that are of a literary background...i've got a question for you.
now most of you know i'm not a big novel guy. i'd rather 'curl' up with kant, carnap, russell, popper, etc. novels are very novel to me (like that?). i do have some that i'd like to read...a small stack by my bed, but they are not my main source of reading. so my question is this...
what to do if you are more than half way through a novel, and really don't care for it? is it o.k. to not finish it, and who cares? or should you at least finish it, like a bad movie that you've started? what is the etiquette for such a thing?
thanks...
amitabha...
9.12.08
for those of you...
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3 comments:
Absolutely don't finish it! There are two rules of reading I go by--never apologize for what you read and never finish what you don't like. There are way too many good books out there to waste your time on one you don't enjoy.
thanks joe...i'll put it down, and start something else.
I should have responded to this earlier and I meant to, but as we know, I can be a bit lazy.
Here's the thing, do you ever have trouble reading a philosophical text? What do you do? Do you stop before getting to the end and say it's not worth it or do you continue so that you know what all the faults and flaws are?
Reading as a past time is multi-faceted. It can be simple escapism, diversion, or amusement or it can be a delving into the human condition. All worthwhile fiction illustrates or revels something about the human condition. What any particular novel reveals may have been "done to death" or it may be done in an inept, inelegant, untalented and ham-handed way, but the underlying message is still there. Hell, some novels are simply statements by the writer along the lines of, "hey, look this is a popular trend and I'm jumping on it because I want to making barrels of money." You know the equivalent of starting a rock band to get chicks...
All that said, Joe has a point...but only so far. Sometimes it's just as important to understand why a book, or other work, is bad aside from saying you don't like it. This is generally outside of most people's conception of fun, but I don't think that one can properly criticize unless it's read to the end. But outside of a professional obligation that's hardly necessary in everyday life.
But then you have to remember, I'm the guy listening to Britney Spear's Circus so he can be sure it's bad...
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