by Andrew M Brown, in The Telegraph, May 17th, 2011
Two young women read books in front of a giant book display (Photo: Alamy)
But then, would those commenters have thought more highly of me if I’d trudged through Ransome’s masterworks in their entirety and then said they were boring? I doubt it. I think what they disliked was that I dispraised a treasured author from their childhoods and they felt as if I was insulting them personally. It goes without saying, I did not want to insult anyone. I didn’t want to upset anyone. I wanted to provoke discussion, not insensate rage.
Some of them said I was foolish to comment on something I hadn’t read, but I don’t think that’s fair. I think it is perfectly possible to form a accurate idea of whether a novel is your cup of tea after just a few pages – especially a children’s book.
Life is too short to waste hours or days on reading an unrewarding book. I don’t claim this as a new insight: Harry Mount, my colleague, once wrote a brilliant article saying it. Our reverence for the printed word makes us feel morally bound to carry on right until the end.
Full piece at The Telegraph
2 comments:
Never! When I'm looking at a book to buy I open it at random and read a page. If I don't like the style, it goes back on the shelf no matter how good the review is.
I'll also abandon a book half read - most recently The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks which came from another reader with glowing praise. Fascinating until about halfway through -
Someone very clever told me that if he only accepted books for publication that he actually wanted to read the presses would be idle for most of the year.
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