About Me

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Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Quitter?


So today is the perfect day for a reading marathon. Serious rainstorms are predicted for the entire day. The house is clean and in order, laundry done, taxes filed, no visitors expected. Every one's errands are taken care of, including delivery of fresh strawberries to my sister so she can bake Aunt Draxie's old-fashioned strawberry shortcake for her Easter dinner (yellow cake split in layers with sugared strawberry filling and then the whole cake covered with egg white meringue frosting). Willie the pit bull is snoring on his bed behind my chair and, if luck holds out, will not want to go out in the rain for even a short walk. To repeat, a perfect reading day.

Here's the question though: do I keep on with this book even though I'm 56 pages in and still not feeling the love? Meltzer's fiction was recommended to me by a friend who'd seen the History Channel Brad Meltzer's Decoded programs where he reveals the background true stories for his fiction. The Inner Circle deals with a theft and murder in the National Archives. The idea is intriguing, but I must not be in the mood for this kind of story. So far the main characters seems "lite". So, I think I'll quit on Meltzer for today.


Instead, surely there should be something in this stack that's worthy of a rainy day? Perhaps Claude and Camille Monet's love story after just seeing a fresh new Impressionist exhibit last weekend at the Speed Art Museum. Or, Rutherford's Russka, a sprawling historical novel of this country since the beginning of time? Or, Sebastion Faulks' A Week in December about the current economic upheaval?


Moving over to stack 2, I could choose from the new Maeve Binchy that I intended to read in March. Or, The King's Speech diaries, or some romance set in Italy and Ireland. Or, still more Scandinavian crime writing in preparation for my August travels to Sweden, Norway and Denmark? But, after considering everything in these well-stocked TBR stacks, I think it will be the first book in Ken Follett's new trilogy, Fall of Giants. I read a few pages of it last night and was immediately drawn into the story and characters. Should see me through this rainy holiday weekend quite well.

What about you? If you start reading something and it leaves you cold, do you put it aside? Or, do you press on to the end even though you're not liking the journey? For me, life is too short and there's too many important books to be read to keep trying to finish one just because you started it. But whatever your reading style--enjoy!

10 comments:

joanygee said...

Gosh what a lot of books!
I'm reading 'The king's Speech' and tho' not a riveting read am happy to keep reading, I was lent couple of the No1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels but will return them unread.
I've also been lent a couple by Alan Bennett that are far more readable.

KittyHawk said...

Since reading time is not infinite, my friend Kay follows this rule. SUbtract your age from 100. If you don't like the bok by the time you've read that many pages, then move on. Makes sense to me.

Jan n Jer said...

For me to read a book..it has to draw me in during the first chapter or I give up on it. I am not a big reader, I go through stages. Reading is great entertainment during down time! But...I would rather watch TV or listen to music! May you have a Blessed Easter Faye...Willie too!
BTW..how is he doing??

Anonymous said...

♥Nice post.) Love your blog.))♥

Faye said...

joanygee--I've heard of the LDA mysteries but haven't read any--civilized criminals in lovely settings? :-)

kittyhawk--according to Kay's rule I "ove-read" Meltzer's novel.

janis--I watch my share of TV. Try to have a "fluffy" read for commercial breaks.

mary--a Russian reader? I've been seeing you in my stats. Thanks for your kind comment.

Debs Carr said...

If I'm reading something simply for my own pleasure, I won't keep reading if I'm not enjoying it. If I'm reading a book for a review, then I do have to keep going to the end, although thankfully most of the books I read I thoroughly enjoy.

The Church Lady said...

Hello Faye! I hope you enjoyed your Easter and were able to catch up on some reading over the weekend. I have not picked up a good book (other than the Bible) in quite some time. I really need to find a good read. I was supposed to be "share" reading The Greatest Words Ever Spoken with my hubby, but he is hogging it all to himself.

Faye said...

debs--closest thing I do to a book review is the Teaser Tuesday meme. With these it's a pleasure to tell readers why they may enjoy the featured book.

church lady--sometimes you go through a reading drought where nothing appeals. Like the idea of share reading, although Freedom Writer seems to be doing more than his share!

Sayre said...

I tend to put down books that don't grab me in the first 50 pages... My time seems to be quite limited these days and I don't have time to waste on a book that doesn't grab me!

ldbs2425@woh.rr.com said...

I used to require my fourth graders to read 1/4 of the book. They also needed to be able to explain why they were abandoning the book. I like Kittyhawk's formula!
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