Is life too short to read books you don’t like? #MondayBlogs #AmReading

[image error]It’s Monday, which means I should be writing a book review for one of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction. *Plot twist!* I’m not finished with the next prize winner. I’m currently on the 2014 winner, The Goldfinch. If you haven’t read this novel, let me tell you – it’s long. Over 800 pages long in fact. And it’s not the type of book you flip through quickly. Or at least it’s not the type of book I flip through quickly. In fact, I’ve been struggling to read this book since I picked it up at the Mauritshuis (the museum in The Hague where the painting The Goldfinch is displaying) last September.

[image error]As I struggled to read at least one-hundred pages this weekend, I started thinking about reading books you don’t like. I often read about bloggers who claim – life is too short to read books you don’t like. I’ve always had a problem with this saying. There are just some books that you don’t like, but you should read anyway. I, for one, hated Catcher In The Rye. But I’m glad I read it. It’s a book that is talked about often. If I hadn’t read it, I would feel left out as if I’d missed out on something.

[image error]Then, there are the books you don’t like because they are depressing. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is a good example. I wouldn’t say I hated this book or didn’t like it, but it was depressing as hell. If life is too short to read books you don’t like, then it’s definitely too short to read books that make you contemplate what the purpose of life is and whether it’s worth living. It took me months to recover from reading this novel!

[image error]And finally, there are books you don’t like but read anyway because you can learn from them. Atlas Shrugged from Ayn Rand is a good example of this. Coming in at over one-thousand pages, this is probably one of the longest books I’ve ever forced myself to read. I’ll be totally honest and admit I skimmed a lot towards the end. Long speeches? No, thank you. But I’m glad I read this novel as it describes various philosophical and economical ideals that are important to understand in today’s modern economy.

The above does not mean I believe you should continue to read every single book you don’t like. I’m often asked by authors to read and review their novel. At first, I absolutely refused to DNF any book I’d agreed to review. (DNF = Did Not Finish) I wanted to respect the work and effort of these authors. I’ve since learned that while life may not be too short to read books you don’t like, it’s definitely too short to read books you don’t like that are poorly written, have plot holes the size of the moon, or feature flat characters. I also have no problem not reading a book I’ve downloaded for free via Amazon’s kindle unlimited. An unedited novel is a sure to end up on my DNF list.

Life is not too short to read books you don’t like. Life is too short to read ‘bad’ books you don’t like.