I have come up with a solution for books that are not 100% attractive to my a.d.d. mind. You see, I have a big book collection. Two large bookcases in my living room as we speak, and, for several years now I have made the rule for myself, "I will not buy any new books until I've read EVERYthing I already own". It was a financially responsible rule, however, I did enjoy breaking it when the Twilight series came out and Shasta had given away her copy of the second one (New Moon?) that I was dying to read. I broke down and made Nick go with me to the Mother Store of Half Price Books to get the last remaining copy in the metroplex.
There are books like that, (perhaps not my most intelligent example), but you know, books that captivate you right from chapter one, and you cant wait to get home and begin, or give up several stretches of social interaction just to get to the bottom of them!!!! ...Then, there are books that I am now designating as my "light reading". You know, books that make "best seller" lists, books that are "classics", books that are deemed "great" but you cant for the life of you understand what is so great about them, and you feel like you MUST finish so you can participate in the "I read that once..." club.
I like to try and give books their fair shot. Afterall, I was not enveloped in Harry Potter until the end of book 2...around that time was when I couldn't put them down. To my recollection there are only two books I have ever made the decision to cease reading, unfinished, sell, and not feel bad about it. The first was "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig. I feel like every hostel I ever went in had a copy of this on its shelf and it is a very popular book among backpackers. However, they fail to mention that the author previously wrote technical manuals for a living before that book...and thats about how how exciting his novel was as well. SELL. The second, is now "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I got excited about the movie version previews of this book. It had Julia Roberts, Bali, traveling, adventure...I thought it sounded good. So, I bought the book to read before the movie, even though my lovely sister in law Stacey warned me it might be narcissistic. It WAS. I was about 1/3 of the way through the book when Shast and I decided to go ahead and see the movie last night. It was TERRIBLE. No good. And, because the first 1/3 of the movie was very true to the book...ive decided there is nothing I can gain from reading more. So it goes into the SELL pile. I'm convinced the only reason this book got any attention is because of Oprah's book club, concieted people, and New Ageists.
But what about those books that are probably pretty good, but have a rough beginning? Sometimes the beginning may just not catch my attention because what is going on in my own life is irrelevant to the story? For me, books like The Hobbit. I know I will be glad I read it, but I have trouble sitting for hours reading page after page of dwarf and troll descriptions. What about John Piper? He's a little wordy in big doses and I have to translate all of his Christianese words as I go. Or the several books about teaching sitting on my shelf? I love my occupation, but i ingest a lot of that stuff through daily routine and trainings. So how do I make myself get through these kinds of books without dreading book time? ...I read them in the bathroom!! Perfect solution and right now I am steadily working my way through the Hobbit...and LOVING it. I read 2-4 pages everytime I go in there. I always stop and the end of the page on the right so that I know to begin again at the top of the page on the left. I don't do this when I'm in a hurry. It may seem like it somehow makes the book gross, but it doesnt. My hands are clean when I go in there, and they are clean when I set the book back on the window. Perfect solution if you ask me. Some may call todays post "TMI" or "Too Much Information". Perhaps. But this is my blog and I write about anything and everything these days. So there you go.
#3: READ EVERY BOOK I OWN!
