Fri 14 Aug 2020
— Attributed to SF author Clifford D. Simak:
“And when you get around to those unreadable stories, you must not lose sight of the fact that whether a story is readable or unreadable depends entirely upon the person reading it. This is an extremely nebulous area in which to make a judgment. I will mention no names or titles, for I should be ashamed to, but I must confess that for me there are certain stories that are unreadable. The horrible thing about this is that some of them have been critically acclaimed as masterpieces. No doubt they are, but I still can’t read them. And yet, I consider that it would be impudent and perhaps even a little stupid of me to go about proclaiming them as unreadable.”
August 14th, 2020 at 4:06 pm
If it is a bore, just put it down and the hell with it; no justification required.
August 14th, 2020 at 4:26 pm
I have no idea why I felt that way, but up until maybe my 30s or 40s, I was under the impression that once I started a book, I was under an obligation to finish it.
I read a lot of really uninspired books that way, many of them recommended by other people.
I don’t think it happened over night, but the dawn finally broke.