Many people feel like they can’t quit partway through a book they’re reading for fun. They feel obliged to make it to the end for one reason or another. But sometimes, quitting a book isn’t a bad thing—and might even be the right decision. Here’s why.
Why I quit books
When I was a kid, I could eat endless amounts of sugar—any kind of dessert I wanted in any quantity—and never get sick. Now that I’m older, it’s far too easy to get sick. I have to limit my intake to the one small thing I’ll enjoy the most.
The same phenomenon has happened with books. As a voracious reader in my childhood, I devoured any book I laid my hands on, up to six at one time. Some of them were like the cheap off-brand chocolate that comes from the dollar store—just so-so—but some were far worse. Some were the most delectable confections laced with rat poison that I didn’t detect until much later.
Being a quitter isn’t always a bad thing
I don’t know when I started quitting books. What matters is that I reached this important realization: I don’t have to finish every book I start. For that matter, I don’t even have to start every book that’s given or recommended to me.
As I’m growing up, I no longer have the metabolism to eat all the candy I want, nor do I have the time to read all the books I want. So now I want only the best. For me, it’s not real dessert unless it’s chocolate—and quality chocolate to boot.
What we eat goes in and out fairly quickly, but what we read stays inside us far, far longer. Some studies show that fat cells never go away, but just expand and contract depending on what a person does for their health. The books we consume get assimilated into us and put into our long-term storage, as well. They shape our view of the world and consequently our identity. As a result, we should take care with what we are taking in.
You are what you eat
To be frank, some books aren’t worth reading at all because they have the rat poison. That’s a strong metaphor, but I use it intentionally because some of the content we consume is very destructive to us. Bad books fill our imaginations with darkness and our vocabulary with vulgarities. They propagate or create evil acts as bad or worse than anything in real life that can destroy innocence and scar readers. They can even open the door to release those terrible things in our real lives. We need to be careful what we feed on to avoid sickening or killing ourselves. And not wasting time on something that isn’t bad, but merely non-excellent, can be a further step in a good direction.
My book diet
For me, that means I don’t want dollar-store-chocolate-grade low-quality books with sub-par writing or unsatisfactory plots, but more importantly, I’m not reading any more of the books full of poison to my soul. At the time of first writing this blog post, I’d just quit my fifth book in a row. (Apparently I have a knack for picking tasty-looking duds.) And as disappointing as that fact is, I know I would be far more disappointed to get to the end of one of them only to realize I’d just wasted my time on something that brought me no joy or benefit—nothing but a stomachache.
To finish off…
I encourage you to jettison the lie that you need to clean your plate—particularly your dessert reading plate. Spend your time and efforts reading something you’ll savor, not wish you could vomit up later.
Read more about why it’s crucial to read good stories here.
What kind of book is your perfect dessert?
Have you ever read a book you knew you should quit but didn’t? Why was it hard to stop?
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