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I was reading one of my favorite authors blogs today and she was talking about a topic that I’ve been pondering about myself. There have been several books that I have started this year that I could only read about half-way in before I just couldn’t read anymore. It wasn’t that the books were bad, just that I couldn’t get into them. Kristin Cashore (author of Graceling and Fire) apparently has been having this same problem. She said, “About the books I abandon — I think my abandoning them is more a reflection on me than on the books. No book is for everyone. When you read, there’s something you’re looking for, and it’s not the book’s fault if it’s not there; it just means you need to keep looking.” I admire this statement. It reminded me about something I learned in Library School about a guy named Ranganathan who came up with 5 laws related to books. Two of them really make since to me. I’m paraphrasing: Rule 1=Every book has it’s reader. Rule 2= Every reader has his/her book. Basically I believe this means that even though we might not like a book, that doesn’t mean someone else wont love it. Plus I think there are some books that have to be read at a certain time in our lives to be appreciated. SO if you don’t like the book you are reading, its okay to put it down. There is a book out there that you will love you just have to find it, so don’t give up the search for that perfect book that has everything you are looking for.
If you want to read Kristin Cashore’s Blog post fully go to her blog site http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/ the post is called “Shaking up the Blog…” posted January 7, 2010.
Tags: abandoned books, ranting, unputdownable
i totally agree with you! i’ve read books and remembered them fondly for years, and then re-read them and thought, what a load of junk! how on earth did i ever like this?!?!