What do you do when you are feeling ho hum about a book you are reading? Finish it anyway? Or do you bail? I have told myself no new books until I finish at least two more. And I am trying hard to stick with it. But after finishing a few books that I really enjoyed I am feeling not overly thrilled with some others. In particular Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel. I am not even 100 pages into it. It is not bad, and I think I will enjoy it once I really get into it. But I never seem to want to pick it up to read. So do I relegate it to the little shelf under my night table where all those other "I'll get back to this later when I am in the mood for it" books live at the moment? I feel like I do that too much (and though I do get back to some of them, well...it may take a long time...). I know it is silly, but I sometimes feel guilty about not finishing books that I start. Of course this may all be a unconscious ploy to start a new book, when I said I wasn't going to start any new books. Irregardless I have already made out a list of books I would choose from--they sit in a pile by my bed and it is hard to ignore them when I am not thrilled about something I am reading... (in no particular order):
- Frenchman's Creek, Daphne DuMaurier (you've already heard me talk about this one)
- The Marriage Bed, Regina McBride (early 20th century, set in Ireland about marriage and family relationships)
- Garner, Kirstin Allio (a Litblog Coop book choice, 1920s New Hampshire, mystery-ish)
- Forest Lover, Susan Vreeland (fictional account of Canadian painter Emily Carr)
- Consider the Lily, Elizabeth Buchan (dark family secrets and gardening set in 20s and 30s England)
- In My Mother's House, Margaret McMullan (1930s Vienna--one of my favorite places--and later after the war, about family and identity)
- Whistle Stop, Maritta Wolff (written in 1941to much acclaim, set in the post-depression midwest)
- Those Who Save Us, Jenna Blum (one reviewer called it a literary historical thriller--another book on the Holocaust)
I could easily add more books to the list, but I better stop there. So, if I bail, then how do I choose what to read next?