KristyWes

I Quit You

The Puck Building, SoHo

Confession: my Reading List Resolution has not been going so well. Six months into the year, and I've only completed 2.25 books.

I’m usually a much better reader than this. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I don’t like being told what to do or read (even if it’s myself doing the telling) and that I just haven’t loved the books I’ve assigned myself.

Take the Cannoli was interesting, but not exactly a page-turner. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years got really good towards the end, but the first half was slow-going. And A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court…well, it’s killing me.

I want to like it. I want to enjoy it. But after several attempts to plow through, I have to admit that I find it boring. I want to love everything about Mark Twain, but this novel…I…just…can’t.

So I think I’m going to be a quitter. I’m going to return it to the library, unfinished. Normally I suffer through a book, just to say to be able to say, "I finished it."  BUT.  Life is too short to read books I don’t wanna read, am I right?

I think I’m right.

So I’m quitting my reading list. I feel liberated! I’m going to read whatever I want to read – this week’s New Yorker, or maybe “Harry Potter” again (never made it past book 4, and I have some friends who seem personally offended by this), or whatever else I choose. I may still read some of the books on my initial list. It’s been way too long since I spent time with Graham Greene and Rex Stout, so I’ll probably hit them up for a visit.

And while I’m feeling slightly more charitable towards Mr. William Faulkner - my old nemesis - after reading this article about his tenure at UVA, I’m not quite sure if I’ll be spending time with him before the year is out. We’ll just have to play that one by ear, eh Billy?

Basically, I just want to get lost in a book.  You know?  I haven't enjoyed feeling this task-y and to-do-list-y about my reading.

So I quit!  And now I'm gonna get lost.  Failure never felt so good. :)