The Reader’s Bill of Rights
Everyone has the right to read. Here’s The Reader’s Bill of Rights to help you make the most of that right:
Readers have:
The right to not read.
The right to skip pages.
The right to not finish.
The right to reread.
The right to read anything.
The right to escapism.
The right to read anywhere.
The right to browse.
The right to read out loud.
The right not to defend your tastes.
—Pennac, Daniel, Better Than Life, Coach House Press, 1996.
Travis is a bit of a non-reader and he will often start a book and then just stop after a while. I cannot do this. Once I start a book, I can’t just not read it. It would somehow be wrong. Even if I do not particularly like it, I still have to read it. I would probably bend the rules if the material were in someway offensive, but I have yet picked up a book that I found so.
There are very few books that I have started and not finished. And two of them were American Classics.