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.

Comments

Mrs. Hass-Bark said…
This is something I've always had trouble with. I finally have so many unfinished books lying around that I no longer feel guilty about not finishing them. But sometimes I'll have a moment of panic and think, "I never finished X. I should really get on that."

I am the same way with a lot of other things, though. Chips, pens, toothpaste. Even if I hate them.
Jenny said…
I have serious guilt when I don't finish a book. There are currently three books that I can think of in the past few years that I still feel like I need to finish. I should work harder at this.
Hah! I too loved Gilead and am struggling a bit with Housekeeping. Like Gilead, it is taking a long time to feel like anything is happening, but it doesn't have that pleasant ebb and flow nor the immediacy of Gilead.

Classics, however, I force myself to finish because I can't just be forever skipping to the page turners. So I usually have a classic on the backburner along with whatever else I'm reading. It took me four months to get through the first 100 pages of David Copperfield; after that, I couldn't stop.

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