Putting Down the Book

The first time I remember thinking I must always, always finish a book is when I read The Last of the Mohicans. I think I was finishing up the seventh grade, and I don't think I understood almost any of most of the book. Then came the last fifty pages and I read them one night sitting with my knees pulled up to my chest at the kitchen table, in tears. I closed the book, sobbing, convinced I needed to get through to the end because if I didn't, I might miss out on something like what I'd just read.

So, that was then, this is now. Now, I don't always have time to slog through to the end. Now, I sometimes red fifty, one hundred pages and think, "I've got it. I get it." And even though I don't know the whole story, I feel like the surprises in it won't be worth it, not when there's a stack of books falling over on my bedside, books I'm desperate to get to, not to mention the books I don't have that I'm pining for. Which is to say that I've put down this book (Doctors and Nurses) before it was done and have started another one (Pnin). I believe this is a good decision. I guess I'll only really know if I go back and finish Doctors and Nurses. It could be another Mohicans, but it also could be I'll never know.....