Time Well Spent

There have been a number of books I have disliked, a few I have actually been profoundly irritated by – a ‘sequel’ to A Christmas Carol comes immediately to mind – and some that I ploughed through in case I ended up liking it but didn’t. However, I have not at any time regretted reading a book. I don’t see why you would.

Reading a book, even one you don’t like, is always time well spent if only to mark your card for particular authors you won’t read again. There have been a few books I have thoroughly disliked but I have read other books in that style or even by that author and really enjoyed them. The bad sequels have sent me back to the original books with new appreciation for their excellence. The genres that I haven’t liked have become clear and I have avoided them afterwards. In every book, even the least appreciated, there is something to be gained. It might be a sentence that is particularly good, an image that sticks in your mind or even a character whose physical description you enjoy.

So, while there are plenty of books that are not for me, I can never regret reading a single one of them. In a country where 40% of people never read a book I am already immeasurably richer in my own life even reading a bad book. Not reading a book at all would be the real regret.