Musing Monday...Do Nice Guys Finish...Last?

 

How time flies..There is never enough...Check out the other muses at...
 Should Be Reading...

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Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

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“Sir—” remarked Samuel Johnson with droll incredulity to someone too eager to know whether he had finished a certain book—“Sir, do you read books through?” 

How do you feel about finishing a book.
Must you? Do you feel compelled to soldier on, even if you are not enjoying it?

Yes, I have another Wall Street Journal article to quote...hey, you have to love a newspaper that still actually writes about books and reading every week!

"In the age of the e-reader, dropping a book has never been easier: It doesn't even require getting up to grab another off the shelf. But choosing to terminate a relationship with a book prematurely remains strangely agonizing, a decision fraught with guilt.

"It goes against how we're built," says Matthew Wilhelm, a clinical psychologist with Kaiser Permanente in Union City, Calif. "There is a tendency for us to perceive objects as 'finished' or 'whole' even though they may not be. This motivation is very powerful and helps to explain anxiety around unfinished activities."

Oh gosh, "choosing to terminate a relationship with a book.." That makes me feel even worse!

I must admit that in the past, that is how I felt. I would read and read...maybe skim a tiny bit..until the last page, relieved that then I could go on to another book I might really enjoy. To do less was to fail.

But as with many reading related matters, blogging has changed me. So many books to read...and I don't just mean the ones in my greedy TBR pile that we talked about last week.
No, I mean I am also more aware of all the great books coming out every month, so many of which I would like to read. I read the reviews of my fellow bloggers and other publications, I get the e-mails from publishers going on about the latest releases, all the suggestions from Library Thing and Amazon and Barnes and Noble every time I look at a book online.

So many books, so little time!

Really, who has time to waste on a book you are not loving?

But what if it is a review book? Do you then have an obligation? Or an even greater obligation. A promise, a duty? Well, to my mind, sort of. I will give it a try. A really good try. I think that is my obligation for asking for the book or taking it. But if I hate it, do you , Mr./Ms. Publisher or Author, really want me to force myself to finish it and then say why I felt like that?
Not to say I don't give negative reviews. I do. So imagine how bad the others reviews might be!
And there just is not ENOUGH TIME!

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