Life is too short for bad books

I don't think you should finish a bad book.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't start bad books — there's no way to avoid that. But once you realize a book isn't working for you, put it down. Life is too short to struggle through something you're not enjoying.

The problem with finishing everything

When I started reading regularly in 2020, I wanted to track the books I'd read. I used a simple one-to-five star scale and would rate each book when I finished it, jotting down a few paragraphs about how I felt.

Over those first couple years, I rated a few books two stars for various reasons.

I should have never finished those books. I spent weeks on some of them and enjoyed almost none of that process.

A scale that starts at 3.0

That realization led to a change in how I rate books. I revised my rating system so that I cannot rate anything lower than three stars. This simple change unlocked a few things for me.

No more wasted time

If a book can't be rated lower than 3.0, then I can't finish a book that's less than 3.0. This forces me to recognize one-star and two-star books early in the process and walk away from them.

There are more books available today that I would enjoy than I could ever finish in a lifetime. So there is no reason for me to spend time on something that I am not enjoying.

That doesn't mean avoiding books that are hard to get through. I'm in the middle of one right now that I've been reading for over a month because it's dense and not fast-paced. But I'm enjoying it. I think it's really good. That's different from forcing myself through something I actively don't like.

Three stars is clearly defined

Three stars becomes the worst book that's worth finishing. It's not great, but it was worth my time. That's a meaningful distinction.

The crucial half-stars

The other thing this change did was add 3.5 and 4.5 to my scale. This matters more than you might think, especially toward the top.

Previously, four stars was a massive category. It was everything between worst book worth finishing and best of the best. That's too broad to be useful. I found myself nudging some books up to five stars when they probably didn't deserve it, just because four stars felt like such a wide bucket.

Now, 4.5 gives me a way to distinguish between books that were really great and books I feel passionate about recommending. When I rate something 4.0 or less, I probably won't actively recommend it. It's not a bad book — three stars are still worth finishing — but I'm not going to push it on people.

Permission to put it down

Here's the thing that might be hardest to accept: just because someone else said a book was a 4/5 or 5/5 doesn't mean it will ever be worth finishing for you.

People have different levels of understanding when it comes to literature. They also have different experiences and interests that affect how entertaining or engaging a book will be for them. A book that changed someone's life might be a complete dud to you. That's okay.

There can be a layer of guilt when you return a book to the library after only reading 100 pages. When something just fizzles out and you quietly set it aside.

Who cares?

Life is too short to read bad books. If it's not working for you, put it down. There's another book waiting.