3 Benefits of Boring Books

If you read a lot of books, you may find the occasional (or perhaps not so occasional) book that is simply… boring.??I’ve certainly encountered a few of them myself.??Of course, that’s just my opinion but having worked in the book business for 20 years, it’s also my professional opinion.

I don’t often use subjective words like ‘good’, ‘bad’ or even ‘boring’, but today I’ve chosen to highlight an issue I have seen a bit more often in recent years, while pointing out some benefits of experiencing a book you may find boring.??Please note that in this article I am talking about books that you choose to read, as opposed to those you must read to fulfil an academic or professional obligation.

First of all, give yourself a break and admit if a book you are reading is not engaging with you.??If you’re an optimist like me, you may try really hard to find the good points and give the book another chance.??You may also have a concern about the money you wasted by purchasing a book you are not finishing. If you have extra time and energy to spend persevering with it, great.??It may even improve if you keep going.??Unlikely, but possible.

I have found, however, that it is sometimes best to cut my losses and move on to something more riveting.??It is actually liberating to choose to stop reading something.??I have even been known to throw a book across the room or into the trash (yes, really! although not if I’m reading on my Kindle LOL) – so satisfying.??In my opinion, wasting someone’s time by not giving value is a real shame, if not a crime.??I give you permission to throw a book across the room or throw it out, even if it’s one of mine – gulp.??It’s just your opinion.

Secondly, the more you actively discern value in what you’re consuming, the clearer you get about how you are willing to spend your time and what content you are allowing to influence you.??So often, we are completely unaware of the influences coming into our mind.??When I speak or write about this, I always get people saying ‘I never even thought about it’.??Sure, we spend time crafting our messages and content that goes out into the world, but very little time assessing what we are taking in.

Taking a step back and observing can also give you great insights about your own writing.??If you notice what is not working for you in a book you’re reading, you can turn that around and watch out for making the same mistake in your own book, blog, article etc.??There are many ways to give your written content extra oomph, giving it a better chance to succeed with readers.

It has been said that “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”??I mentioned above that this entire question of a book being engaging or boring is subjective.??One benefit of this, for people who are open to discussions with people of different opinions, is truly expanding one’s view of the world, or at least one aspect of it.??What you may find boring could be extremely interesting to someone else, and you can learn a lot by listening to the other perspective.

If you have been thinking of writing a book but concerned that you don’t have something interesting to say, I applaud your approach!??You are probably a thoughtful leader.??Simply caring about the value is an excellent place to start, and as I have said, there are many techniques to improve the odds of writing a book that not only engages the reader, but disrupts, intrigues, provokes thought, and really excites them.??You know where to find me if you would like to discover one or more of these techniques: I'm either planning or writing my next book, or putting some ‘boring’ books into a charity bag, since there's probably someone else who will appreciate them more than I do.