Reading Roulette: Update and Putting Books Down

At this point in my Reading Roulette challenge, I have randomly selected twelve books and given myself permission to put down two of them without finishing. The first was The Passage. The second was Thief's Covenant, from the third selection round. I made it through more than 100 pages before I admitted to myself that it just wasn't working for me and moved on. I have too many books I desperately want to read to spend valuable time slogging through one that isn't holding my attention.

Thief's Covenant had some elements I liked--a young female thief as the main character being the primary draw--but I was more than a third of the way through the book and still wondering what was going on (there were flashbacks with confusing timing) and when the plot was going to move significantly forward. Marmell also had some writing tics that reminded me of some of my own writing that I've done which, upon re-reading, made me want to change everything. The use of the word "vaguely," for example. I don't have bones to pick with Thief's Covenant, it just wasn't the book for me.

As I continue this project (and am gradually relieved of my self-imposed obligation to read erotic romances), I am happy about the way it's turning out. I have been reading a variety of books, some recent and some published more than twenty years ago. I've read in several different genres. I am enjoying the variety and the excitement that random selection is giving me. And I feel like I'm getting better at putting books down. Life is too short, and this isn't assigned reading.

I also thought when I gave myself the option of picking three books at a time that I would choose one of the three and then pick again, but every time I do a draw it's full of books I actually want to read. I'm still going to keep selecting three at a time, because the vagaries of my mood and interlibrary loan mean that I'm usually reading multiple books at once in different formats. I am not a book monogamist.