Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

I usually post book reviews here, but this is somewhat book related.

At which point do you tell yourself, "I really don't like this book, and I don't think I want to finish it?"

It's taken me most of my life to this point to realize it's actually okay to put a book down if it's not holding my interest and not feel incredibly guilty that I didn't just keep swimming, er, reading.

I can remember books I've started, put down after a chapter, and picked up again several years later only to find the book is actually delightful.  The one that sticks out the most happens to be Pride and Prejudice, by the way.  My next exposure to Jane Austen was in an English class in my undergrad program, and we read Emma.  I loved it so much, that I made a vow to revist Pride and Prejudice at some point.  I did.  I devoured it, as well as Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion over the course of a summer break during my third and fourth years of my undergrad degree.  Persuasion is my one of my favorite novels of all time.  I read it every couple of years or so.

I can also recall books I've read, disliked from the first chapter, but kept reading.  Not because I loved the book, but there was the expectation that it would get better.  I've read books that friends raved about.  Me?  Not so much.  It's not just pop fiction, either.  I've picked up award-winning novels that just didn't grab my attention from page one.  Why?  Who knows?  It could be any number of reasons.  Maybe that book isn't for me.  Maybe I'm in the wrong headspace to appreciate the book.  Or perhaps I've merely grown weary of the author's formulaic writing.  (Remember Chandler's mom describing her writing process on Friends?  Yeah, like that...)

Sometimes, I think  it's a holdover from high school, when you were assigned a novel that you found dreadfully boring and slog to just read a single chapter (I'm looking at you, Heart of Darkness!), and you just had to finish it because there would be a quiz during your first period English class tomorrow.    It was only when I started my library degree a couple of years ago, that I felt like I had been given permission to stop reading a book if I didn't like it.  Because really, if you don't like a book that you're reading for your own pleasure, why continue to read it if you dislike it?  Oddly enough, I find that since I've given myself permission to stop reading a book, that it's much easier to for me to tell my students, "Hey, try this novel.  If you don't like it, it's okay.  We can pick out another one!"

In the end, it doesn't matter if you're reading graphic novels, tarty romance novels, mysteries, heavy literature, making your way through the new YA shelf in the library, or weighty biographies of American Founding Fathers.  Read what you enjoy.  And if you don't like it, put it down.  Make a note of the title in your Goodreads account.  Maybe later it might be a different story.

Cheers and happy reading!