Tough Reads--getting through books you hate

Let's say you're a regular Joe. Joe the Plumber, if you don't mind old political jokes. And you've got this book you received as a gift, or picked up for a long plane ride, or whatever. You sit down to read this tome you have recently acquired...

And discover that you hate it.

Maybe it's the predictable story. Maybe it rips off a well-known myth verbatim. Maybe the characters are ninnies, or the writing is flat, or you just find yourself looking to see what page you're on and how much time has passed. Everyone has come across a book or two that they can't stand in their lifetime.

The difference between casual readers and writers, however, is what is done once this realization has come to pass. A casual reader will simply put down the book and not pick it up again. They may sell it at a garage sale, donate it to a library, take it to a used bookstore, or even recycle it. Either way, they feel no real need to finish the book anyway.

A writer is different. A writer is a little more sensitive to what stories bother them the most and why. They are the ones most likely to be ranting about how they like or dislike a book they are consuming. But the real difference between a casual reader and the writer is that the writer will finish reading the book anyway, no matter how long it takes for them to read it. Or, at least, they should.

A casual reader is the main audience of any author's work, and fights to keep their interest. The writer who reads the book is not likely to put it down because, if it is nonfiction, they plow through to get to the juicy info, even if the author has dried it out to its base components. If it is fiction, the writer will still read it, if only to pick out the reasons why they do not like the story.

It is common advice for a writer to read wildly and from many different genres. This is to make themselves aware of the cliches, mix genres, use ideas from many different places, and to inspire themselves. The main reason, though, is this: a writer has to know what they like and don't like to read. If you don't like to read it, chances are that you will hate to write it, and that will come out to the reader. Even if there are thousands of readers who enjoy, say, religious romance in their fiction, if you hate it and try to tap it anyway, for those thousands, they will know how you feel about it, and dislike your work.

Besides, it is good practice to analyze the books you read to get to the very core of what you like and don't like. That, more than a wide vocabulary or good grammar, will get you farther in your writing career.

Reading books you hate, however, is not easy. I've done it, and am stuck doing it right now. Here are some ways to get yourself through a tough book to read.

• Take breaks. (Hey! I'm doing this one right now!) If you sit and try to plow through a book you despise in a day or two, you'll just find yourself to be miserable. Life's too short for that. Instead, take a break every hour, twenty pages, or chapter, whichever works for you.
• Reward yourself. During your break, take a moment to please yourself. Maybe watch a little TV, surf the Internet, get a snack, or call a friend. Renew your spirit before you head back to that book that's driving you mad.
• Isolate yourself with it. That casual reader on the plane with the bad book will likely put it down every once in a while to stare out the window, but without any other entertainment, the book will probably get read anyway. Take the book with you when you pick up your take-out, when you have to go to the DMV, or any other time you feel like you'll have to wait a long enough time to get bored enough to read even if the writing is bad.
• Read it on the toilet. You'll visit the toilet at least a few times a day. Take these times to read a chapter or two. I'm not kidding. Just make sure not to touch the book in the time between wiping and washing your hands.
• Take notes. During your little break, take notes on what you hate and why you hate it. These notes will prove valuable when you sit down to write your own material. You'll know exactly what not to do. At the very least, you'll remember why you hate it when you complain to your loved ones about that author.

Still think it would just be easier to put the book down and forget about it? Sure. Okay. Fine. But first, write down why you hate it, please. This will be the most important information you can take from however little of the book you ingested. Then, read the rest of it, just to see if there are any other reasons why you hate it. Read sections that make you sick out loud to your loved ones. Then, remember: this guy got published, and you know you can write twenty times better than him.