On: Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book

[ilamont]

Give a book 50 pages. When you get to the bottom of Page 50, ask yourself if you're really liking the book.

I can usually tell within 10-20 pages.

I also have the "five minute rule" with TV shows, movies (on streaming services), and other activities. Only so much time left on this planet.

[bluesroo → ilamont]

I completely agree. I've run into a lot of people who say something like the following:

> But dude, you just have to get through the first 3 seasons and the show gets so good.

No, I'm really fine not wasting 15-30 hours of my life when there's hundreds of other incredible shows, movies, books, and video games.

[JoeAltmaier → bluesroo]

Right! When somebody says "You should watch this great new series!" its like they're saying "You should knit this great afghan!" Man-weeks of work. No thanks.

[wonderbear → ilamont]

Similar. If I'm not excited about a tv show by the time the first set of credits is shown, then I'll only watch the rest of the pilot if my friends have assured me it's really good. And even then I won't watch more than the pilot if it doesn't speak to me. Maybe it will get better in the second season or whatever, but life is short and a tv series is a lot of time.

Books, I'm a bit more dogged about. It has to be pretty bad before I won't at least skim it before giving up. Partly this is because I'm a very fast reader and most books I can finish in a sitting or two.