Read 50 Pages Before Deciding to Drop a Book

Illustration for article titled Read 50 Pages Before Deciding to Drop a Book

If you’re feeling lukewarm about a book, read 50 pages before deciding whether to continue or drop it. Doing this will allow you to try the books you want to read without you feeling obligated to complete them.

Author and librarian Nancy Pearl writes on her blog about her rule:

People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.

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However, the difference in pages could seem negligible (after three decades, you only get to skip 30 pages!). Instead, just dive in and read the first 50 (or even full hundred) pages of a book. You can clear your backlog by following Pearl’s rule, and be doubly effective by making more time for reading.

If you give up on new books too early, you won’t reap the benefits of exposing yourself to new ideas and perspectives. On the other hand, life is too short to read bad books, books you don’t like, or books that you find repetitive. Don’t force yourself to read the whole thing—if it isn’t working for you after 50 pages, finishing it probably won’t make it much better.

“Rule of Fifty” | Nancy Pearl’s blog

Photo by Pedro Ribeiro Simões.

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DISCUSSION

I make myself read to page 100 if I'm having a frustrating or disinterested time with a book. There are many books that I found out I loved after page 100 that I would have given up on had I only read to page 50—Life of Pi is a pretty good example.

If I can't find something that is intriguing to me by page 100, then I'm not going to force myself to finish it.

I did, however, give up on a Clive Cussler book on page 28, though. The main character had slapped a woman he just met moments before because she was grieving her dead husband. He then said she was too pretty to be sad and then forcibly kissed her. My eyes were rolling into my head so severely that I couldn't bring them back down to read the rest of the paragraph.
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