Toss that boring book
At last, I now have permission to stop slogging my way through boring books.
This, from a trusted authority — Seattle writer and librarian Nancy Pearl — makes me feel much better:
Rule of Fifty
People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books.
If you’re 50 years of age or younger, give a book 50 pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over 50, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit. Since that number gets smaller and smaller as we get older and older, our big reward is that when we turn 100, we can judge a book by its cover!
Get more 'Pearlisms' from Book Lust, the blog by Nancy Pearl, a librarian hailed as a "rock star among readers" who has an action figure modeled in her likeness (Now that's a power reader!).
Monday, July 26, 2010 at 7:55PM
Reader Comments (4)
i love the rule of fifty. but i've been on a 5- or 10-page rule for some time now, which means (let's do the math) i'm 90 or 95 years old. that explains *a lot*!!
So, 5 to 10 pages is the new 50! I can get behind that. After all, we are living in a Twitter world of quick response.
Better the Rule of Fifty than the Twitter Rule that I've been recently using. Fifty pages would feel luxurious compared to my current method where if something doesn't grab me within 140 characters, I'm off to the next.
I know what you mean. I'm on page 28 of "Tinkers" (winner of this year's Pultizer) and wondering why I am not yet feeling attached.
Facebook and age seemed to have reduced my tolerance for slow unfoldings.