Unfinished books
reading styles and books we keep
If an idea of not finishing a book sends a shudder down your spine and elicits a headshake of disapproval, I guess you are not alone. That was also me once upon a time.
These days if a book does not grab me with its use of language, curiosity of its story or instantly interesting characters, I do not continue beyond thirty pages. In fact, I go a step further. If I really do not enjoy it, it needs to leave my house. Some books I return, and others I donate. Only much loved books I go back have a place in my personal library.
Some books leave a question mark and those I put aside for a few days, sometimes weeks. I come back to them and try again at a later date. That would usually depend on my mood and whether that unfinished book comes back to mind. Sometimes they begin to flow, but most of the time, even after a few attempts (I really give this reading thing a chance), they are also taken out of my home and my library. Brutal honesty is a good thing here, in my opinion.
Another scenario with my reading is the books that I had kept, but I have either dipped in and out of them, only liked some passages, and had not read them cover to cover. I keep those books, as they would have provided me with some value, be it the use of language, an interesting presentation of a certain subject/topic or a theme or a vibrant character or two. These books tend to be non-fiction, larger volumes and some more difficult literary and classical literature pieces. James Joyce comes to mind, as well as, Dostoevsky with some of their works.
One of the signs that a book must leave my space is where I make no annotations of any kind. It tells me that I have not found anything of value to me personally in that work.
To give you some examples of my latest experiences. Let’s talk about S. Maugham. I absolutely love his writing, however, it does not mean I like his stories or his characters. He is one author, whose books I will keep in my library, but it won’t automatically mean I would have read the novels cover-to-cover, or even revisit it. I just know that I love the language in his writing. It is clean, effortless and just perfectly done.
Similarly with J. Joyce. I wanted a taste of his writing and, indeed, the language turned out to be divine, complex, exquisite in many places, however, I detested his characters and could not finish the story. By the way, his description of hell is the best I have ever come across in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Whether you read and keep some books, or abandon the process, would depend on your personal style of reading and curating your library. It is very individual. The style develops over a life-time and often changes, evolves or solidifies more into something of a firm preference. Over the years I have tried several experiments in reading and genres, books I bought, read and kept. What I have discovered is that I always come back to what I had always loved from the beginning. These days I don’t tend to deviate from my preferences in reading.
In short, I read for language and characters, not a story, so literary fiction, philosophical and psychological style narratives are my preferred genres. The language must sing to me. It does not just need to hold my attention, but I must hold my breath while partaking in its sound. The style can be either simple or complex and intricate, as long as it is always effortless and never overdone.
The most important requirement within a book for me, fiction and nonfiction, is that it must make me feel things, first and foremost. I must feel, not think. It needs to wake me up emotionally. It is one of the reason I don’t read detective stories, or anything that would require me to think too much in a logical way, not emotional way. If writing does not touch me, or provides me with something I can emotionally devour and often relate to, then whatever the story is I am out.
I also love interesting, unique, out of the ordinary, honest, raw and relatable characters in a book even when the whole narrative revolves around one or two of them. I am not interested in works where a character does not evolve, change or surprise a reader or themselves in any way. I have come across a few modern fiction titles of that kind lately. With non-fiction I only read nature memoir or philosophical explorations of a theme or psychology of human condition. Again, those books need to touch me and make me feel, as well as think and reflect.
As I reflected on the subject of reading and how we do it, it has become clear to me that one must be an honest reader. It is okay to pass something up if it adds no interest, value or fun to the process of reading. The time would be better spent diving into works that make your soul sing. I read a couple of books like that last year where I could not sit still or stop smiling while luxuriating in both the language and characters. This is what I am talking about. Reading needs to be a joyful experience, not a chore.
It is okay not to like the work of a famous classic author, or an established/prize-winning name in the literary world. I have tried plenty of those and, I will be honest, I liked almost none of them with an exception of one or two. This is also why I do not research, rely on prize-winning book lists or recommendations. Just because the majority liked it, and yes, there can be a lot of factors at play when these books are nominated and chosen, remember you have your own criteria to choose a book you want to spend your time with.
My point is that all ways of reading are okay van valid. We all engage with books in different ways even to the point of aesthetics: preferring hardbacks to paperbacks, kindle to paper and so on. I would always buy hardbacks of the authors I love. It is the best way to support an author, and have a beautiful copy on your shelf. If I am unsure of whether I would like a certain title, I only use Kindle to test the water.
As long as we are honest and treat all work with integrity and thanks (sometimes respectfully no thanks), we can all rejoice in the activity, which enriches our lives whichever way we choose to do it.
It is okay to stop reading a book if it is not singing to you. Just like with any other activity it is about boundaries with the very concept and perception of what reading should be. We all would have had or still hold a particular association with reading or an attachment with it. Reading can be generational, cultural, something we learn and grow up with and grow into. It can begin as someone else’s desire, which is not our own. It can be twisted, forced, manipulated into our reality. I am sure we can all find many childhood examples of ‘reading gone wrong’ either through personal experience or via observed examples. As adults, however, we can choose anew, but we can only do that once we shed the weight of all that had gone before and start from a place of honesty, boundaries and your own heart.