Book guilt

[BabCNesbitt]

I loved Ben Lerner's first book, Leaving The Atocha Station, so I requested his new one, 10:04, from the library, waited MONTHS to get it, and now I finally have it... I can't be arsed reading it. I'm only in the mood for fairly lightweight stuff right now. And I'm beating myself up a bit for abandoning it.

Anyone have any tips for getting over book guilt and cheerfully tossing books aside?

Bumping. Realise my guilt may have been made worse by meeting up yesterday with uni friends who are now all academics and I'm feeling a bit dim in comparison

Take it back tomorrow and forget about it? :o

Or, what about reading a couple of chapters a day, and then reading something lighter at bedtime? I often have two or three books on the go at the same time, depending on how I feel at the time.

I do borrow books from the library and take them back, unread, if I change my mind. It hasn't cost me anything and I don't feel guilty about doing so.

But I feel differently if I've bought a book and haven't liked it, or then decided I didn't want to read it. Certain amount of guilt where I see unread (owned) books sitting on my bookshelves

I did this two weeks ago. Waited literally years (about ten,I think) for the new Mary Lawson novel. I so loved Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge. Couldn't wait to read Road Ends, but a few chapters in, I found it so relentlessly depressing, I abandoned it and flicked to the last chapter. Sometimes life's just too short....