Stop Reading Books You Hate.

Dear Fellow Bookworms,

I'm going to tell you something you already know. Books are life blood, the bright sinews that tie us together as a human race. They thread different ages, different cultures, different people together. They're beautiful and intricate, doors to worlds beyond our own and perspectives of people we will never meet around the world. Literary fluency teaches you empathy for others. Books make you kinder. Books place new glasses over your eyes to see the world in an unfamiliar tint. They are precious commodities we cannot take for granted.

Problem is, books don't always have this effect. Sometimes you're reading a book your best friend said was good or was recommended by some podcaster. Maybe you feel like you should read something cuz "it's a classic." Is that really why we read though? to add to our number of books read on Goodreads? To appease the general public? To keep up with the Joneses? No. That's dumb. Listen, there are not enough hours in the day to spend your rare leisure time reading books that you're not excited to read. This is a fact. 

But I know it's hard. Because I hold books in such high regard, I often have a hard time knowing when to say "Uncle" on a novel I don't like. I stubbornly want to finish books, no matter if they are good or not. As if I can make them better if I finish them, or maybe the ending will be SO GOOD that I won't remember the mud I slogged through to get there. Like how mother's forget the pain of labor when they see their beautiful babies. Or what about the authors!? They put so much hard work into creating this story for us. I want to do their work justice by giving them an honest try. OR more likely, I'll not want to put the time already devoted to starting the book to totally go to waste. Like I can make that time come back. It does neither of these things. It just wastes more of your time allowing a dementor-book to suck out your soul. 

Then I heard Josh Clark in the podcast Stuff You Should Know talk about Nancy Pearl's Rule of Fifty. If you don't know who she is, she's a reputable librarian. You can always trust a librarian when it comes to reading books. She basically says to give a book fifty pages before judging whether or not it's worth your time. If after fifty pages you still don't want to keep reading, then don't. Put it down and look elsewhere. The only stipulation is if you're OVER fifty years old, then you obviously need to be more picky about what you spend your time doing because, well, to put it bluntly, your time running out. So if you're over fifty, subtract your age from 100, and the difference is the number of pages to read before drop it. If you're 100 years old, guess what? You DO get to judge a book by its cover. 

Nancy Pearl's advice has since saved me from using precious time reading books that just don't suit me. Applying this tool, I recently abandoned the book Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. I reeeeeally wanted to like this book. It is based on real historical figures, one of which is a female sheriff in the early 20th century by the name of Constance Kopp. The plot sounds perfect for my style: Strong female lead, crime solving, breaking sexist stereotypes. But writing about a historical figure in first person feels a bit presumptuous and it sort of fell flat with me. I felt like I should care about the characters and the other Kopp sisters. But I didn't. Like Stewart had to tip-toe around historical fact and didn't want to make too many assumptions with character development. I might pick this up another time, but right now it just didn't jive with me.

And that's okay! It's not a failure. It just wasn't right for me right now. The idea of "wasting time" is such an arrogant phrase. "It wasn't worth my time," as if I am really particular about how I spend every minute of every day. (scroll scroll, double tap, like). But reading should be for your benefit, and if you're flogging yourself to finish this book or that book because it's a classic or because someone said you'd like it, then stop. 

There are so many books out there to pick from. There are books you will LOVE, and books that aren't your cup of tea. Every time you walk into the library or local bookstore, you're on a journey to find a book that makes you feel alive. Find something that will actually fill you up with light. Something that makes you think, make you feel something. Something that inspires you or excites you. Go forth and READ, but make it good.