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The Rule of 50
One of Nancy's strongest held beliefs is that no one should ever finish a book that they're not enjoying, no matter how popular or well reviewed the book is. To solve that problem, she has developed The Rule of 50, which she explains in Book Lust:
"Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by slogging their way through a book they aren't enjoying but think they ought to read. I live by what I call 'the rule of fifty,' which acknowledges that time is short and the world of books is immense. If you're fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself 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 deciding.
"Sometimes, your mood has a lot to do with whether you'll like a book. "I always leave open the option of going back to a book that I haven't liked (especially if someone I respect has recommended it to me) sometime later. I've begun many books, put them down unfinished, then returned a month or two, or years, later and ended up loving them. This happened with Matthew Kneale's English Passengers, John Crowley's Little, Big, and Andrea Barrett's The Voyage of the Narwhal."
"Believe me, nobody is going to get any points in heaven by slogging their way through a book they aren't enjoying but think they ought to read. I live by what I call 'the rule of fifty,' which acknowledges that time is short and the world of books is immense. If you're fifty years old or younger, give every book about fifty pages before you decide to commit yourself 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 deciding.
"Sometimes, your mood has a lot to do with whether you'll like a book. "I always leave open the option of going back to a book that I haven't liked (especially if someone I respect has recommended it to me) sometime later. I've begun many books, put them down unfinished, then returned a month or two, or years, later and ended up loving them. This happened with Matthew Kneale's English Passengers, John Crowley's Little, Big, and Andrea Barrett's The Voyage of the Narwhal."
- Which books took you a while to get into, but you loved in the end? Add a comment or review.
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Latest page update: made by bookworm
, Jul 31 2006, 3:23 PM EDT
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Keyword tags:
book crush
Book Lust
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| carolinus | we need to talk about kevin and prayer for owen meany | 4 | Jan 5 2008, 5:06 AM EST by RobynRex | ||
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Thread started: Dec 15 2006, 4:28 PM EST
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2 of the hardest books for me to get into and 2 of my most favorites of all time!!
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| jaldous | The Scarlett Letter and Moby Dick | 1 | Nov 13 2007, 11:38 AM EST by llibrariann | ||
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Thread started: May 16 2007, 4:59 PM EDT
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Both I had to read in a college American Lit class. The first time I took the class I didn't enjoy them. I went back to school a few years later and had to take the same class. I loved them both! Maybe it was the way the professor introduced them.
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| bookworm331 | The Red Tent | 1 | Nov 3 2007, 8:08 PM EDT by bookgeek1 | ||
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Thread started: Oct 10 2007, 2:42 PM EDT
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A good friend of mine gave me The Red Tent to read a few years ago. I tried reading it and could not get into it. Not long ago my oldest daughter suggested I read this book because she loved it. Well I tried it and could not put it down. It is in my top 10 all time favorite books. If you haven't read it, do so now. You are really missing out on a great book.
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