Readers are curious people, often with wild imaginations. The writer creates a world on the pages and the reader conjures it up in their mind. It is up to the reader to engage, see it, and understand it. Readers tend to be patient people.
How often does it take to be “all-in” on a book? A few chapters? Will you stick it out continuing to wait to see what happens? Or do you give up and start something else? When I owned my bookstore and was inundated with books and advanced readers’ copies, I couldn’t possibly read all the books I was sent. So, I decided on a three-chapter rule; if I wasn’t all-in by the third chapter, I’d give myself permission to put the book down without guilt. Sometimes, I’d go back to it later and try again, but not often.
Forcing Yourself to Finish a Book
The exception to that rule is only if it was championed by one of my publishing reps. A secret to owning a bookstore is to really get to know your publishing reps and for them to get to know you and your client base. Over the course of years, I forged good working relationships with so many of them. If they told me to stick with a book, I’d listen to them and 99 percent of the time, they were right. Like a customer learns to trust a bookseller, so I learned to trust many of my publishing reps.
A Little Life
One of the more surprising books I remember finding this out about was A Little Life. I was about a third of the way in and struggling with it and my rep told me to stick with it, that she knew I would love it. I hemmed and hawed and then agreed to read a few more chapters. I can still remember sitting down to read that book, tears streaming down my face, overcome with emotion and despair. I was surprised to be so engulfed in a story relating to the topic of male friendship and deep human suffering and trauma. I had never read anything by the author, Hanya Yanagihara, before and haven’t since.
A Little Life took over all the must-read lists when it came out. It was critically acclaimed and was on the shortlist for the Mann Booker Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. It is still one of the most interesting and emotionally heavy books I have ever read, and although I no longer remember all the details of the story, I remember feeling haunted by it for weeks afterward.
Some readers just want to be entertained by what they read, while others want to be transformed—they want something deeper and life-affirming. There’s a book for every reader, and a bookseller’s job is to ask the right questions to get a sense of what kind of reader they’re talking to and to recommend books. Two of the first questions I’d ask a customer when they sought book recommendations in my store were: What was the last book you read that you completely fell in love with and who are some of your favorite authors?
Most of the time, they’d answer in a heartbeat, and just from that, I could make a suggestion. They’d go into some of their favorite books and then mention one or two they couldn’t get into. They would tell me a genre they were particularly fond of or a time period or setting, a romance or mystery. A lot of customers just want to browse. That was the type of customer I was. I needed to make my way around the whole store completely open to whatever book caught my eye.
The Goldfinch
Another book I had to be convinced to stick with by my publishing rep was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, an author who is so revered that not many people seem willing to edit her work. Although I was glad that I read the book and loved many parts of it, I found it to be too long and some of the passages were too much like a novel that was being written for a movie audience. (It was later made into a movie that I didn’t see.)
I struggled with it but did finish it as it was again one of those books that was wildly popular and included on all the must-read lists and even won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction that year.
Slowing Down
With so much reading ahead of you, the temptation might be to speed up. But in fact, it’s essential to slow down and read every word. Because one important thing that can be learned by reading slowly is the seemingly obvious but oddly underappreciated fact that language is the medium we use in much the same way a composer uses notes, the way a painter uses paint. I realize it may seem obvious but it’s surprising how easily we lose sight of the fact that words are the raw material out of which literature is crafted.
Francine Prose
I do tend to read slower these days and I notice sometimes how my eye tends to skim over words as that’s what I do on my phone, but when I sit down with a new novel or memoir and I begin this new adventure with the author, I take it all in. I don’t want to feel pressured to finish it; I just want to enjoy the process of reading it. The writing has to be good or the author loses me.
The Reading Life
There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed: it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet. Who would call a day spent reading a good day. But a life spent reading that is a good life.
Annie Dillard
These days, I don’t read as much as I did when I owned my bookstore. I don’t have to read all the must-read books anymore and have an affinity for first-time novelists as I’ve always felt that first novels carry a unique sense of magic to them.
“Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free, so drink. Drink, and be filled up.” Stephen King
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” Anne Lamott
So, the next time you’re in a bookstore, consult your local bookseller. Be open to every new book and don’t feel guilty if you don’t finish a book as there is something else out there that will capture your attention, that draws you in, and envelops you completely. Be patient and yet stay open to the possibility of another world, a new author, or a subject matter you always wanted to know a little more about, something that speaks to your soul and challenges all that you think you already know.
Your reading life, that private time found between a bound book, should be time well spent and food for the mind and the soul. Most importantly, don’t feel bound to finish a book that isn’t lighting something up inside of you. There’s always another book waiting in the wings to lift your spirit and inspire your imagination.
