Why Read A Book?

	Buy 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel' by Jane Smiley.
Check disclaimer or links or archive of books read or best books read.	log of books read the Booker Prizes. Mental Health of George W. Bush

Why start reading a book?
Why stop reading a book?
Why not start reading a book?

See also the pages on the project to write a 50,000-word novel in November - National Novel Writing Month:

• 10 steps to prepare for writing a NaNoWriMo novel.
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley.
• Background on the write-a-novel-in-a-month international race.
• NaNoWriMo 2005 lessons learned.
• Plan A.
• Status day-by-day.
• Weekly tips and exercises from Chris Baty's book.
• Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
• Edward Abbey's Black Sun: his novel-in-a-month.
• Novel writing: comparative work rates.
• The Weekend Novelist.

Why start reading a book?

1. You've loved (or at least appreciated) some other book by the author of the book in your hand. e.g. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro or Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood or The Body Artist by Don DeLillo or anything by Terry Pratchett.

2. It's a book by recommended or admired by one of your favorite authors.

3. It's recommended by someone (perhaps a friend, perhaps a professional critic) in a way that makes it sound as if it would be worthwhile for you to read.

4. It's on a topic or in a style or genre of immense interest to you. [Sometimes the interest does not actually have to be immense. We are indebted to social critic Robert Holbrook, Esq., for bringing this to our attention.]

5. For its craft: for example, you want to see how they develop tragedy or humor or how the author reworked a known story (like John Steinbeck with biblical stories).

Why stop reading any book?

The book is:

1. Boring.
   However, social critic Robert Holbrook, Esq., finds us a little harsh in this area and comments: "A wrinkle on boring. More than once I have put down a book by Dostoevsky for being boring. And on these occasions, when I came back to the book, I found that the plot shot forward on the next page. The point is that when you're reading a classic, you can have a bit more faith that the current boring patch will not be sustained."

2. Badly written.
   However, we acknowledge that in the heat of irritation, we sometimes apply this term to a book that is not badly written by current conventions, but whose style simply does not suit us. We are indebted to social critic Robert Holbrook, Esq., for bringing this to our attention.

3. Pretentious.

4. Clichéd.

5. Another book has captivated you.
   This point was raised by social critic Robert Holbrook, Esq. And he is right! I, for example, have currently 92 abandoned-but-eventually-to-be-finished-I-hope books on my 'incomplete' shelf.

6. Did I mention boring?

Why never to start spending your precious time reading some book:

1. Someone tells you that you should read this book. Especially if their reason is religious or political.

2. The enthusiast is unable to tell why they like the book.

3. The enthusiast is unable to tell why you might like the book.

Books on Buddhism. Books on Learning Spanish. Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own. Forests of California and Trees of the World.

Copyright © 2005-2016 by J. Zimmerman. Disclaimer