Twenty Pages

I used to give every book 100 pages before I gave up on it, but no longer. This morning marked a new low for me giving up a book. As the title suggests, that mark was 20 pages. The book is Justine, the first of the Alexander Quartet series By Lawrence Durrell. There's a quote in the inside cover by Gore Vidal lauding this book, which left me a little more eager to read it, but not much. People's quotes rarely get me excited about a book. I'm much more likely to be swayed by shiny covers and sexy pictures. I also pick up shiny objects and put them in my mouth.

I gave up because the 4 books constitute 1000 total pages and I don't have this much time of my life to waste on a book (or series of books) that do not interest me. Being on the train every day, I have copious amounts of time to read. One might think that I'd have all sorts of patience to deal with books that might not hit the mark in an effort to expand my horizons. On the contrary, I find that I have less patience for books that don't instantly resonante with me at some level. I think this may be a combination of 2 things. One is that I am forced to read 2-3 hours a day, so I don't want to waste this forced-me-time. The second is due to the fact that I read so much, it's easier for me to identify books I have no patience for. This combination is good enough for my tastes. So out it goes.