Nancy Pearl is a librarian, author, literary critic, and the former executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library. She regularly appears on public radio recommending books.
Over the years she’s come up with a lot of advice for readers, including the “Rule of 50”, which states:
“If you’re 50 years old or younger, give every book about 50 pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you’re over 50, which is when time gets shorter, subtract your age from 100 - the result is the number of pages you should read before deciding whether or not to quit. If you’re 100 or over you get to judge the book by its cover, despite the dangers in doing so.”
What do you think of this rule? Do you use it? Have you ever been especially glad to have ignored it?
I think I’m a tad OCD; it bothers me to not finish a book even if I’m struggling with it. It’s like an itch I can’t scratch. And my first instinct is almost always right. I can only think of two cases where I was glad I persisted - Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore I know was one, the other one isn’t coming to mind right now.
No disrespect to Nancy, but as a lifelong reader with more years behind me than ahead of me in the general scheme of breathing and reading, I am not inclined to use a formula to determine when I should shut the book and choose another. I do, however, see “the rule of 50” being a user-worthy rule of thumb for readers who appreciate that sort of thing.
I love that “rule”! Of course, it’s not a directive, or order, but it gives permission—and some humor—to not continuing to slog through something that is not being enjoyed. And now that I’m a very senior senior book lover, a sense of limited time and unlimited books I want to read means I use Nancy Perl’s idea quite often.
I am 90, so can use this rule of 10 pages to decide if I want to continue with the book. I have never used this 10-page rule, but I am definitely dropping books very rapidly this year. Currently I have 71 four door books in my TBR and there will be a lot of trimming by dropping any book that has a story that I’ve seen a lot of before, or a subject that I don’t want to read about even if it was once highly important to me.
The bottom line? Will this book be a ‘page turner’ for me TODAY.
I don’t follow Nancy’s rule but I’m pretty ruthless about putting down books that are poorly written, that don’t work for me, or that are just coming into my life at the wrong time.
I can usually tell within 30 pgs or so but if I have gone on longer there’s a question that always settles it for me: Do I really care? If I can’t answer that I care about character, mystery, storyline, plot, or something then it’s definitely time to move on.
The other thing I sometimes do is look up reviews to see if others had a drastically different impression or if they say something that intrigues me. That might encourage me to continue.
I am a big fan of Nancy Pearl and have used her rule of 50 since in was in my 60s. I now make my decision after 20 pages. It used to bother me to give up on a book, but now I have to agree that there is so little time and so many good reads out there that struggling to read something you are not enjoying is a waste of precious time.
I haven’t heard of Nancy’s rule, but may use it occasionally! I find that often I am not in the mood for a certain book, but can go back later and pick it up and enjoy it.
I hadn’t heard of this before, but I will say that I feel less beholden to keep reading a book I’m not into the older I get. In my 20s and 30s I felt a sense of responsibility to finish every book I started. Now, I’m fairly ruthless in DNFs because it’s so easy to find good reading. No need to punish oneself.