I love the books I read. I’m always in the middle of a few books. I read real books and eBooks and I listen to audio books. Now, I read a lot of memoirs, but I’ve always appreciated a good book recommendation.

I used to work with a man who shared my love of books. In particular, he enjoyed audio books. Our job involved a lot of time on the road and we often compared notes about the books we listened to.

He lived in another town, with a different library. This worked well, because we would share our favorite audio books checked out from our local libraries. If I particularly enjoyed a book, I would lend it to him and he would do the same for me. If one of us was looking for a specific book, we had access to two libraries.

One day, I returned a book to him. “Did you enjoy it?” he asked.

“I didn’t finish it.”

He was shocked. It had never occurred to him to just stop reading a book because he wasn’t enjoying it. I explained that once I quit caring about the characters or the outcome, I would rather move on to another story that I will enjoy. I give a book a chance, but sometimes, it ceases to be fun to read a given book. Then, it’s time to move on.

It took him some time to think about that. Eventually, the time came when he was working through a book he wasn’t enjoying and he put it aside. He actually thanked me for the idea and the encouragement. Now he appreciates the freedom to read what he enjoys and walk away from what he doesn’t.

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