Quitting Books And People

Yesterday I quit reading Poe's Cat by Brenda Walker.  I don't think it's an awful book.  I wasn't completely bored or offended.  But the book didn't hold my interest enough. Reading it wasn't enjoyable.

Although I feel conflicted about quitting the book( as I always do), I'm also proud of myself.

I'm trying to get better at this whole quitting thing.

And I think I actually am.

Poe's Cat isn't the only book I've quit in the last few weeks.

I also quit reading The Great Escape.  The subject of the book might be fascinating but for me, the writing was too dry.

My ability to quit books is improving, but not perfected. I've recently completed books I did not enjoy.  One of those was Forefathers by Nancy Cato.  I was bored by it but kept hoping it would get better.  It finally did...for a few pages. Then it went downhill again. 

An email-pal and I have been talking about quitting books. He helped me see the connection between quitting books and quitting people.

I'm not good at quitting books.

Nor am I good at quitting people.

It's very rare for me to quit a person and when I do, I feel very conflicted about it.

Actually I think I've quit only one person in the last few years, as in please stay away from me.  We should not have any more contact.  

I wish I was better at quitting people and books. Although I wouldn't want to be too good at it.   There are times where I think it's best to grin and bear it. For example, sometimes you have to read a book for a class. The book might be boring, but you make the best of it.

And....

Some people's lives are so intertwined with our own.  It's not worth it to severe the relationship. It's too complicated.  

Still, though. Even when situations are less complicated, I have trouble quitting people.

Books are hard to quit, but people are even harder.

If you don't like a book you can just put it down.  You take the bookmark out and put it in a new book.

What do you do with people in your life when you realize you really don't like them.  Do you write a good-bye email?  Do you just back away and hope they'll leave you alone?  Do you purposely try to repulse them in some way?

And now I have to sit here and wonder. Are there people in my life that feel this way about me?

There probably are.

They may be stuck with me, because they don't know how to get rid of me.

It's funny if they're the same people I'd like out of my life.

It's not funny if they're the people I adore. That would be sad.   

I don't know. Now that I'm writing this, I'm starting to think maybe it's much too hard.

I want to continue getting better at book-quitting, but maybe I don't want to improve my people quitting. 

I'm thinking maybe it's best to usually leave it up to fate.  If people aren't meant to be in our lives anymore, the relationship might fade away naturally.

Or we can also work to reduce relationships rather than abruptly ending them. That works sometimes.