Life's Too Short

Can I be honest with you here?
I'm learning a lesson lately.
Life's too short ... to finish the book.

Wait.
What? What did the author just say?
​Did she say to NOT finish a book?

Several years ago, I made a sort of pact with myself. If I started reading a book, I was going to finish it, no matter how awful it was. After all, I personally knew how much effort went into writing a book. If someone else hated the first part of my story, wouldn't I wanted them to give the rest of it a chance anyway?
Here's the problem with that. Well, some of the problems.
A. I'm never going to have enough time in this life to read every book I want to read. It's just not going to happen. Especially since my favorite authors keep putting out new books. So, why waste time on books that are sub-par?
B. If a book goes against my ethics or morals, why read it? If it's full of words I can't stand and have trouble shaking out of my head once I read them a few times, or if it has scenes that contain sin and portray it as a good thing, I shouldn't be reading it. Period. Not too long ago, I attended a ladies' day and the speaker mentioned that she knew a preacher who had a sign right above his TV. It said "Why would I want to watch something that nailed Jesus to the cross?" Think about that. Why should we want to participate in (in any way) the sins that nailed our Savior to the cross? He died up there so those sins would no longer cling to us, but we're clinging to them!
Can you tell I've given this quite a bit of thought lately? It's come up several times this year because of some of the books that were chosen for our book club to read. And when you're reading for a book club, you feel obligated to read the whole thing. After all, didn't you sign up for this? Just suck it up and do it so you can join in the discussion in a few weeks. (FYI, our book club is going to try and be more careful in our choices next year too.)
No. Instead of getting so upset about the language or subject matter, I'm just going to quit reading. I can still go and listen to the discussion. But I don't have to give those hours of my life to something that makes me uncomfortable or that pollutes my thoughts. Life's too short.
It's going to be hard. Because I love stories. And once I start, I usually want to know what happens.
But I think I'm going to feel better about myself too.
What about you? Do you have reasons you won't finish a book? Does it make you feel guilty?