Hi there. I’d like to confess: I have an awful habit of not finishing my books. I feel terribly guilty about this, being a librarian and all. But the truth of the matter is BECAUSE I am a librarian, I don’t have a lot of extra reading time to finish books that I just. don’t. like.
I was never this way in my youth, no way, no how. I finished EVERYTHING – including Gone with the Wind (1024 pages) and James Michener’s The Source(at 1078 pages – a triumph!)
Nowadays, if I get to around 50 pages, and I’m not feeling it, I put it down and find something else. I was happy to learn I’m not alone in this.
Author, librarian extraordinaire and model for the awesome Librarian Action Figure (see it here: http://www.mcphee.com/items/11247.html), Nancy Pearl, has a similar theory:
“For Pearl, it seems that the most important aspect of reading a book is to enjoy it. If a reader is not enjoying a book, then she has a rule for when to stop reading that book.
Pearl’s approach to enjoying reading is the Rule of 50 which states “If you still don’t like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you’re more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages.” After all, life is short – if you’re 90, after 10 pages, MOVE ON!
I think that’s a great way to approach non-assignment reading (see, teachers, I’m playing nice here). There is a time and a place for slogging though a classic novel for a paper. And there is a time and a place to just LOVE READING. So, in the spirit of reading books that are not on your summer reading lists, take some time before school starts and read for enjoyment. Just try 50 or so pages of something that looks good because, hey, you might like it enough to finish it.
My follow up post will have some books that I’ve started to read when I saw them on the shelf or in a bookstore and can’t wait to finish. Grab a book and relax…
Archive for July 30, 2009
Books That I’ve Started to Read…and never finished
Creative Writing Workshop with Tom Fahy
Monday, July 27 from 7-8:00 PM, please join published author and professor Thomas Fahy for a writing workshop entitled: “Aliens, Ghosts and Ten Gallon Hats: Reading and Writing in Your Favorite Genres.”
Thomas has published the young adult horror novel The Unspoken
and he is coming out with his newest novel Sleepless in August.
Check out his website at: http://www.thomasfahy.com/
Hope to see you there!
Sharon Long
Teen Services Librarian
Twilight Movie on Monday!
Please join us in the theatre to watch Bella and Edward and stay to debate which was better: the book or the movie!
Monday, July 6th, 2009. 6-8:30 PM. Rated PG-13. Free, limited seating. Tickets not required.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) doesn’t expect much when she moves to the small town of Forks, Washington, until she meets the mysterious and handsome Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson)—a boy who’s hiding a dark secret: he’s a vampire. As their worlds and hearts collide, Edward must battle the bloodlust raging inside him as well as a coterie of undead that would make Bella their prey. Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling sensation by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight adds a dangerous twist to the classic story of star-crossed lovers.