Back in 2005, I had an epiphany. (They don’t come too often – that might have been my last one.) I said:
So I got to thinking – don’t you find that early in a book there’s a tipping point where you decide whether a book is worth the effort? At 10 or 20 pages in, you can still comfortably walk away and not feel like you’ve invested too much to quit. Or, like with Time Traveler’s Wife, you know you’re so hooked that you start canceling playdates and dental appointments just to make more time to read.
So I started my signature series of 10-pages-in book reviews. The review doesn’t actually have to come at the 10-pages point; that’s just shorthand, a quick way to say, “I haven’t finished the book yet, but here’s what I think so far.”
So here they are, from the most recent all the way back to the original.
Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
The Ruins by Scott Smith
The Calligrapher by Edward Docx
Children of Men by PD James
Blackbird House By Alice Hoffman
JPod by Douglas Coupland
Hitching Rides with Buddha by Will Ferguson
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Unwritten Girl by James Bow
Come Back By Claire and Mia Fontaine
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Literary Mama edited by Andi Buchanan and Amy Hudock
Woman First, Family Always by Kathryn Sansone
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Blood Memory by Greg Iles
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Typing: A Life in 26 Keys by Matt Cohen
Motion Sickness by David Layton
The Bird Factory by David Layton
Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
On Writing by Stephen King
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This is a great idea! I love to read, but hate when a book takes too long to “pick up.” Years ago I gave myself permission to drop a book if I didn’t like it, but that’s easier said than done!