My friend’s Dad who was a scientist had a funny quirk. He felt that if he started to read a book and even read the first couple of pages that he was then obligated to read it from start to finish. He spent a lot of time buying and reading books and when he was the selector of course this idea worked pretty well. He didn’t pick out any books that he wasn’t sure he wanted to read. I watched him once after his best friend from high school gave him a book for Christmas. It was a popular best seller, almost a romance novel but just slightly better. He was sitting on the couch reading it and complaining about it while he read, about how much he hated it.
I asked him if he hated it so much why he was still reading it and that’s when he told me his rule for himself that if he started a book he had to finish it. I laughed about this but he didn’t really think it was funny since he was right then reading a book he really didn’t want to waste his time on. I didn’t understand why he was so specific about that, but I did understand why a person who was so controlling with themselves about rules like that would want to read reviews of books before starting to read them.
He always read the booklet from his favorite newspaper that contained the books review and he would write down titles that sounded interesting. He spent a lot of time in bookstores too where he browsed and bought the books he wanted to read. Since I first met this man I have met a couple of other people who inflict the same rule on themselves. If you start the book you have to finish it. I have never felt anything remotely like that about reading. I usually read five books at once, I like to reread books I love and if something doesn’t pull me in I will definitely put it down. I still thought that Bob, my friend’s Dad had made a silly rule for himself but I suppose it’s the quirks like that about each person that makes everyone an interesting and full person.