Librus Interruptus

As I mentioned, I have a tendency to be stubborn. I also don't like to leave things unfinished. One of the hardest adjustments I've made to being a parent is learning how to leave tasks unfinished, because I constantly get interrupted. I also only recently figured out that it's all right to leave a book without reading all of it. I used to read every book I picked up, even if I didn't like it. For example, at age thirteen I decided that I wanted to read every book written by Judy Blume. I'm not exactly sure why I picked her; I think it was because I had read a few of her books and liked them, and I didn't know about many other YA authors. Eventually I got to Forever, which is her controversially sexually explicit book about teenage romance. I read the whole thing, even though I didn't like it. If I stop and think about it, I can still remember some details of the story. Eww.

Now I am older and wiser and have learned that it's OK to sometimes stop reading a book. Earlier this year I read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I loved it so much that I decided to read her first novel, Housekeeping. The style was very different and I just didn't feel very connected to the characters. I stopped after a few chapters. Maybe some day I'll pick it up and try again. I also tried reading Little Children a few months ago, but it just wasn't the right time. That book is fairly sexually explicit as well, and at that point in my life it really wasn't a good thing for me to be reading. So I put it down and probably won't pick it up again any time soon. Maybe I'll watch the movie, but probably not.

So for the last few days I've been trying to read The Corrections. I'm actually enjoying it a little, but I'm realizing that I'm not in the mood for a post-modern cynical take on American family life. Especially not for six hundred pages. I have other, more interesting books on my shelf. So I'm going to put down that book and try another for a few days. Maybe I'll be back, maybe I won't.