“How long would you prime a water-pump and flail the handle if nothing came out?”
“But what if I don’t like it?” Ted shrugged.
“Then don’t finish it. A book is like a pump. It gives nothing unless first you give to it. You prime a pump with your own water, you work the handle with your own strength. You do this because you expect to get back more than you give . . . eventually. Do you go along with that?”
Bobby nodded.
“How long would you prime a water-pump and flail the handle if nothing came out?” “Not too long, I guess.”
“This book is two hundred pages, give or take. You read the first ten percent—twenty pages, that is, I know already your math isn’t as good as your reading—and if you don’t like it by then, if it isn’t giving more than it’s taking by then, put it aside.”
