Do not let the title of the blog post confuse you – I am over the moon that it is ‘National Read a Book Day’ – however, I have been thinking about not reading books. Do not despair, I am not giving up books; I could never do that. Yet, do we have to finish books that we do not enjoy or say we love a book just because everyone else does?
While contemplating this question, I have decided that life is too short to read books that you do not enjoy. Or telling people you enjoyed a book that, let’s be honest, you didn’t.
Sometimes, it really disappoints me that I have to retire a book to the ‘Did Not Finish’ pile. A recent example of this was ‘The Secret Barrister’. I was so excited to receive it in a recent bookswap and actually give it a go. However, it just was not for me, despite my best efforts. Remember, this does not mean it is not a good book – it just means it was not the book for me. I am sure, for many readers, it was the perfect book.
This is a similar idea to the #blacksheepofbookstagram created by the lovely ‘Silver Linings and Pages’ and her bookstagram account. This is based on the principle that you may not enjoy that book that everyone else in the book world seems to hold in high esteem. My recent experience of that was ‘East Lynne’, a book club read that just was not as fabulous for me as it seemed to be for everyone else. But I have finally accepted that it is okay – after all, the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.
So, as much as ‘National Read a Book Day’ is a perfect day for us bookworms, it is also okay to like what you like and not like what you don’t like!
Happy reading!