Booking Through Thursday – Too Short?

The question:

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation.


That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading.


Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

My response:

I used to try to suffer through a book even if I wasn't enjoying it, but I think reading So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson convinced me it is okay to give up on a book. So Many Books is the chronicle of Nelson's attempt to read and write about 52 books over the course of a year (It's a really fun read.) One week in February, she just can't get into a particular book on her list and writes about giving up on books:

"Allowing yourself to stop reading a book—at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end—is a rite of passage in a reader's life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitsvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions" (55).

This sentiment has stuck with me, but I'm still a recovering member of what Nelson calls the "book equivalent of the Clean Plate Club" (56). There are some books I have started and just wasn't in the mood to finish at the time, but that I still intend to finish reading them one day. Usually these are the ones that others have raved about, so I feel they deserve another chance: Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Reading Lolita in Tehran are three that immediately come to mind.

But maybe my desire to finish these books also has to do with the fact that they are considered serious or "important" books. I once tried to read Confessions of a Shopaholic to critique for a literature class project, and I just. could. not. do. it.  I didn't feel bad about that one bit.  I also gave up on reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves earlier this year because, while it was really funny and informative, I just grew tired of the author's condescension and penchant for calling people who make grammar mistakes "stupid." I don't feel bad about not finishing that one either.

In short, I have found that allowing myself to stop reading a book that no longer interests me is very freeing, but I can't always bring myself to give up on it entirely.

Anyhow, what about you? Do you finish what you've started reading even if you don't like it? Or do give it up and move on to something better?

The First Rule of NaNoWriMo

is don't talk about NaNoWriMo. Just write.

Okay, not really. It's more like: Just write.

I meant to post a NaNo update at the end of week one, but I didn't want to lose momentum by blogging about NaNo instead of writing my draft. I have written 20,139 words of fiction over these past ten days. I have even managed to stay 1-2 days ahead of the daily word count goals because I don't want to fall behind.

My novel is about events in a small town. That's all I can say for sure at the moment, and even that is subject to change without prior notice from the Muse.

Is all (or even most) of what I have written good? Definitely not. Am I proud of myself anyway? Very much so.

This draft is the longest piece of fiction I have ever written. Weighing in at a chunky 62 double-spaced pages (1-inch margins, 12 pt. font,) this project blows all of those old college papers and even my senior thesis right out of the water in terms of length – and I'm not even halfway done yet.

Yeah, I know, I'm all optimistic and cocky after only 10 days. I don't mean to sound smug, really. I think, at the end of this month, my novel will be a big ole pile of crap, but it will be a finished pile of crap and I will have learned a lot about how to write a novel (or at least a first draft of one.) I'll be able to say I set this goal and accomplished it, and I motivated myself to meet a ridiculous deadline. Then I will take my steaming pile of word crap and edit it into something better and I will learn from that, too.

That's all for now. To anyone else out there NaNoing: even if you're behind on your word goals, it's okay. Just write and you can catch up. Even if you don't finish before Nov. 30, so what? Go at your own pace. Just write.

I would love to hear about your NaNo experiences and your tips on writing first drafts.

(Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.com )

Booking Through Thursday - It's All About Me

It's Booking Through Thursday time again:

Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

Personally, I prefer autobiographies written by the actual person. I have never stopped to consider whether they are ghostwritten or not. But most of the autobiographies and memoirs I have read were about writers' lives so I will assume they aren't ghostwritten.

I think that biographies can sometimes by speculative and invasive, and just don't seem as genuine to me as an autobiography. But then, what I really like to read are authors' published journals.

What about you? Which do you prefer?

Teaser Tuesday - Once Again to Zelda

I have been reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible for a few weeks now, but still haven't quite finished it. So this week Teaser Tuesdays is not just a teaser for you, but one for me as well.

 Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature's Most Intriguing Dedications by Marlene Wagman-Geller is the book from my Fall Into Reading list that I'd like to take on next. Since it is about novels and novelists, and also has very short chapters and no long, linear narrative, I think it's the perfect book for me to read in little spurts during NaNoWriMo. 

A teaser from chapter 6: which concerns the dedication of Dostoyevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov: "[Dostoyevsky] had made a bet with his publisher that he would submit his next novel within the next eighteen months. The consequence for his failure to meet the November 1 deadline was he would lose his publishing rights for all his works, including all past, present, amd future novels" (28).

I'm not sure what exactly that bit has to do with the dedication (to Anna Grigorevna Dostoyevsky,) but I can tell already that I am going to like this book. I really enjoy reading about authors' life stories and idiosyncrasies.