It recently dawned on me I’ll die before I get to every book on my reading list. These days, what with the day job, new daddy duties, and writing my own books, I don’t have as much reading time as I once did. Indeed, I find I hardly have the mental stamina in the evenings to get through five pages. I’ll read several paragraphs and realize none of what I’ve read has actually sunk in. All the while, the number of books on my bedside table continues to grow. If you were to take a look, you would find:
The Lost City of Z (David Grann)
Have Mercy On Us All (Fred Vargas)
Seeking Whom He May Devour (also by Vargas)
A Bridge Too Far (Cornelius Ryan)
Inferno (Max Hastings)
The Woman Lit by Fireflies (Jim Harrison)
The Farmer’s Daughter (also by Harrison)
Churchill: A Life (Martin Gilbert)
The Blue Nile (Alex Moorehead)
The Desert War (also by Moorehead)
Carte Blanche (Jeffery Deaver)
I should say not all of these are actually on my bedside table out of fear the stack might collapse and kill me while I sleep. They’re scattered throughout the house. Some people have closets filled with shoes; I’ve got shelves overflowing with books—and still I continue to purchase more, even though there are plenty I have yet to read. Is this a sickness? An addiction? I know I’m not alone. I also know it drives my wife bananas. “Why,” she asks, peering at me over a stack of hardcovers, “must you buy so many books?”
I simply love books . . . they bring me comfort. I love being surrounded by them. In my home office, I have three bookshelves stuffed to capacity with biographies, histories, and thrillers, including a couple of autographed books by Stephen King and William Peter Blatty. On one shelf, I have multiple editions of Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels, including six British first editions published by Jonathan Cape. They’re cherished possessions.
I’ve read ninety percent of the books I own—but that remaining ten percent nags at me. It’s because of this I no longer waste my time struggling to finish books I find boring. In a recent blog post, The Literary Man asked when is it okay to give up on a book. My answer is as soon as you realize you’re bored. Life is too short to stick with disappointing reads. If you’re served a crummy meal in a restaurant, you don’t continue eating it. You ask the waiter to bring you something else.
With all the books I still have to conquer—and the list continues to grow—I place high expectations on my hardcover and paperback entertainment. If I’m not hooked in the first 100 pages, chances are I’m ditching it. Our time here is limited, and I’ve got a lot of books to read.
I just wish I can say that for myself. More than 50% of my books are left unread. The last “sane”, and not at all frantic, moment I had, when I could actually sit down and read a book leisurely, was when I couldn’t put down Arundhati Roy’s “God of Small Things”.
Hey, Allan . . . The last book I managed to get through was a biography on Hemingway. As for “sane” moments, those are few and far between these days!
Haha! I know! But a good read always affirms what we have, and continually, treasured: that there is a knowable world, and that it’s possible to embrace it wholeheartedly in our own little way.
Glad I could talk to people with similar interests. Am new here in WordPress.
Thanks Simon.
I agree with you. Our lives are so filled with activity that reading has become something which helps us to unwind. If I am bored and the book does not draw me in, I put it down and grab another from my pile. I do give books a chance to get interesting – but not so much that I feel the need to finish it out of a desire to say that I have completed it.
Hi, Colline . . . When I was younger, I’d stick with a bad book just to say I finished it. Now that I’m older and wiser–and not as patient–I just can’t be bothered!
I feel the same way
I have a few exceptions to boring books: I’ll keep reading them if: a) it’s an audiobook and I can just speed up the reading to 2x’s as fast and still hear everything that’s being said; or b) if it got such a high recommendation from a beloved friend that I’ll finish because I trust them and/or at least want to discuss it with them.
Good point on the audio books . . .
Before I met my wife, a woman I was dating recommended a book (a mystery, which I usually enjoy). The thing was pretty bad, but I soldiered through to earn myself some points. Regardless, she broke up with me in the end . . . so I suffered through the book for nothing!
It was a valuable lesson.
Haha. Think how people who date writers feel when the writer offers them a manuscript or first draft–”I have to read it because I’m dating/love you.”
I hope significant others don’t suffer for nothing, in the end! (If the book gets published, at least they can say they already read it . . .)
And the worst is if you can’t get through a bestseller…I have tried 4 times to enjoy “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and have yet to reach the midpoint before being bored out of my skull.
I keep trying for two reasons: everyone I know who has read it, loved it; and second, because when I visited Savannah, Georgia I absolutely fell in love with the city. I fugured I had to buy the book as an appropriate memento of a wonderful trip, beautiful city.
So, I’m heartened to read your post and know that not every book is for every reader, and it’s okay to just move on. Life is too short.
Ha! I had the same problem with “Midnight . . .” I’ve tried twice to get through it. Oddly enough, I loved the guy’s follow-up “City of Falling Angels,” which takes place in Venice.
Ooh, I didn’t even know he tried to write another one
I will put that on my list of books to check out. Thanks! Also, good to know I finally know someone else who couldn’t handle the book.