A few days ago I wrote about my stack of unfinished books, attributing my inability to completing them to “Reader’s Block.” Then I became inspired, maybe because I called myself out in public.
What I mean by ‘inspired’ is that since then I’ve finished one novel and one non-fiction book. It feels good. I also think I’ve realized a way to get through the other unfinished works too. The trick is to skim.
To date, I’ve always read every single word in a book, even when I found each tedious. I felt I owed it to the author, because I would want a reader to do the same for my work. So what if it bogged me down and made the reading feel obligatory.
But, in the two books I finished, I tried skimming over the paragraphs I wasn’t interested in. I didn’t try to analyze every sentence for its dynamics or how it fit into the whole. Instead I gave myself permission to read the parts of the book I wanted and forego the rest. And it worked.
I don’t feel I lost any of the essentials of either book. I understood the story behind the novel and I learned much from the non-fiction. So maybe because I write, and have written for a living, I place too much value on the words, the sentences, the structure. Perhaps instead I need to approach my pleasure reading as a novice would. Just looking for the good parts and ignoring the rest.
I plan to implement this approach with the other books that are unfinished on my bookcase. I hope it will offer a good sampling of how to get more fun from pleasure reading in the future. And, with this, the corollary is that I don’t expect my readers to pour over every word as if each were golden.
Essentially, I just need to chill out when it comes to reading.
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