What To Do When the Book You’re Reading Sucks
We’ve all been in that situation where we read a book and every page seems like it passes by slower and slower. We forget what the last page was about. We go back and read it again. And get even more bored of the book. Time passes by slowly and we’re just hoping that the next page has a picture on it. Or that the author suddenly decides to leave a couple of pages blank. We count the pages until the end of the chapter. And sigh because there are too many. It’s at that point you know: your book (probably) sucks.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Why Some Books Suck
There are many reasons why we aren’t enjoying the book we’re currently reading. For one thing, we might have expected something different. The book turns out to, not hold true to its many positive recommendations on Amazon, or by our friends. Maybe the author was just good at writing a compelling summary on the back cover. But when it came to writing something longer than 200 words…not so good.
Or maybe the book was forced upon us. We had to read it. Forced upon us by our parents, our teachers or by the university. Or would you like to read about intermediate macroeconomics in your free-time? I certainly don’t.
But the book might also not be fun because we just don’t understand what the author’s trying to tell us. (Looking at you Olivier J. Blanchard – the macroeconomics dude). The language might be too difficult. This recently happened to me when I read “The Salt Path” by Raynor Winn. No chance…I marked 10 words on the first page that I didn’t understand. It found its way back into the shelf the next day.
Sadly, we might also feel pressured to read the book. Because it’s “such a classic” and all our friends read it. Or because it’s such an important piece in a field. And if we don’t read it, then we’d miss out on something and couldn’t keep up with the discussion.
There are many more reasons I can think of for why a book sucks. These were just some examples, but we must acknowledge that these are all legitimate reasons. They might be irrational, but I can understand every single one. Some books just suck – it’s totally normal.
The question then is, what do we do when the book we’re currently reading sucks?
Books Suck!
I think it should start with a very simple step: Acknowledging that the book is just not good. That can already be quite the step. Yes, for some books it might be obvious, but some are more subtle.
Have you ever had the feeling that reading became like a chore? You don’t feel excited about picking the book up and are procrastinating big time? I have.
Or maybe you too know the feeling when you’re hoping that the next page is just blank. Nothing on it. And you can just skip it and get one page closer to the end. Then you’re suffering from the blank page optimism and it’s a strong sign that you should consider putting the book away in your dusty shelf (where it belongs).
The 50-Page-Rule
But before you put anything away, every book should receive its fair chance. How do you make sure of that? My mum always told me that she gives a book 50 pages to convince her and if it’s still boring on page 51, then she puts it away.
I think this is a fair rule. It ensures that you don’t stop after 10 pages, but also that you don’t go too deep and waste your time.
Speaking of wasting time…
You Can’t Recover Past Reading Time
Have you ever been in the situation where you keep reading a book until the end, even though you don’t like it – just so that you are done with it and don’t have that constant reminder of incompletion in your bookshelf? Ohhh, I have. Too many times.
It’s almost like in the cinema. You buy movie tickets, but don’t leave the movie early when it’s bad. Why? Because you paid for the tickets. You paid to watch a full movie – so you want to watch the full movie. But the money you paid for movie tickets is gone – whether you finish it or not. Economists call this sunk cost (cost that you can’t recover).
Sunk cost shouldn’t be important in your decision-making – whether it’s about continuing the movie or not (or about finishing a book).
You can’t recover the time you have already spent reading a bad book. It is gone! The best thing you can do is ask yourself constantly: Is this book still worth my time or is there a better alternative?
This way, you ensure that your time isn’t wasted.
Put The Book Away
Sadly, too many readers don’t want to face that uncomfortable feeling of putting away an unfinished book. This thinking has probably destroyed thousands of reading careers.
We get frustrated when we read a bad book. We keep reading it because we want to finish it. But we don’t recognize that this leads to massive procrastination. Ultimately, we stop reading after all. And even if we finally get through the book, what are the odds that we’re going to pick up another one after that last reading experience was so painful.
I have the suspicion that these situations happen too often.
And I’d like to stress one thing: There’s absolutely no shame to stop reading before you’ve arrived at the last page. None! Even if you are 90% done.
If anything, you have shown extremely good self-control.
There’s such an enormous amount of good literature out there for everyone, that your time’s too precious to be wasted on something bad. Put the book away and find another one.
Books Don’t Suck
Reading should be fun. It’s a lot of fun to me. And it can be to everyone – with the right book. It’s a pity if a bad book experience shuts the door for any other piece to have the chance to get picked up. There’s too much good stuff out there for that to happen.
Pages shouldn’t pass slower and slower. We shouldn’t forget what the last page was about and go back and read it again. Time shouldn’t pass slowly, and we certainly shouldn’t hope that a picture is coming on the next page – screw the empty page optimism.
We should read books we can’t get enough of. Where we’re sad when we’re done and glad when another one comes out. We should be going to bed early to read ten more pages. That’s what reading can be – what it should be.
And it comes down to taking care of one thing: that our books don’t suck!
Enjoy!
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