Reading is a common activity that many people do. There are stores dedicated to the ability to read, and places that allow a customer to borrow some material to read on the sole promise that they return whatever it is that they acquired. There’s even an entire subsection of YouTube dedicated to reading books.
I used to be made fun of for saying this, but reading books is a fun activity. It's also extremely annoying to the point of aggravated assault on an inanimate object. For all the reasons that reading can be considered fun, there is a plethora of annoyances that accompany them.
Here are the biggest annoyances out there in regards to reading.
1. Trudging through the beginning.
Once in a blue moon, you will pick up a book that is amazing from the get go. Those moments should be cherished, because that very rarely happens. The first few pages of a book are sometimes the hardest to get through. For example: Have you ever eat a big, round, solid piece of chocolate, one so big that you have to position your mouth awkwardly to actually eat the thing? Sure it’s satisfying at the end, but that first bite is something you have to power through.
A book’s beginning pages are a lot like that: awkward and clunky; it’s something that you have to battle through. By the time the thing is finished, you feel great or disappointed, depending on the quality of the material, which brings me to my next point. . .
2.The gamble
You can never really tell when a book is going to be good. Sure, you can read reviews from it, check out people’s "BookTube" channels, but nothing will ever prepare you to be absolutely elated, or horrifyingly disappointed. Someone’s "Harry Potter" is another person’s "Twilight," and by God, is that one of the most upsetting things ever; picking up a book with a nice cover and interesting description, then being as disappointed in it as a father is in his stripper daughter. There is no in-between: you either enjoyed the book or were disappointed in it. Bibliophiles are essentially gambling addicts, except their game of choice is perusing the shelves and randomly picking something up.
3. Continuing a series
I am currently reading the "Wheel of Time" series, and I really enjoy it, but there are times where I just want it to end. For those of you that don’t know, it’s a series that spans 13-books, and each book is at least 800-pages long. I am ¾ of the way done with the fourth book, and have already bought the fifth one. I want to take a break and get through some of the other books I have lying around that need my attention ("Johannes Cabal," I hear you calling to me).
It’s kind of like binge watching a series on Netflix, but instead of hour-long episodes, you have a book that’s hundreds of pages long, but instead of being finished and frantically searching for a new series as your life crumbles all around you after a single day, you are stuck with the series of books, no matter how bad they get, for a solid year, at least. The main reason is because…
4. Procrastination
When it comes to procrastination, reading a big is one of the biggest activities to put off, probably right behind homework. Here’s a quick poll: how many of you reading this has an exciting new book they want to read within reaching distance? Now how many of you have actually started to read the thing? Now how many of you actually have a pile of those books?
It’s not so much that you don’t want to read them, it’s just that there are a million other things that you’d rather do. That’s not to say reading isn’t fun; I myself had a “Words are cool” bookmarks growing up, but you don't always want to read. Other times, you just don’t want to finish a book, whether it’s because it’s too good, or because you really don’t want to have to start a new one (see point 1). Mainly though, you just want the experience of buying a book, and letting them pile up. Which brings me to my last point...
5. Buying the book
No matter what you do, you’re going to be spending some money purely to read. And by some money, I mean a lot. For avid readers, merely renting a book out of the library is never enough; you have to own the books. Whether it’s Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or some used bookstore, there will always be a place to buy books, and you will always justify your purchase by claiming that you will actually use this thing, unlike that white puffy jacket you got three years ago, hanging in your closet, with the tags still on.
This isn’t so much of a problem, as there are worst things you could buy with your money, like drugs or a Donald Trump poster. But when coupled with all of the previous annoyances, buying a book can be a horrible idea.
Understanding what it is readers go through now, there is a sort of recognition that needs to be held for those who continuously read because no matter how well versed of a reader you are, you will always be challenged. No matter how annoying it is though, it is always rewarding. Until you need a new book, and the cycle repeats itself all over again.
