An abandoned book, and some bloggy stuff
September 15, 2008
Has everyone seen (and entered) my haiku-review contest? Write a book-related haiku and be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to Amazon! That’s $1.18 per syllable! Details are at this post.
What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh BaldwinI used to be a compulsive finisher. I couldn’t not finish a book I’d started, no matter how little I was enjoying it. I think it was because I couldn’t bear the idea of putting in the time and energy to get as far as I had, without even a notch on the “books read” belt to show for it. But, I think I may have been cured… or at least started down the road to recovery. The combination of a slow-moving book in a sub-genre with which I have had very little luck plus a mild hangover and some moderate sleep deprivation pushed me over the edge into actually quitting a book.
It happened like this (while trying to read by the pool on Saturday afternoon):
Me: I’m on page 93 of a 496-page book. How long should I give it before I give it up?
D (who knows I can’t not finish a book): Erm… page 150? That seems like giving it a fair shake.
Me: Okay.
…twenty minutes of laying in the sun pass…
Me: Okay, that’s it. I’m giving up on this book.
D: You’re at page 150 already?!
Me: *slightly sheepish* Erm… no.
D: What page are you on?
Me: 94.
It’s not even that it was a bad book – it was actually a fair bit better, at least in terms of the language not driving me crazy – than many similar books I’ve read before. I just was not absorbed by it at all, and reading it was getting to be a chore that I didn’t want to tackle with a headache and a brain that would much rather just nap. Apparently I am just incapable of getting into books about India. I still have two of Jhumpa Lahiri’s books unread on my shelf, and everyone seems to love those, so I’ll give them a shot eventually, even though most people seemed to love The God of Small Things, too, and I really didn’t. I don’t know what it is – most historical fiction and other-cultural-fiction goes just fine… it’s the south-Asian women writers who just seem to give me trouble.
So, I think What the Body Remembers is going into the stack for some future giveaway – I know there are people out there who would enjoy it more than I did. There’s so many other things on my TBR stack that I actively *want* to be reading that it seems silly to force myself to read something I don’t. I don’t expect abandoning books to become an active feature of my reading life, but at least now there’s a precedent.
Also, for anyone who’s interested, I’ve updated several old posts with their vocabulary words, and updated my big vocab list accordingly. (Posts are Sailing to Sarantium, A Northern Light, The Jane Austen Book Club, The Zookeeper’s Wife, and Voyager.) During the windstorm we had yesterday, our internet (but not our power) went out, so since I couldn’t be surfing the book blogs, I decided to spend some quality time typing my vocab lists. The ones I did were all from late April/early May, where I was reading (and therefore posting) a lot, and didn’t have the patience to sit and do the vocab for each of them. Still to do are Drums of Autumn and The Fiery Cross – probably a full third of the words already on my list are from Diana Gabaldon’s first three books… darn those historical nouns and Scottish slang!
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10 Comments
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I usually give a book about 100 pages before I give up, but if it’s really bad then I have quit after 40 pages.
I love Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series! I’ve read it 3 times, and I don’t usually do that, especially not with books so long, but hers are such a nice guilty pleasure!
Alice – I think about 100 pages seems right. I’ve heard the 50 page rule, but I’ve definitely read some books that are slow starters through at least page 50, but that I wound up really liking. Maybe it’s not even so much about page number, but how hard it is to force myself back to reading that should be my guide.
I love the Outlander series as well – I’m still on my first time through, and I’ve still got A Breath of Snow and Ashes to go, but I could easily see myself re-reading them at some point.
I try to stick with a book for 100 pages. The Book Crush lady says 100 – your age.
I love that you do vocab lists for the books that you read! I used to write down unfamiliar words as I was reading and either look them up right away or save them for later.
Rachel – Thank you! I knew there was some formula for “appropriate” giving-up distance out there, but I couldn’t remember what it was.
My vocab words get jotted down on the back of whatever scrap paper I’m using as a bookmark, and not looked up until I’m typing the review post.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized it’s not worth my time to finish certain books. But you’re right–it’s so hard and I feel so guilty giving up…oh well.
I’ve been trying to assuage the guilt by reminding myself that there are already so many things that I have to force myself to do that reading for pleasure shouldn’t be one of them.
I force myself to finish my books even when I hate them. I don’t know why I torture myself so. Perhaps it’s my unconscious way of making sure I choose more carefully next time? There has only been one book in my life that I couldn’t finish. I made two different attempts and wrote that book off for good. There’s a little part of me that wants to try again though just to see if I can beat that book.
Elizabeth – Heh, I totally understand that fighting spirit. The only way I got through The Name of the Rose was by sheer stubborn determination not to let that book win.
I actually like slow-moving stories and big books. I might enjoy this. I’ll watch for your giveaway. Nice to read an honest review though.
I used to feel compelled to finish every book, too. Now I quit whenever I feel like it. Usually I try to give a good fifty- hundred pages a try, but some books don’t even make it that far. It’s a relief to move on to another book, there’s so many waiting to be read.