The Wall Street Journal ran a very interesting piece last month called The Summer’s Most Unread Book Is…
The article creates a scoring system based on number of reader highlights near the beginning and end of various books. The more highlights there are near the end relative to the sales, the more we can assume readers are getting to the end of the book. The higher the score, the more likely it is that people are finishing the book.
Here’s the score on some popular books:
“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt : 98.5%
A very high score. Lots of people finishing this book.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James: 25.9%
A surprisingly low score, or maybe not that surprising. I expect a lot of people start this book and then decide it’s not for them.
“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty : 2.4%
The lowest score ever. This one makes me smile. What did you think you were doing when you paid $20 for a 700-page scholarly book on economics? Did you at least read the whole sample and enjoy it first?
A few years ago, I listened to Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson as an audiobook. It took more than a month to get through it, but was well worth it. I thought it was a fantastic book.
Two weeks ago, I saw Cryptonomicon in paperback on a shelf of used books my local library was selling. I bought it. Today I opened it at page 1 and started reading. I remembered why I loved this book so much and fully expect to spend the next two weeks reading the whole thing again.
When I got to Page 24, I found something curious. The page was dog-eared.
Now, this could have been nothing at all. Things happen to used books. They get pressed and squashed and put in luggage and who knows what else, and sometimes the pages get wrinkled.
But this page was neatly folded at a perfect right angle. Here, have a look.
Did a previous reader give up at Page 24?
I think the last person who owned this book got to page 24 before being done with it. I mean, it is the sort of book that someone could give up on. Nearly 1000 pages, jumping between history and the present, with all sorts of cryptography and even some math jokes tossed in there. The first few chapters are hard to understand. The humor is quirky and easily missed.
If you’re not willing to give this book your full attention, it isn’t any fun to read at all.
But man, when you do read it…what a masterpiece! To you, previous owner of my copy of Cryptonomicon, if you really gave up on Page 24 you missed out.
And to you, reader of this blog post, what are you reading right now? Are you thinking of giving up on it?
If you’ve just started, and the book is terrible, then sure, set it aside and read something else. But if it was a good read that has lost your attention for a bit, I encourage you to try it again, this time with your full attention focused on the book as you read it. No background noise. No reading only when you’re tired. Take that book with you somewhere, like a park bench, or a library, and give it your all.
Most books have their best scenes near the end. And all books are better when you finish them.
