{"id":5903,"date":"2011-07-11T20:40:53","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T01:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=5903"},"modified":"2011-07-11T20:40:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T01:40:53","slug":"on-kicking-out-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=5903","title":{"rendered":"On Kicking Out of Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a rule. Some may think it a silly rule, but it’s my rule.<\/p>\n

If I’m not hooked by a book by page fifty, I abandon the book. I move on.<\/p>\n

Maybe, if it’s a really long book, I may stretch it out to page 100. Maybe, if it’s a book that comes highly recommended, I’ll give it more of a chance.<\/p>\n

Many books have suffered this fate.<\/p>\n

Dracula<\/i> suffered this fate, though it lost me much further in the first time I read it, about the time that the plot shifted to Whitby.<\/p>\n

A Game of Thrones<\/i> suffered this fate, and it really was about page fifty where I said, “What the hell is this?” and put it down for two years.<\/p>\n

Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander<\/i> was exactly like this, though I think it was page 75 where I kicked out because that was where the first chapter ended.<\/p>\n

In all of these cases, I’ve gone back and restarted the books. And I’ve finished them.<\/p>\n

Not every book I kick out of is so lucky.<\/p>\n

In the mid-90s, many a Star Wars<\/i> and Star Trek<\/i> novel suffered the “page fifty” rule. Especially Star Wars<\/i>. I’ve never felt a compelling need to go back and revisit the unfinished books.<\/p>\n

Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe novels have curiously suffered from the page fifty rule. Some of the novels in the series I’ve never finished, partly because I already know the story by and large thanks to the Sean Bean movies, and so I don’t feel that I’m actually missing<\/i> anything by skipping to the next book in the series.<\/p>\n

Some of Hemingway’s work I’ve never finished. (Across the River and Into the Trees<\/i>, I’m looking at you.)<\/p>\n

Why the “page fifty” rule?<\/p>\n

It’s pretty basic — there’s a lot of books out there, there’s a lot of books out there I want to read or should read, and if the book doesn’t have a hold on me by a reasonable point, chances are it will never<\/i> have a hold on me.<\/p>\n

The prime example of this for me is P.D. James’ The Children of Men<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I struggled with the book<\/a>. I bought the DVD (which, curiously, I have yet to watch), I picked up the book for very<\/i> cheap, and for a week Children of Men<\/i> was my commute reading.<\/p>\n

It was well-written. It was poetic. The world it created was even interesting.<\/p>\n

And I never, ever<\/i> cared.<\/p>\n

When I reached the end of the first half, I put the book down and I never looked back.<\/p>\n

I admit, I do wonder what it is about British society that lends itself to authoritarian\/fascistic republican dystopias like Children of Men<\/i> and V for Vendetta<\/i>, but I’ll ill-equipped to even hazard a guess.<\/p>\n

I never felt compelled<\/i> by the book.<\/p>\n

And, really, that’s the reason<\/i> for the “page fifty” rule. If you’re not hooked, it’s not<\/i> going to get better.<\/p>\n

It’s just not.<\/p>\n

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I have a rule. Some may think it a silly rule, but it’s my rule. If I’m not hooked by a book by page fifty, I abandon the book. I move on. Maybe, if it’s a really long book, I may stretch it out to page 100. Maybe, if it’s a book that comes highlyContinue reading “On Kicking Out of Books”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[4101],"class_list":["post-5903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","tag-reading","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}