Friends of Nancy P.

There are just those times when the book you're reading isn't doing it for you. But some of us have trouble putting it down and moving on.

For those times, Nancy Pearl suggested her Rule of 50:

If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit. Since that number gets smaller and smaller as we get older and older, our big reward is that when we turn 100, we can judge a book by its cover!

You don't have to agree with the specifics, but don't be afraid to set that book aside and move on to something better.

And then talk about it here!

This is our space to chat about the book failures in our lives. Tell us why you didn't like the book everyone else seems to love. Tell us why you didn't finish the novel that looked so promising at first. Tell us why you couldn't stand the writing. Or the plot. Or the characters.

And get some (metaphorical) tea and sympathy if that's what you need.

Fire away!