back. That book is lost forever.
I have no quilt or whatsoever when I left books unfinished…I don’t have plenty of time on my hand so why bother reading something I don’t enjoy
Oh I did not feel the guilt when I stopped reading The Great Gatsby or Jude Deveraux’s Secrets. I felt the same way while reading these books, irritation. Just as you said, the urge to poke my eyes out.
http://cutlex.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/booking-through-thursday-11-12-09/
Okay, Jude Deveraux I can understand. But The Great Gatsby?!?! That book changed my life! Hahaha! I guess that’s why reading is so great, it’s completely subjective.
I like your blog.
The only Jules Verne book I liked was The Long Vacation. It’s an idealistic story about school boy’s marooned on an island. They actually behave civilized until rescue, unlike the truly disturbing Lord of the Flies.
HA I knew about the vegetables!!
Remember the time when Verne was written. Dan Brown may be the same way 50 years from know. Put yourself in the 1800s when I was young and this would have scared the heck out of you.
opps.. now
I don’t finish every book I start, but I do feel guilty about the ones I set aside. I think all book lovers do.
I could never get through Jules Verne either
I’ve put some books aside for several years, so I can sympathize. I know my readings to change over time (I loathed Madame Bovary when I first read it, and adored it on a second reading fifteen years later–think how I might have missed out had I quit it the first time!), so I don’t mind giving them another chance further down the line.
Beside, I do love seeing just how bad things can get! Dullness, however, is unforgivable.
Good answer. Sometimes I think that the obligatory school reading is forced on the hapless students when they are too young, so reading classics in school tends to be counterproductive.