I used to be a bookstore manager. When I was hand selling books (which is one of my all-time favorite things to do) I would marvel at the fact that some people were afraid of reading a book that they might not like! "What if it offends me?" "What if there are bad words I wouldn't want to read?" "What if my child shouldn't be exposed to something like that?"
That always struck me as odd. My answer was always the same, "Just close the book!!" "You have the power." "You don't have to read everything you start."
Today I closed the book. I guess that's kind of figurative on my year of reading. It's the end of a busy year and my reading numbers are way down - darn you, day-job! But it's also what I literally did while I was reading a book while waiting for one of my sons at an Oral Surgeon's office.
My son is a daddy now, a grown man. Today I was just his "escort"; someone who would drive him to the appointment and then walk him woozily out to the car, "escort" him home, administer food and pain meds and wait until his wife got home to turn over the nursing duties too. Easy peasy stuff. I had just the book for the wait; a thin volume with an interesting story premise.
The waiting room was plush and comfortable. It was the perfect place to read a book on this overcast day. Perfect, perfect...
But my book reading was not going as planned. My uncomfortable button had been "pushed" a few times already. I had even resorted to my "glossing over" technique and was trying to skim over parts to see where I could pick up the story again when I finally hit a sentence by one of the main characters half way through the book.
"I guess it's a choice we make," she said.
"What's a choice?" I asked.
And she said, "How much of the world we let in."
It was then that I decided that I had the power all along. This just wasn't the book for me. Now I did what I told many people to do; I took my own advice and closed the book! There's too many books waiting for me out there to spend my time on a book that's not for me.
Abandoned: Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
Currently Reading: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown & June Bug by Chris Fabry
1 comment:
Good for you! I am one of those people. I hate to have spent money on a book that I have to put down (though I've done it). So I've compromised by mostly only reading books that come recommended. I like your blog. I think it's you that I got the Graceling recommendation from. Just finished it yesterday. Loved it! I think it beat the Hunger Games for me. Have you read the companion book, Fire? I'm thinking of getting it (got a B&N gift card for Christmas!).
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