As an English teacher, I am often faced with a hidden side of people that most others don't see... The tops of their heads! As they sleep in my class... No, no, just kidding. I see the side of them they've kept hidden for a while. I see their quick glance of shame when they say, "I don't read much". And I see their insecurity when they boldly proclaim, "I DON'T READ!"
It's all the same to me. Read or don't. But if you do decide to read, then take it from me... it is OKAY TO QUIT a book.
Somewhere in the ancient past, one caveman tried to read another caveman's scribblings on a clay tablet. He sniffed it, licked it, and threw it in the ocean. This was the first time someone quit a book, and, from that moment forward, everyone who has ever quit a book has thrown it in the ocean. (Not true obviously but bear with me) I don't know why, but there is a stigma about quitting. Many people, upon feeling the cold dread creeping into their eyeballs, telling them in arscenic whispers, "you hate this booooook," decide that they'd rather suck down the poisonous last hundred pages than stop and enjoy themselves by picking up a Marmaduke instead.
I have quit books. In fact, I quit one on March 31st of this year. I have tried three times now to read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Wolfe... and I just can't get myself through it. She's one of my favorite novelists, it's not that long, and it's from one of my favorite eras of literature. It SHOULD be a slam dunk, but for some reason it's not. And that's OKAY.
Because I chose to put that book down, I am now reading Germinal by Emile Zola, another one of my favorite authors. THAT book I am flying through. I gave myself the chance to start again with a book I clicked with, and you know what? I'm going to try reading To the Lighthouse again in a few years. That's the beauty of literature. It's always there, and doesn't rely upon the whims of popular zeitgeist to be relevant. If you read Great Expectations today, you can debate it until the end of days. (And that is a book I DEFINIITELY recommend you try again if you were forced to read it as a child.) If you have ever hit a wall, and tried to slog through a book, do yourself a favor and don't.
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