As a general rule of thumb, people become habitual readers because they enjoy reading books. People like me, who not only read books about also talk and write about them a great deal, tend to do so because we enjoy books. I know for a fact that this is true for me. I love science fiction, so I talk about science fiction. But this doesn’t mean I enjoy all science fiction. Take a look through my reviews and you’ll find a fair few one- and two-star reviews. I love science fiction, but when I find a book I don’t enjoy, I give it as much time as I give one I do enjoy. I think that’s only fair. I’m not here to be naively positive. There is some appallingly bad science fiction out there. And there’s stuff that’s fine, but doesn’t work for me. I have no problem letting people know about books I don’t enjoy, and think it’s fair to do so. After all, if I only talk about the books I absolutely love, 1) I’ll have far less to talk about, and 2) that conversation is going to become very one-sided.

Not everyone feels the same way. Most book reviewers writing blogs like this are not paid to do so. We are wholly in charge of what we write about, and a great deal of people don’t write reviews for books they don’t enjoy. Many – and you’ll want to brace yourself for this one – will actively stop reading a book if they’re not enjoying it. Crazy, I know. One aphorism that comes up a lot during this discussion is this: ‘Life is too short to read bad books.’ I’ve seen it a lot in online spaces, and I’ve heard it in person too. My thoughts on that nugget are wisdom boil down to: ‘Isn’t it?’

Speaking purely for myself, I plan to live forever, which means I have plenty of times for bad books.

Being less glib, I honestly think there is value in reading books that we don’t love. Books that are just okay. Even books that are bad. Now, I’m not going to say we should go out to Waterstones and buy a book that we don’t like the sound of – that would be madness – but if you buy a book and find it’s not as much fun as you expected it to be, here are some arguments for why you should finish the book, and not just set it aside.

You’ve already bought the book. Now, you can cry out ‘sunk cost fallacy’ all you want, but if you have a book, why not finish it? Would you walk out of the cinema halfway through a film? Would you leave a football match once the first penalty has been scored? Maybe you would, but then I politely suggest you’ve lost your mind. You have the book. It is all yours. Why not see if that investment pays dividends? If nothing else, reading the book you currently ahve will stop you wasting money on more books you might not enjoy.

Maybe it will get better. I have read plenty of books that started off quite badly, only to cohere neatly by the end. Quite often I find that it’s the ending that sticks with me. There are some absolutely phenomenal books out there that I would never have expected to love if they continued in the vein of their opening chapter. Imagine starting Lord of the Rings and deciding you didn’t want to continue because it was all about the Shire and birthday parties! You can’t always judge a book by the opening sentence.

Bad can still be entertaining. This is a bit of a niche case, but sometimes bad books can be genuinely entertaining. I point you in the direction of Starflight to Faroul, which is simultaneously one of the worst books I have ever read, and one of the most fun reading experiences of recent years.

Books can be less than the sum of their parts. Books are made up of different elements. Plot, characters, worldbuilding, theme. Maybe the characters are as dull as ditchwater, but if the plot picks up, I’ll happily read on until the end. Or maybe the plot is just endlessly treading water, but the themes are immaculate, and there’s an idea in there that will absolutely blow your mind. Maybe the final page contains the single greatest sentence ever written. You don’t know for sure until you read the whole thing.

We learn from experience, This is the final, and I would say the most important point that I’m going to make. I think reading is a great way to test out new things. If you back down as soon as you are challenged, be it morally, intellectually, or just because you’re having a tough time of it, you’re denying yourself the opportunity to grow. Maybe this book you hate truly has no redeeming features, but finishing it isn’t a failure. It’s an experiment, and the results will warn you away from that genre/theme/author in the future. If you only read books that you love and adore, you’re missing out on valuable experiences. If you finish books, you’ll experience more.

A quick look at statistics shows that the average person reads only one book per month. Twelve books a year. Obviously some of us are skewing those results, but if you’re reading more than the average number of books, why not take a chance on something that doesn’t immediately wow you? Maybe you will regret the time you can’t get back. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll take something away from the experience that goes beyond simply enjoying the book. Maybe you’ll come out of the experience a changed person. You don’t know unless you go all the way.