On Abandoning Books

I am a rule follower, and as such, it's hard for me to abandon books. Growing up, my dad had a "7 chapter rule" that I observed strictly - if I had read to chapter 7 and still didn't like the book, the gods of literature would permit me to abandon it in good faith. As I grew, I changed it from 7 chapter to 10%, because with some books, chapters are very long, and with others, they are short. 10% to me seemed more fair. And I am all about fair.

I don't often abandon books, but as I've done it twice in the last month, I felt I should explain. I believe very strongly in the following statement:

One should not waste time reading a bad book because 

there are far too many good books that need reading.

I am happy to say have read very few bad books, mainly because of the above sentiment. 10% is plenty of time for an author to win me over. And these authors? They did not win me over. I must concede, however, that reading from a list someone else compiled, as I have done this time around, lends itself to abandoning books far more than one I would have constructed myself. My lists are based 90% or more on recommendations of people I know and trust. These books? Not so much. I have abandoned three of the 26, and I don't feel so much as a smidge of guilt.

Let's start with the very first one I abandoned years ago:

I can't remember if I gave this book the full 10% or not, because it's been awhile, but I do remember knowing early on that this book and I were not meant to be. I'm trying to remember now why I read it originally, but I can't. Hmmm. Well, regardless, it got tossed. Good riddance.

Next one, the one I abandoned three weeks ago:

This book wasn't terrible...I just felt like I'd already read it five or six times before. There was nothing notable or unusual or original that I could find, and I have a huge stack of books I really do want to read, so I decided to sianara this one as well.

And lastly:

I'm just going to go ahead and admit that I am kind of prudish when it comes to books, and I don't only mean about sexuality. I'm also that way about abuse, violence, excessive drug use, language, and basically all the things that make movie ratings go up. I am not a fan of these things, and while I understand and appreciate the place many of them have in literature, I am growing increasingly weary of the excess. Additionally, one of the reasons I so love to read YAL is to expand my bookshelf at school, and I would never recommend these types of books to 12-year-olds. This book was filthy. FILTHY. And the protagonist was a shallow loser. Not worth my time. CHUCKED!

Abandoning books is a healthy practice. I tell this to my students all the time - don't waste time on a bad book. Just as life is too short to waste on bad people, life is too short to waste on bad books. Spend time on the good ones! I am formulating my summer list now (which includes classics - a challenge!) and will post it soon. For now, here's my current progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai review here
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky review here
   
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood review here
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher review here
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls review here
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving review here
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver review here
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddonreview here
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz *abandoned* 
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie review here
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer review here
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey review here
    
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey review here
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb *abandoned*
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Only one more to go!