Does the first half of
today’s subject heading ring a bell? My nephews had the book, Give a Mouse a Cookie, or I might not have caught
the reference in a movie David and I watched not long ago. He didn’t catch it.
(I had to explain.) I don’t remember the movie or even if it was any good, but
I was intrigued that the theme of a children’s book from the 1980s would be
deemed a well-known cultural reference for film-goers. Obviously, the movie
must have been aimed at 20-somethings.
This morning I was also
wondering how much of a chance other people give books before deciding they don’t
want to read further. Does a book have to grab you on the very first page? Some
do that, others don’t. I enjoy being hooked at the start but am willing to give
a book more of a chance than that. One of my favorite novels, The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by
Michael Chabon, started off slowly, with a lot of expository background. Toni
Morrison’s Beloved was one that
confused me for many pages before I found my way into it. Both of those books
were enormously worth reading! If I’d stopped at the first page, how much I
would have missed!
Someone told me once about
the “Rule of 50,” which I’ve never forgotten. This rule owes its existence to
Nancy Pearl. Here’s how it works: Until you are 50 years old, you should read
at least 50 pages of a book before deciding against going on. After age 50, you
are allowed to subtract one page per year from the required minimum, so that at
age 51 you only need to read 49 pages before quitting, etc. At the age of 100
you need only glance at the cover and are then allowed to say, “No, thanks, not
for me.” Yes, I can see that centenarians have earned the right of dismissal.
As for how many pages the
Rule of 50 mandates for me this year, NOYB! How many pages I actually read before setting aside varies with the book,
anyway. With a nonfiction book, I may jump around and try other chapters. Only
very, very rarely—almost never!—do
I skip to the end. Do you ever read the end of a book first? A few people have
told me they do that, and I can’t imagine it as a regular practice. If we could
fast-forward through life, and then hit ‘reverse,’ would you?
3 comments:
I tried Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead" two or three times, not able to get more than two or three pages into it. I won't try again, and this makes me reluctant to try "Atlas Shrugged".
Rand makes a big impression if read in one's late teens or early twenties. After that reality gets in the way.
THE CRYING OF LOT 49, by Pynchon, and Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN were a couple I had to try several times before going forward. Finally gave up on Kerouac's ON THE ROAD: boring, boring, boring!
The only thing I have to say in Rand's defense is that her views are relatively harmless. I compare her to the other writer whose simplistic ideas make a huge impression on people in a similar age group. Perhaps a hundred million have been executed in the name of Marx, with mamy millions more rapes and other violent crimes. Not many harmed in the name of Rand.
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