Over the past week I have actually started and abandoned three separate books – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (don’t ask), Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, and The Poisoner’s Handbook … by Deborah Blum. It’s frustrating to me because I am typically not one to leave a book mid-stream, and have been very reluctant to do so. I’ve started and re-started, I’ve picked back up, I’ve tried something new to break up the reading, and I still cannot commit to any of these books. All three books were either highly recommended, or I was reading for a specific purpose, and that has led to my determination to continue on.
This morning, however, I thought back to the lessons we teach our students on abandoning books and really started to question myself. I know when I love a book everything else in my life tends to get pushed aside and I could stay up all night to find out more! In these three books I have built no relationship with the characters or people described, I have no commitment to the storyline, and would do anything else rather than read. But even greater than that, I thought about all the other books in my T-B-R pile and all the intriguing book reviews and recommendations I read daily. There are too many books out there for me to give these three books any more of my precious reading time, and for that simple reason I am letting go!