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Years ago one of the members in my book group mentioned an article that she had read about “divorcing a book”. If you don’t like it after 50 or so pages, you give up on it. Prior to that conversation, I had never done that before.. not without a lot of guilt. Well today I saw a similar post over at Reading Group Guides. Click here for the Reading Group Guides post and click here for the NY Times Divorce That Book article.

I have to say that over the years I have divorced many a book. I’ll admit it, I still feel a little guilty for doing it but with the amount of time I have to read, I start to resent the book if it is not worthy of my attention. Here are some books that I divorced over the years.

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
*I know it’s a classic, but I would rather stick a pin in my eye than try this one again.

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje
*I simply did not care about these people.. did not care for the movie either.

The Tortilla Curtain, by T. Coraghessan Boyle
*I gave this one more than one chance..even tried it as an audio book and it pained me physically to read it or listen to it. I don’t really know why.. seemed to be well written but the story did not interest me.

A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
*After two chapters of this, I felt as if “I” needed drugs just to get through it. This was before the big Oprah scandle too.

What books have you divorced?

Have you ever recommended a book that your book group members just weren’t that jazzed about reading? I remember the selection process for 2007. I recommended The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Many of the members did not want to read it because it was chosen by Oprah. It was also too dark and depressing. It never made it on the list. However, many months later some of the club members decided to read it on their own.. and they all agreed it was one of the best books out there. It’s definitely a book that has stayed with me. See! I wasn’t crazy!

The same can be said for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Someone suggested it and although I admitted that it was on my list of “must reads”, I was not excited about reading it and actually dreaded it. That all changed after just a few pages and the rest of the group felt the same way. None of us would have picked that book on our own.

If your book group has ever selected an “odd” or “not so popular” title, then check out this article posted over at Book Group Buzz. I am still trying to get my group to select Moby Dick. So far… I have not been successful!

Chatting with friends about books and life…