For me, one of the best places to be is in a comfy chair and a new book. The anticipation of a new book can be so overwhelming that I start reading as soon as I have a moment to myself. When the book takes off there is nothing in the world that can compare. But then some books can be such a let down even in the first few pages. Trying again and again, and again and still it goes nowhere. So, when do you stop? When is it okay to decide that a book just does not deserve our hard-earned, eagerly awaited Spare Mental Moments? According to a reviewer on our local radio station, if you subtract your age from 100 then the remaining numeral is the number of pages that you should read of a book before giving up on it.
So, to one of the books above: I have read 64 of your pages and that is 4 more pages than I needed to read...out you go!
Can you guess which book it is from the pile above that I have had to let go? One of these is also one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
P.S. Sorry Pat (who kindly commented) but here are the titles:
Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
Will you be there? by Guillaume Musso
The Embers of Heaven by Alma Alexander
The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook
The Lighted Rooms by Richard Mason
Like Heaven by Nial Maharaj
Bubbles in Trouble Sarah Strohmeyer
6 comments:
I've not heard that rule of thumb as to how many pages we should invest in a book that we aren't interested in. Hmmm.... I used to read about 100 pages and then thought, "C'mon, if it hadn't gotten my attention by NOW, it wasn't going to!" So many books, so little time! Now I toss the book aside usually by the first 50 pages. I can't really guess in your pile of books which one you had tossed since I can't see the bottom title. But, okay, I'm game. I'll go with the bottom book!
Hi Pat,
Thank you for commenting and for bringing to my attention that I forgot to add the titles of each book. They are:
Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
Will you be there? by Guillaume Musso
The Embers of Heaven by Alma Alexander
The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook
The Lighted Rooms by Richard Mason
Like Heaven by Nial Maharaj
Bubbles in Trouble Sarah Strohmeyer.
Although it wasn't that last one that I gave up on, my 14 year old daughter did read Bubbles in Trouble and said it was an okay read.
...and I agree that 50 pages is a reasonable enough investment.
How can it be that I've heard of NONE of the books in your stack?
I can usually tell if I want to continue a book in the first chapter - how ever many pages that is.
However, I've been known to read a really bad books to the bitter end if it is the last unread book in the house. It's that book or the back of cereal boxes, LOL!
Darla
Hi Darla: I hadn't heard about any of those books but The Moneypenny Diaries. Actually now that I mention it, it is actually this book that I could not get through. I had read its reviews and thought I should read it. It was just not for me.
And yes it is funny how sometimes we can read almost anything, even cereal boxes (or even the back of shampoo bottles when I am in the shower!).
I love this rule. It's a challenge for me to EVER give up a book. But I recently decided to... after reading HALF of it. I'm trying to get better at this skill.
Oh, and I have no idea on these books, but I'm going to have to guess the one with Bubbles in the title.
No?
Cheers,
Casey
Vigorously nodding my head in agreement! :)
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