Giving It Up

A question I always wrestle with as a reader: When do you stop reading a book that is not engaging to you? There are times when I'm not connecting to a book but I cannot give up on it. I will take weeks to get through it, all the while gazing lustily at my stack of books to-be-read. Last year I fought for nearly a month before finally admitting that I just wasn't interested in reading Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead or the much-touted Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. (Not that I have anything against war novels: I loved Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker...which I plan to revisit this year.)

Anyhow, I often don't know what to do when I get into the situation. I've heard of people having a 50-page or 100-page rule in which the book is set aside if deemed not worthy by a certain pagecount. I think I have finally enacted this for myself. Right now, the book I am setting aside if Princess by Jean P. Sassoon. I feel bad about this for many reasons, such as the fact that it's a bestseller that relates the true story of women's oppression in Saudi Arabia in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. Or the fact that someone spent many long hours crafting a story that I am deciding to ignore. It's not a bad book, it's just not the right book for me right now...(why do I sound like I'm breaking up with the book?)

The worst part about it, though, is that it was a recommendation by a friend whose literary opinions I highly respect. I worry that I am committing some heinous social crime by putting down a book that a friend endorsed. But I just went to the library and picked up several books I had on reserve...and I can't help myself. I feel almost as if I'm being beckoned by the library books across the room, and I am now making the decision to "cheat on" Princess. And I'm almost not even sorry.

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