Last year when I was blasting through books at a great speed, I tended to finish a book whether or not I was enjoying it. The point was being able to finish books. By the end of the year I was pretty tired of this and vowed that when the new year dawned, I would put down books if I wasn’t enjoying them.
I didn’t think On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry would be the first casualty of this. After all, it was nominated for prizes. Sebastian Barry is supposed to be a great writer. However, after three days of picking up the book without being able to remember the main character, the plot or what was happening in the last section I read, I got tired of forcing myself to read just a little more. I was not enjoying the book and it didn’t seem to be improving.
This is not to say On Canaan’s Side is a bad book. I just didn’t take to it and didn’t fancy forcing myself through a couple of pages a night for the foreseeable future to finish it. I gave up after 40 pages, which should give a pretty good idea if I would enjoy it.
I’m sure there will be more books tossed aside during the year. I’m also having trouble with my current non-fiction read. Even good books don’t always appeal to everyone!
