By
lemon, I don’t mean lemonade although that would be nice. Rather, I mean a book
that isn’t right for you. This book may be fine for others, it may even be fine
for you at a later point in your life, but right now you need something else to
read. That’s what I mean by lemon.
The
first time I read Pride and Prejudice I hated it! Reading it took me
forever. I only finished it through a power of will and because I hate leaving
a book unfinished more than I hated the book. That was my first experience. But
then in college I had to read it again and I had seen the movie so I was more
familiar with the story and characters. My second experience was completely
different, but I still don’t LOVE Pride and Prejudice because of my
first bad experience. If I had realized it is okay to leave some books
unfinished and perhaps wait to return to them until a later date, this could
have been different. To save you this anguish, here’s how to realize you are
reading a lemon:
1.
If you find
yourself zoning out rather than reading
When
you zone and your eyes glaze over, sometimes this can be because you are tired.
Other times it’s because you really aren’t being engaged by the book. If your
own imagination becomes more interesting than the book you are reading, it’s
probably because this book just isn’t for you or isn’t for you right now.
2.
If you find
any and every reason to put that book down
I’ll
clean my room. Take the trash out. Play a game. Watch a movie. Anything to
avoid the one book you think you should read. If the book is good, all those
things can wait. Seriously, who would rather clean their room than read a book?
Answer: Someone who doesn’t like the book or books they have to read.
3.
If you can
stop at the end of a chapter and not remember to return
Sometimes
I’ll do this thing where I’ll read the first page of a book, put it down and
walk away for a week. If I still remember what the book is about and want to
know what happens, then that is the book for me. But if I’m reading a book and
I put it down and only remember it when I stub my toe on it, that means this
book is not for me.
4.
If you
really notice the page numbers
When
you read a book you can notice that there are page numbers and remember which
page you are on, but when you start thinking, I’m on page 47 with 282 pages
to go, that is not good. You’re not going to want to read because it is
taking foreverrrrrr.
5.
If you
start to hate reading
You
may LOVE to read. I do too! However, I don’t love everything I read. There is a
difference between loving to read and disliking a specific book. But knowing
you love to read means it is sometimes difficult to realize there are still
things you hating reading. You can do something you love so many times that you
start to go through the motions and if you are keep reading something that deep
down you hate you will wake up one morning and realize there is a part of you
that hates reading.
So
what do you do once you realize you are reading a lemon? Come back next week
and find out!
-Christina J. Adams
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