I pretend that I don't give up so that I can give up.

If a book I'm in the middle of is not engaging, or is making me depressed, or the writing is bad, or whatever... I'll just put in a bookmark and set it aside "to finish later" and move on to another book from the TBR piles and tell myself, "I'll come back to that one later".

And five years later when I haven't picked it up again, I'll look at it and say, "I don't really remember anything about this book besides that it wasn't very good, so maybe I should just donate it" and it goes into the "trade in" shelf.

But I can still tell myself I don't give up on books!
Really! I just... temporarily switched priorities.... yeah.... that's it....


Psychological tricks we play on ourselves can be super handy, ha ha ha ha.
Maybe after another decade or so I can be totally honest and save my bookmarks and just put the book directly into the donations/trade-in pile, but not yet.


Meanwhile, I finished "A Six Letter Word For Death", by Patricia Moyes. I forgot how much I enjoy mysteries, even if this one was dated enough to feel like I was reading historical fiction.
It wasn't even really set *that* long ago, but.... society has changed so much so fast that it felt very vintage.
(IE, one character had his driver's license taken away for repeated speeding, so his backup default method of transportation? Go by horseback. Not cycling, horseback. And to keep in touch a search party takes along a portable radio. Because cell phones were a few decades away from being invented)

So you're in denial, brilliant! I'm good at that, so might adopt your method

Ooh, horseback riding and walkie-talkies do sound vintage indeed.

I'm wondering which book I should start next. I'm tempted to start reading a couple at once, but I'm afraid I'll get too confused and overwhelmed and will end up not reading at all. Or worse, pick up something completely off my TBR list... And my sister just got me a very interesting book I really am struggling not to read asap.
I could add another book to my list (because those 3 chapters feel kind of like cheating), but I fear I might not finish any other book if I keep adding more and more.
I should probably add more only if I'll be at the finish line of the last book from my list. My organization skills are nonexistent, hehe.

Or just give yourself permission to update and change your list, and put the book you want to read on there and take off a book that you aren't looking forward to as much. If you finish and have more time you can add it back...

I remember when I was actively writing stories (my to never become true dream was to be a writer, but that's been shelved indefinitely because I haven't written anything in 3 years now) I would always compare my writing to what I was reading and I would cringe so hard, especially if it was after a book I finished and didn't like.

I really need to go the second hand bookstore again. In 2019, early 2020 I have a pile of older books that I was going to trade in for store credit, but then the world was like NOPE and they were closed for most of 2020 and until early 2021. They eventually set up a website, but it's not the same as going into the store. It also helped I used to work at a place that was a 5 minute drive from it =/ Now I hardly go that way. My mom was even going to give me some of her books to get some more credit too, but she ended up donating them to the library.

Li Li, your psychological tricks are genius!

That's exactly what I was doing with the book I'm currently not reading.
It was not interesting enough to keep me reading, so I started reading something else in between - and that something else was way more amusing I kept reading the new one.
I've kinda forgotten what the old one was about!

So there it remains, being conciously ignored in hope I ever decide what to do about it.
In the meantime I've almost forgotten it!

Akili Li wrote:Or just give yourself permission to update and change your list, and put the book you want to read on there and take off a book that you aren't looking forward to as much. If you finish and have more time you can add it back...

No, can't do that. If I give myself permission to change the list, then it'll be less binding and my brain won't follow any rules that I've set, other than the permission to change stuff.
Plus it's not like i'm less interested in the books I put on the list. The problem is they're all equally interesting

So what book are you currently in the middle of, then, Mem?

I just went back to the Bridge at Remagen, again. Hopefully this time I can finish it.

I started reading the Everyday Sun Magic. I'm still in the first chapter, but it's a light read and it's interesting so I hope I'll read it fast. Especially it's nicely divided into small bits and pieces inside the chapters.

I have just started reading a book... which I had already read before it was published, because my hubby is the writer.
Also it's both Maths related and in my language, so maybe I should count it in two categories for my challenge