Today is the fourth Thursday of the month, when I usually recommend a memoir or craft book for our viewers.
This time, I talk about a book without exactly endorsing it: Margaret Atwood’s memoir, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts.
Atwood is wildly famous, brilliantly talented, and finally writing about her own life, but I wasn’t sure I’d finish this book.
I kept reading despite the presence of plenty of my writing pet peeves: heavy narration, lots of parentheses, endless chronology, and 600+ pages!
Just when I decided to put the book down, Atwood grabbed my interest again with her childhood stories, sharp memory, playful humor, and insights into how she writes.
Tell us, based on what I’ve shared with you, is this a book you might read? Do you readily stop reading a book that’s not interesting to you, or do you press on, thinking it will get better soon? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
But always remember: The only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
It depends on what I am reading the book for. If it is for research or genealogy, I keep on reading. Some of these books are not the easiest to read, but they have valuable material, and I get a sense of the author’s personality or what they have gone through in their lives. Some fiction books, I will stop reading if I am not interested in the content. I usually read a book to increase my knowledge, and subject matter, or to get to know the author, rather than for entertainment. I know others who are the opposite.
Like others who’ve responded, I have taken a long time to reach the point where I can put a book down without finishing it, but as Dave pointed out, life is too short to spend time with a book that you dislike. When I was a children’s librarian, I had a poster of “The Reader’s Bill of Rights”. I don’t remember all of them, but a few still stand out. One was the right to stop reading. Another was the right to reread a book, and a third was the right to skip to the ending. I try not to… Read more »
I am with the group that won’t finish a book if it either doesn’t hold my interest or I don’t like the way the author writes. A pet-peeve is dialogue written in italics instead of quotation marks. That drives me crazy. I would not read this book. Sometime too much information just causes me to get bored…601 pages? Yikes.
Patricia, I am posting this because I saw this quote this morning when I opened my journal. Coincidence or not, you decide.
So, so true.
My motto.
I don’t always give good books a chance. I put down Rebecca and a Land Remebered, but gave them a second chance and loved them.
I try the first fifty pages and see if I like it. If not,especially if it isn’t moving fast enough for me, I don’t finish it.
The books we’ve studied for style of writing and illustrative techniques were required reading we were expected to finish. They’re in the category of textbooks. For leisure reading, I’ll vet and prequalify my time based on the subject matter or curiosity and interest about the author. I gravitate to memoir or biography. A book I absolutely consumed during the holidays is JOHN AND PAUL: A Love Story in Song by Ian Leslie.
I always finish a book I don’t like, even though it kills me. I think if all the time the author spends writing it and feel sorry.
I don’t finish a book that bores me. There are too many “good” books out there to spend time on a book that disappoints. Patricia, you have peaked my interest in Ms. Atwood’s memoir.
I usually don’t finish books I don’t enjoy reading. It goes in the trash or to a library. The only time I press on is in our class selections. I have no choice if I want to participate. Also, I try to get my hands on what the book is about before buying.
It took me a long time to be able to leave a book unfinished without feeling guilt every time I saw it sitting on some horizontal surface. The book always seemed to be looking at me like my dog when I leave the house and don’t take him with me. But now, I feel my time is too valuable to spend on a book I dont love.
I am bossy about putting down books that I don’t find appealing. I still record that I didn’t finish, in case I change my mind later. For example with Cheryl Straid’s book “Wild“. I wasn’t ready to read that book when it first came out but years later, I was able to pick it up again and get a lot out of it.
I read Wild twice and enjoyed it more the second time.