 I'm going to talk for a minute today about the idea of putting down a book that you're not enjoying. For a lot of people that seems to be a really unimaginable idea, which is surprising to me. I've mentioned it a couple of times in the course of my videos over the last two years, and each time I've had people tell me that it was an amazing thing for them to hear, that it was a shocking thing for them to hear, and that it was actually a relief. They felt a sense of relief and a sense of release, just hearing somebody say, you can stop reading a book. This is not a new idea, and it's not really a radical idea, but for some reason, for a lot of book readers, there's a sense of obligation to finish a book, there's a sense of duty almost to read a book, and there's a sense of guilt associated with not finishing a book, even when you're really not enjoying it. There's a feeling that a dedicated reader has to suffer through a bad reading experience, and I don't know why. The Polish author Stanislaw Slem, now I pronounce his name Stanislaw when I mentioned him in the past, and I've heard everyone else pronounce it that way, and just recently, while I was listening to a biology lecture of all things, I heard the lecturer pronounce his name Stanislaw, and I was like, of course, it's pronounced Stanislaw. It's a Polish name, Stanislaw Slem. Anyway, he said, I don't know what the exact quote is, but he said something about putting down a book when you're not enjoying it, you're not obligated to finish it, you're supposed to be enjoying it, but if you're not enjoying it, just put down the book and forget about it. Somehow his name became attached to the idea of quitting a book, and some people call it lemming a book because of that. I first heard that idea from Marie Sendak, the children's book author. The guy who wrote Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen and Really Rosie. I may have to do a special about him someday, he was a genius. Back in the early 90s, I saw a PBS documentary about him. It was called Marie Sendak and All his Wild Things. I made the video on VHS, I've had it for all these decades, but of course right now I can't find it. Anyway, he was talking about the art of writing books for children and he pointed out that when you're writing for children, you have to keep them entertained on every page. It's vitally important that you keep them entertained on every page, every line of the book because an adult, the way he put it was, an adult will finish reading a book out of a sense of obligation. But a child who is not enjoying a book will drop it on the floor. They'll just drop it and walk away from it and say, I don't like that book and they won't think about it again, ever. And I remember thinking to myself when I heard that, that that's the attitude that I'm going to have. It's the attitude that all of us should have. We should have that childlike attitude that we don't have any obligation to finish a book or a movie or a TV show or anything for that matter that we're not enjoying. Because the whole point of reading a book or seeing a movie or watching a TV show is to enjoy it. And if the creators, if the author of this book is not entertaining us, we don't have any obligation to the author. We don't have any obligation to the characters in the book. They're not real. They're just letters on paper. We don't have any obligation to ourselves to find out what happens. Because to this point, keep this in mind, when you're reading a book and you're not being entertained or really not enjoying it, keep in mind that the rest of the book is going to be the same. It's not going to get better. The rest of the book was written by the same author who is not entertaining you up to this point. It's not going to get better. There's been a number of times throughout the course of all these reviews that I've done when I reviewed a book that I haven't finished. And I've told you why I haven't finished it. I've had visitors thank me for doing that very thing. And again, like I said before, I've had visitors thank me just for introducing them to the idea of deliberately putting down a book and not finishing it. It's not me saying it to you or to anyone else that's important. It's the idea of anyone saying it. Apparently, this is not something that people have thought of before. It's not something that they've heard before. Repeat it. When you've heard it from me, I've heard it from someone else. Repeat it. Tell it to people. You don't have to finish a book. Isn't it amazing that someone has to say that? The misery that we create for ourselves, the boxes that we put ourselves in, it's entirely self-inflicted. It's entirely self-appointed. And we can switch it off. You can just turn it off. There are so many other books for you to read. If you're not enjoying a book, you're wasting your time. Really. And there are plenty of other books for you to read, books that are waiting for you to enjoy them, and other things for you to do as well besides reading. Go do those. Don't waste time on something that you're not enjoying when the whole point of the thing is for you to enjoy it. Even someone like myself who's reviewing books and has some sort of obligation to know what he's talking about, even I won't finish a book that I'm really not enjoying. There's a book I'm reading right now that is one of the most unpleasant things I've ever read. It's an excellent book, though. The reason I'm having so much trouble with it is not because it's a bad book, but the subject matter is really upsetting. I want to finish it because it's an excellent book. So this is a different situation. A book that's unpleasant is not the same thing as a book that's bad. The same thing with movies. So that's it for now. If you've got a book you're reading right now, I hope you're enjoying it. If you're not, put it down and don't go back to it. Okay, see you later.