Halls of the Dark Muse

This is an experience I am sure all of us have dealt with, for some it is a painful struggle and for others it may come more naturally and easily, but almost all of us have been there the moment when we realize the time has come to leave off a book unfinished.

When I was younger I used to be all but incapable of leaving a book unfinished. For there was that part of me that once begun felt like I had to know how it would turn out even if it was becoming less than enjoyable to read, and none of us like that feeling of giving up. In addition to the feeling that if you quit know you really would have wasted all that time you already put into the book.

But as I grew older I began to realize that there were far too many books I want to read to spend my time upon a book which I am gaining no pleasure from.

Reading should be a pleasurable experience and so the moment that it starts to become more of a chore is the moment it is time to seriously consider calling it quits but then of course when it comes to the classics the guilt of giving up on it is doubled because there that part of me that wants to believe that somehow the end of the book will pay off and prove it worth reading, and that it must be a classic for a reason, and perhaps one ought to read it just for the sake of its being a classic, but alas I have reached the point when I feel I must admit defeat and move on.

I have been reading or attempting to read this book Lorna Doone by Blackmore and I have to admit that from the start of it I had found it a bit slow and never really got drawn into the story in addition to the fact that I was less than enthusiastic when I discovered the Romeo and Juliet direction it seemed it was going to take. While there were the occasional moments that I enjoyed and the one character whom I really liked, which had kept me reading for a while, on the whole those brief instances just were not enough for the primarily unenjoyable experience of reading the book. I found it to be honestly quite dull and could not get myself to really pay attention to it, and I was finding it more and more difficult to resume again.

I decided that nothing miraculous was going to happen in the book to make me truly glad I had read it and that even if somehow the ending was spectacular it was not worth the drudgery of trying to get there.

So after having this struggle with myself I finally consented to my defeat and decided it was time that the book an I parted ways, and I have to say that more than anything at the thought that I will no longer have to be burned with resuming my reading of the book I feel relief and thus I think I have made the right choice in this instance.