|
Good book? I couldn't pick it up!
December 26th 2000, 23:06 CET by Andy
There's a BBC story about books that are bought, but not read. The focus is on books given as gifts that the lucky recipient never wanted, but let's extend that a bit...
According to the BBC story, some of the most unread books are Ulysses by James Joyce, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and everything by Salman Rushdie.
This story really hit home with me, because one thing that infuriates me about myself is my habit of not finishing books. Even books that I like.
Just recently I've started reading, enjoyed, but then given up on Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis, A Game We Play by Simona Vinci, Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois, Birdman by Mo Hayder, and the first Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling.
The only books I've finished in the last few years have been Hannibal by Thomas Harris, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and the non-fiction On Writing by Stephen King.
This week I'm going to order Gerald's Game by Stephen King and, although I expect to like it, I'm sure I'll give up on it after a hundred pages or so. I know that there's very little chance of me finishing it, no matter how much I enjoy it.
I don't know why I'm like this. Just for some reason, I rarely finish books. It may be that I have high standards, or perhaps I'm just lazy -- after all, it does take effort to finish a book, especially if you're a slow reader, which I am.
Feel free to jump into this thread with any relevant comments, or your thoughts on what is discussed in the BBC story. But personally I'm most interested to know if any of you also have this annoying tendency to abandon books, even when you're enjoying them. Am I the only one who does this?
|
