I read a really good book recently called Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley. It’s a young adult novel about a teenager who has a white father and an Indigenous mother. It came from a recommendation as I searched for some more multicultural books, especially those about the Native American population in the Midwest. The book was charming and had good, realistic character development. I’ll be adding it to my classroom library next year.
I just finished a different book called My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson. It was…fine. It had a similar theme, but was based on experiences of the Eskimo population in Alaska in the 1960s. Again, I was looking for more good books for my classroom. I’m undecided if I’ll add this one. It felt disjointed at times, leaping in narrative voice from one character to the next. I almost quit reading it about fifty pages in, but kept going.
Quitting a book feels wrong. Someone put a lot of time and effort into writing this novel, and I don’t like giving up. There are people who really enjoy the book or it wouldn’t have been published.
But I saw something a few years ago that I’ll paraphrase here: Life is too short to spend time finishing a book I don’t like when there are plenty out there to read that I will like. I’d like to read as many of those as possible. In other words, if you don’t like a book, close it and move on to the next book.
But what if it’s about to turn around and become really good? Maybe it just starts slowly. How long should one give a book before stopping?
I recall reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. The first half, quite literally, took a long time to unwind. The second half of the book was a non-stop roller coaster of action. I was glad I had stuck with it, and it was very rewarding to finish it and read the rest of the books about Lisbeth Salander. If I had stopped, as I was tempted to do multiple times, I never would have had that enjoyment.
But I would have found something else I liked. You can go stretches of time where everything you read is fantastic, and other times you wonder if you’ll ever read anything worthwhile again.
I’ve had a few books lately, both the ones I read and the ones I listen to, that have been very average. I listened to A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham since it had great reviews. It was a disturbing mystery about some missing girls, and early on it seemed like I had pegged how it was going to turn out. The story seemed very stereotypical, and only the desire to know for sure what had happened kept me listening. There was a twist at the end, but it felt like a twist just to say things weren’t what you expected.
I tried a different audiobook called Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. A friend had recommended it on her Facebook page, and it had been seconded by many others. It was tagged as a fantasy story with a dash of romance thrown in. I really enjoy fantasy books, and I figured I could tolerate some romance.
I listened for about four of the twenty-one hours and called it quits. I tried really hard to like it, but maybe I’ve just read too many books with dragons and trying to bond with them and being part of a school that trains you to defend your country using magic and dragons. This was following all the old tropes of that type of story. Maybe, like the previous one, things would have changed, but I wasn’t ready to commit to more of something I wasn’t enjoying. Plus, I knew it ended on a cliffhanger, leading to another tome.
When is it okay to say no more? That’s a tough question. When a student asks if they can switch books, I always ask how far they have read. If it’s less than twenty pages, have you really given it a good shot? But I get it. If a teenager isn’t going to like the book, I should let them change in hopes that they will find a good one instead of being petulant about “having” to read.
Michelle rarely gives up on a book; in fact, I can’t remember the last time she said she just couldn’t keep going. She’ll barrel through and get ready for the next book. That’s an admirable quality, and she reads more novels than I do.
If I’m in dire straits, I’ll re-read a book I know is good or listen to the audiobook version of a previously read book. I’m doing that now with The Life We Bury by Minnesota author Allen Eskens.
As much as we try to teach our children to never give up, the reality is that we all do for certain things. Giving up on a book is not the end of the world, as long as you will strive to find a good one right away.
I’m off to try to find the next great book. I’ll be reading one that was featured in this very paper not long ago, The Letters of Lily and Moons, by S.M. Sage. I’m due for a good one!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is peccant, which means sinful or violating a rule, as in, “He almost felt peccant when he closed the book after page forty, never to open it again.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!