I was nosing around the garage Saturday and came upon a box containing what was hilariously titled The Librarian Action Figure. Brenda received this "doll" from one of our children as a gift because they knew their mother always aspired to one day become a librarian. Brenda gravitates to books, so the action figure was the perfect gift. When I turned the box around to read the fine print on the back, I was struck by the wisdom written there.
The action figure is based on the likeness of famous librarian, author and literary critic, Nancy Pearl. The "pearls" of wisdom she promoted on the back of that cardboard box referred to reading books, of course. I have tried to read certain books, patiently stuck with them, and came to the conclusion that I had no desire to grit it out to the end. I am surprised that editors and publishers allow authors to write such material. Some books are obviously "fluffed" with extra gibberish just to fulfill a certain quota of words or pages. I swear, some books should be pamphlets!
Nancy Pearl helps those of us who buy a lot of books to make serious judgements on those we read before getting too deep in a hopeless quagmire of words. She offers the simple "Rule of 50." The words of wisdom on the back of that action figure box state: "If (you are under the age of 50 and) you still don't like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you're more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages."
I feel relieved that Nancy has gotten me off the hook! I will continue to read books, but I will be getting the free sample from Kindle before committing my valuable resources and time on another boring read! Looks like in July, I can put a book down after 49 pages--Nancy Pearl says so!
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