Guest Post with the author of Eating Bull!
Have you ever turned off a lackluster TV show? Walked out of a boring movie? Given up on a stale documentary? If so, did you feel guilty about it?
Probably not. After all, our time is too valuable to waste on dull content.
So why is it we book lovers struggle to quit a novel? What’s with that guilt that compels us to forge ahead, even when we’re fantasizing about the next book on our list? You know, the one we really want to read.
Maybe it’s because books are more personal to us than a television show or a movie. We can hold them in our hands, inhale their subtle scents, feel their glossy covers and smooth pages.
Or maybe it’s because we invest more time with them than stories made for the screen. We connect to the characters on a deeper level. That makes it tough to let them go without knowing their fates, even if their actions make us yawn.
Or perhaps it’s even simpler. We’ve spent money on the books or we’ve waited weeks for them on hold at the library. To let them go seems such a waste.
At least these were some of my reasons for struggling to close a book early.
But no more. I’ve bid the guilt adieu and given myself permission to shelve a book and move on. Life is too short to do otherwise. My to-be-read pile grows faster than weeds on steroids, and if I ever want to get to those novels, I can’t spend time on the clunkers.
But that’s the beauty of books. One reader’s clunker is another reader’s treasure. There’s something out there for everyone.
So good bye, book. I’m sorry we didn’t connect. Your next reader might love you, so to her I’ll pass you on. No hard feelings, okay?
But I confess, I might skip to your final pages before I do.
You know, just to see how you ended.
