Dumping a Clunker

Do you ever pick up a book and think, “This isn’t what I normally read, but I can get through it?” Then you find yourself dreading even opening the book. It feels like it weighs a ton whenever you pick it up. You avoid reading, even though reading is something you love, something you crave.

I went through this recently. A dear friend of mine Erin loaned me the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town,” a very well researched book on the JonBenet Ramsey case. Erin is a fellow news producer (though she’s still in the game, I bowed out) and we both worked through this case, albeit not in Boulder, from the cheap seats here in Milwaukee. I remember how crazy the national media went with the case. I also know that the family was officially cleared earlier this year.

Erin bought the book, read it, and then loaned it to me at least 4 or 5 years ago. She said it was a great book, very informative and she thought I’d like it a lot. It’s been sitting on my shelf ever since. I’ve read a couple of other true-crime books, but they are generally not my cup of tea. Erin informed me a couple of weeks ago that she is moving to Florida, so I figured I better read her book and get it back to her.


So with the best of intentions, I told myself I had to read this book. This 500+ page monster of research. I took it with me to my parents house, thinking I might be able to steal a few minutes to read after I put Alex to bed and didn’t have to worry about cleaning anything up afterwards. This was anything but a relaxing read. It took me forever to hit the 100 page mark. And by that point, I was considering buying a notebook and taking notes. But I told myself at some point the book had to start making sense. There was no storyline to follow. It jumped around between main characters and suspects and detectives, sometimes with flashbacks to the individuals history, then to where they were the night of the murder. It was too hard to keep it all straight. But maybe that was the point of the book… to show how confusing the investigation was. I made it to page 214.


I decided last night enough was enough. I just didn’t care about the book anymore. I couldn’t get into it and was viewing it as a huge burden. I have a stack of other books of my own, borrowed from friends, and acquired through BookMooch, why was I wasting time on this clunker? So I made a very huge decision. Me, the person who always has to finish what she starts. I PUT THE BOOK DOWN. I took my bookmark out, I went to my stack of reading goodness and picked something else to read. I completely gave up on a book. I haven’t done that since my English major days.


I literally have dozens of books I haven’t read yet, thanks to loans from friends, BookMooch, and an inability to walk into a bookstore without making a purchase. I love to read (hence the major in English) so naturally I like to have a number of books at my disposal. One of the great benefits of working on a show with an interview slot for years was getting on the mailing list for publishing houses. I would get books weeks before they ended up on the shelves. Not just best sellers, but some from newer authors on topics I never would have picked on my own. I kept most of those books and they’ve made onto my “to be read” stack.

After dumping the clunker, I selected a book that I’ve had my eye on for awhile… “The Jane Austen Book Club.” Ahh… now that’s more like it!