I don't think I've ever really talked about Books here a lot on ye olde blog but I've always been a reader. My graduate school years took a toll on my love of reading. I found the books and articles I read for class fascinating but averaging 7 to 10 hefty nonfiction books a week (in addition to writing papers) for classes really took a toll on my pleasure reading. It was really during those years I developed my love of children's books. Then, it was a necessity--books like The Secret Garden, The Chrnoicles of Narnia, The Neverending Story, and Harry Potter were all I could handle above and beyond my school work.

Times have changed and my book burnout combined with my parent of a young baby exhaustion are starting to wane; I find myself spending more and more time perusing the bookshelves in our home and scouring GoodReads for recommendations for what to read next. I usually read nearly any type of genre from modern novels, classics, science and other nonfiction and a heavy dose of my favorite genre, science fiction.

There is still a problem though--when do you give up on a book? I try to give each book I read a good faith effort on my part. Its a fine line though--it has to be far enough into the book to get a sense of the characters and plot but not so far that I might as well finish, despite my apathy for the story.

I'm treading those waters right now with The Golden Compass. I don't know what it is--I don't care for the characters, the plot is developing so slowly I am getting bored and I despise the lack of grammar in the characters' speech patterns. I know it is a stylistic point but it is one that I abhor. "I 'ent..." (as in, I aint) is just not a proper way to speak, even if you are a young girl in a fantasy novel.

Page 139. The book is only roughly 400 pages. I think I've given it my all.

Am I wrong? Does the plot pick up? Am I going to be missing out on something great or is it just more of the same? The book was given such great reviews maybe my expectation were just too high. Am I a total quitter?