Half-Read Books
I have this habit that drives Scott crazy. Up a wall and over it crazy. I will read a book halfway and stop cold.
I love reading. Love, love, love it. If I can stay in my bed and read a book from start to finish and forego sleeping, eating and showering until it's done, I am happy (fortunately for all involved, I am a fast reader, or that showering thing could get tricky. I finished the massive 800 paged last Harry Potter book in 8 hours flat). I've been that way since I was little. My mom tells stories of how she potty-trained me by sticking me on the potty with a stack of books, and I wouldn't get up for hours. (Too much information? I think not...) My parents used to have to actually remove the book from my hands in junior high and high school for me to come to dinner. I love reading.
But I am also a firm believer that if a book cannot keep my interest fully to the point where I exclude all other basic needs, then it is not necessarily worth finishing (because there are obviously books out there that do interest me enough to read like that, so I go in search of those instead). So I will get halfway through a book, and put it down for some reason and then NEVER PICK IT UP AGAIN. (I do this with movies, too. I've only watched half of "Sideways". Which I liked. But not enough to stay up and finish it. Scott still shakes a bit when he talks about it.)
Here is a list of the books currently sitting in my apartment that I am only halfway through, and the jury's still out on whether or not I will return to them:
1.) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
2.) Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris (her book Cloister Walk was amazing. I finished that.)
3.) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
4.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (mostly because I don't like the translation that I have)
5.) The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6.) A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (ALMOST made it through this one!)
7.) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
8.) The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
9.) Sex God by Rob Bell
10.) The Irrational Season by Madeline L'Engle (I love her, so I'm likely to return someday!)
See? These are not bad books, people. Highly regarded by lots of people. And yet...Unfinished.
And I'm really, truly okay with that!
posted by Tracy Lee V @ 9:23 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
We are most definitely related ... I have that horrible habit as well ... although I'm not sure it's a bad habit - it just says that we know what we like and if we don't like it, why waste the time?
I once read a little "rule" -- if you're under the age of 50, you have to read at least 50 pages of a book before you give up. If you're over the age of 50, you subtract a page for each year. It's a good little rule to put into practice, I think.
I do have to agree with "A Prayer for Owen Meany" though ... it's one of my favorites. :-)
I am glad you're back at blogging; I like to stalk people via the internet. Hey, I'm unemployed - I got to have a hobby.
That being said, I have this same exact problem, though to add to it, I also have an extreme guilt complex (probably from my father the English professor) about not finishing the books, so they all sit on various horizontal surfaces about the house taunting me with their un-done-ness. It's awful.
Maybe we should get together on Fridays and just read some time...
Owen Meany is worth it, especially since the biggest payoff is at the end.
that is a good list! I've read and lurved quite a few of these.
I'm actually the opposite of you in this- even if it's a horrible book i push on thru (curtis doesn't get this). I think you may be the smarter one here- you're not wasting time reading books that may not be worth it. You are also in good company because barabara kingsolver (animal, vegetable miracle, bean trees, etc) does the same thing.
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