Overcoming the Guilt of Not Finishing a Book
I never used to have the courage to quit a book, but I've been doing it a lot lately, and it's liberating. I think all the library books are helping me--who cares if I don't finish a free book? (Okay, the guilty Catholic in me does act up when I quit a book, but I can usually shut her down.)
This weekend I gave up on Loser Goes First: My Thirty-Something years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation, and Wigfield: The Can-Do Town That Just Might Not. The title of "Loser" seemed to me to indicate that the author, Dan Kennedy, is my soul mate. However, he's a mildly dyslexic jackass. Yawn. "Wigfield" was an even bigger disappointment. It reminded me that I can love David Sedaris without caring at all for his sister Amy, and it let me know that Stephen Colbert might be great on The Daily Show, but that his range is pretty limited. This book takes way too many pages to say, "Look how funny and superior we are." Blech.
I did enjoy reading Tom Perotta's Little Children this weekend. Having seen Election and now read this book, I was surprised to learn from the book jacket that Perotta is married with children; he seems to have a pretty bleak outlook on marriage in particular and adults in general. Just my kind of guy. I will buy his books.
Finally, I think I'm about to quit I, Fatty. I picked it up because some critics seemed to think it's really something special, but it turns out that it's nothing more than Permanent Midnight featuring a fat guy rather than a skinny one. I think I would be more inclined to finish this book if I hadn't already read Stahl's memoir, but I just don't care to read the same story over again.
So . . . My name is Gina, and sometimes I do not finish the books I start.
posted by Gina @ 9:36 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Yeah, Snow Angels ruled. But O'Nan's Wish You Were Here went back half read. As will the 2nd Janet Evanovich. It's the same as her first, only Stephanie Plum makes all the same stupid mistakes but with no excuse this time. (Her "bad guy" Joe Morelli is the most interesting thing about these books and I cannot for the life of me figure out why the stupid Plum woman won't sleep with him already.) Also Citizen Girl, the new book by The Nanny Diaries people - unreadable. Pure dreck. And -- gasp! sacrilege!-- Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. I wanted *so badly* to like this book, it got great reviews and it's about a Ukrainian for god's sake. But it left me cold.
And Jennifer Matesa's Navel-gazing, not even half, maybe a quarter-read. I mentioned to Gina that I just couldn't stand one more pregnancy book where the mother is all conflicted and then wham! the baby is born and she's in love. Conflict resolved. As if. Besides, the author looks like a Romulan.
On a happier note, I am reading my second Mary Kay Andrews, Savannah Blues, and greatly enjoying it. Fun, funny, a little dash of mystery, enough antiquing to make me want to hit the flea market this Sunday, and smart enough without making me strain : )
Thank God for the library and their free books, or my Baptist guilt would kick in. Although it probably should have kicked in for what I'm reading, not for what I'm NOT reading....
Hi, Gina. My name is Val and a lot of the time I do not finish the books I start.
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