I know from a teaching perspective that it’s important to teach students that it’s ok to abandon books. You don’t have to love every book that you put your hands on and you don’t have to finish every book that you start.
And I know that it’s important to model what you teach, but I still have a guilt conscience that follows me when I return a book that I haven’t finished. What if the borrower asked me something about the very part that I skipped or didn’t get through? What if?
I know it sounds silly, but my unnecessary stress over abandoning books might just be tied into classroom experiences where books were tested rather than taught. An environment in which characters’ names were to be memorized rather than enjoyed and plot line was to be mapped rather than be surprised by.
Maybe this little reminder that it is ok to say I don’t like a book is an important reminder to analyze the way that I teach reading.