/lit/ - Literature

>protect...the...canooonnnnnnn

>Give a book 50 pages. When you get to the bottom of Page 50, ask yourself if you're really liking the book. If you are, of course, then great, keep on reading. But if you're not, then put it down and look for another. (Always keep in mind that there's nothing to stop you from going back to it later, whether that might be in six days or six years. Or 60 years. There is many a book that I couldn't get into the first time, or even two, that I tried to read it, and then, giving it one more chance, totally fell under its spell. The book obviously hadn't changed - but I had.)

>This rule of 50 worked exceedingly well until I entered my own 50s. As I wended my way toward 60, and beyond, I could no longer avoid the realization that, while the reading time remaining in my life was growing shorter, the world of books that I wanted to read was, if anything, growing larger. In a flash of, if I do say so myself, brilliance, I realized that my Rule of 50 was incomplete. It needed an addendum. And here it is: When you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100, and the resulting number (which, of course, gets smaller every year) is the number of pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book. As the saying goes, "Age has its privileges."

Was he right? Is this a good rule for books?

>Anon, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come help me around the house. When you get to be my age you'll find your strength leaves you, and help is needed. Could you please find and bring me my copy of Hart Crane's collected poetry? Strange... I used to be able to recite them all by memory, but lately I seem to be forgetting things easily.

>>13311414
>Anon, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come help me around the house. When you get to be my age you'll find your strength leaves you, and help is needed. Could you please find and bring me my copy of Hart Crane's collected poetry? Strange... I used to be able to recite them all by memory, but lately I seem to be forgetting things easily.

If you read Lord of the Rings instead of Gormenghast, Harold Bloom gets sad. You don't want that, do you?