The Closing Chapters...

So we all know the feeling of picking up a new book that you've been dying to read.  You leave the bookstore plotting out your day and making sure you have ample time to spend with your newest addition.  You can't wait for the moment when you will be able to snuggle up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and enjoy.  Then you do and you start reading the first few paragraphs expecting to have some sort of life changing epiphany or at the very least feel enriched and engaged by the text.  However, as you read you are slowly becoming less and less excited and you even start to zone out.   You reread sentences and paragraphs trying to savor every word subconsciously telling yourself to hold on to see what's around the bend.  You get through the first chapter and now conscious disappointment starts to set in; however, you convince yourself that it is bound to get better.   Then by chapter two or three you are struggling and asking yourself why you even bought this book in the first place? The characters have no arcs, the plot is convoluted and/or you just can't seem to get into it.  

You find yourself at a crossroads.  Should you use this book become the newest occupant on your shelf joining all the other books that you've either finished or abandoned?  The cover is very pretty and it would give the illusion to others that you read this book.  You put it on the shelf just to see how it would fit with the other books.  

Then you have another thought.  Maybe you made a rash decision and you should just keep on keeping on with it in the hopes that something will change?  It is a gamble; however, you are in the mood to roll the dice so take the book off the shelf.  However, you have adjusted your expectations and now your goal is to just get through it.

As you read, at times you are struggling maybe even nodding off.  However, there is one moment that something that you read changes the game for you.  Although you are still not completely loving the book, you now feel that because of one scene, paragraph or character, it isn't that bad anymore.  You no longer dread picking the book up.  You stay with it for a while and a couple more chapters and other redemptive things are happening. You are beginning to think that your investment wasn't wasted.  

You feel yourself care again.  Now, you are approaching the end of the book and you have a vision of where and how the book is going to end.  You keep reading and you are waiting for your vision to come and then when you are almost done, it changes again.  You are thrown off guard however, you are intrigued enough to stay with it as you've made the commitment.  Then the end finally comes and as you close the book, you feel happy that you've gotten through it, but sad that now the challenge of conquering it is gone.  It is now time to move on.   

Yep this pretty much sums up the week.