Should you plod your way through a book you don't like?

by Andrew M Brown, in The Telegraph, May 17th, 2011

Two young women read books in front of a giant book display (Photo: Alamy)

Fans of Arthur Ransome got cross with me earlier today on this blog. I said that as a boy I thought his Swallows and Amazons books were boring. But, I admitted, I hadn’t actually managed to finish the one I tried. So I wasn’t speaking from a position of knowledge.

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