“Allowing yourself to stop reading a book – at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end – is a rite of passage in a reader’s life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.”
I know people who tell me that once they start a book, they have to finish it. I don’t feel that way. I have such an enormous stack of books to be read that I couldn’t afford to! Also, why should I? If I have given the author a fair amount of time to engage me, to rouse my interest in these people and to make me want to know more and he or she has failed, why should I stay the course? I think this comes from reading in school where you had to keep going so you could take the test at the end. If I’m not enjoying myself, I won’t keep going.