only martyrs finish all their books

(and why you don't have to be one)

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Recently, in a post about some of my favorite reads of 2024, I told readers that I don’t finish all the books I start.

As a I reminder, I read about 100 books a year, which sees me starting around 125 or so and not finishing a number of them. I’m a big quitter of books I don’t like, mostly because I’m not a sadomasochist, but also because I have other shit to consume, like television.

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

It didn’t used to be this way.

In the before times, I finished all my books.

The middling ones, the triggering ones, the third-in-a-series-when-the-second-was-already-enough-of-a-downgrade ones, the blatantly awful ones. But then I opened the door a crack, and I began to put down some of the biggest offenders. It felt freeing.

And that worked for awhile.

Then, after mid-life came and chased me down a few years back, I realized I don’t have time. Even for middling.

These days I don’t finish a healthy percentage of my books.

In fact, I “read” about 100 books a year, but the reality is that, as of this year, it looks like it’s gonna take me starting 130+ to get there.

This year, I’ve put down more books than any other year.

And I’ve also read some of my very favorite books.

In the last two months since my last books roundup, I’ve done some great reading, and I’m proud of it. Great reading, I’ve now decided, runs directly proportional to quitting books you don’t like, even if your friend loved it, your friend wrote it, or the ending “makes it worth it”. ¹

But putting that bad book down takes a certain oomph.

If you don’t know how to quit a book, I am here to tell you.

First, some questions.

1. Did you pay for the book?

If you paid for the book, as opposed to getting it in a pile or free things on the sidewalk, or checking it out at a library, you will feel like you have to finish the book. You do not.

2. Did your friend write the book?

As I reference above, this can be tough. I have the answer. Just tell them you finished it! Add an errant smile. The end.

3. Is this the second or, gasp, third time you are trying to finish the book? Did you recently check it out again (after yet another hold) and find your Kindle open squarely to where you last left it, at, say, a startling 48%?

This one resonates with me. It’s hard when, by all known markers, you should like a book — it is about Greenland, say, and about a book-lover, perhaps, and it is also about swimming; it is actually about a swimming book-lover in Greenland!

And yet. You don’t.

And then, to top off the horror of not liking what you should be liking, you’re dragged along by the gamification of it all.

48%! Just hours away!

4. Is this for a book club?

I feel for you. I do. I am not a part of these things. See #2. Call in sick?

5. You paid a lot of money for the book.

If you do not buy a lot of hardback books, it will be hard for you to stop reading something you spent $28 on. I get it. I do. (Or at least, I used to.)

This is what you must remember:

You have done your duty. You have supported an author.

(And the scaffolding that supported them! The publishing house, the literary agent, the external public relations team to support the internal public relations team, the freelance social media manager hired out of middle school, the candle company chosen for the sweet-smelling vanilla swear word candles that were sent to the influencers, the sparkly shredded paper company that provided the perfect padding for the sweet-smelling vanilla swear word candles.)

This is not your burden to carry anymore.

Put down the book.

1. (As an aside, I find that whenever someone says the ending will “make it worth it”, it really means that that particular someone had no business getting anywhere near the nether parts of the book in the first place, and instead should have chucked it in before the whole dragging middle, with or without the mildly shocking thing the novelist knew to throw in at or about the 20% mark.)