Great Books, Good Books, Bad Books

Kindle book morguefileWhen I really, really love a book, I don’t want to get to the last chapter. And I  want to avoid it so much, I’ll figure out ways to prolong having to read it. Maybe I’ll “need” to bake some cookies. Or sweep for cobwebs. Or clean a toilet.        

Whatever the reason, I do it because the book is so good I don’t want to finish it just yet. Or ever. Because when I reach the end, it’s going to be over – and some stories should just keep going – and going, and going (like that bunny in the battery commercials).

It’s different if it’s part of a series. I still won’t want to finish the current book but know I’ll get to keep reading – when the author finishes the next one.

And then there are books I hate. I used to keep reading them thinking they just got off to a slow start. That they must get better – and will – if I’m patient. After all, they had great covers and I loved the blurbs. But they never did and I’d finish each one sorry I’d wasted my time. Now, if I can’t get into a story by the end of the first chapter (unless I’ve been warned that it takes a couple before it gets good), I just quit.

[bctt tweet=”Life is too short to waste reading something that feels more like a chore than a reward.”]

Good books are something a little less than great but much, much better than the bad. What about the ones that fall somewhere in between good and bad though? The kind where it’s too easy to set the Kindle (or paperback) down – sometimes for days at a time before you pick it up again?

I’m reading one of those now. I kind of want to know how it ends, but maybe not enough to read everything between where I am and the last page. First, it was hard to get past the totally contrived set-up, and then the whole “person A loves person B, but person B (who will eventually wind up with person A) loves person C (even though person C is in love with person D)” is getting kind of annoying. I mean seriously, wouldn’t most women feel like second best if person B took forever to give up on person C before they finally settled for you?

I expect I must (please, God!) be near the end of the story but find myself hoping, with each click for a new page, that the final chapter will open and I’ll finally be finished.

So I’ve found myself making a tough decision – to start putting those in-between books in the category of time wasters, same as the bad ones. I just wish I didn’t feel so guilty doing it.

What about you? Do you read everything you open to the bitter end or do you designate some as time wasters too?

Photo credit: Morguefile.com

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3 Responses to Great Books, Good Books, Bad Books

  1. karenmcfarland says:

    Interesting that you brought this up. In fact, I am thinking of blogging about this. I had a hard time this week getting in a new book. I won’t say who it was, but she’s a NYTBS author. I do like her writing. But this book took me a while to get into it. I wasn’t connecting with the characters like a normally do. Because it was “this author”, I hung in there and I finally did get absorbed into the story. Then it happened. I hate when this happens. Let’s just say I saw it coming and I wasn’t happy because I knew at that moment, two thirds in, after I had read three hundred pages of this story, it was not going to be a HEA. Well, I know not all stories will have a HEA. But not after I had worked to get into the story and invested myself into these characters. I was so mad Kristy. Boy, did she get me good. 🙂

  2. VK2TWR says:

    Kristy couldn’t Not agree with you more my exact feeling just reading Wilbur Smiths latest book Golden Lion and find myself going off to distract myself from finishing wanting to savor the last morsel

    • Kristy K. James says:

      I haven’t heard of that one, but there are so many I just don’t want to finish – only because they’re so good! I’ll read every spare second I can find – until that last chapter, then I hit the brakes. Hard, lol.

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