By quoting from  D.H. Lawrence’s Apocalypse, T.H. Rigelhof in his Hooked on Canadian Books (Cormorant, 2010) put me in mind of my 14 year-old daughter, who, over the course of the past four-odd years must have read the entire J.K. Rowling oeuvre at least ten times.

Owing to the flood of shallow books which really are exhausted in one reading, the modern mind tends to think every book is the same, finished in one reading. But it is not so…The real joy of a book lies in reading it over and over again, and always finding it different, coming upon another meaning, another level of meaning…we are so overwhelmed by the quantities of books, that we hardly realize any more that a book can be valuable, valuable like a jewel, or a lovely picture, into which you can look deeper and deeper.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not Harry Potter has depth; in the meantime, perhaps revisiting a favourite novel or two might be a good idea.

Not sure if I agree with James Meek here in the LRB that Anna K. is the ‘greater of Tolstoy’s two great novels’ – I’ve tried it twice now, both times struggling, choking, withering out at page 100, while W&P was like butter, beautiful, smooth, emotionally/intellectually satisfying butta – but will shortly embark on another foray, this time accompanied by an eminently qualified companion. Stay tuned for the feedback. Looking forward to what Meek describes as ‘one of the supreme moments of craft in all fiction:"

Durham Cathedral by Albert Goodwin

"In fine, since all men naturally desire to know, and since by means of books we can attain the knowledge of the ancients, which is to be desired beyond all riches, what man living according to nature would not feel the desire of books?  And although we know that swine trample pearls under foot, the wise man will not therefore be deterred from gathering the pearls that lie before him. A library of wisdom, then is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desireable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, aye, even ot the faith, must needs become a lover of books." 

from The Philobiblon.

Born in the mid 1280s Richard de Bury studied philosophy and theology at Oxford, became a Benedictine monk at Durham Cathedral, tutored and inspired a love of books in the future King Edward lll – whom he would later serve as high chancellor and treasurer of England -  and was made Bishop of Durham in 1333.  The Philobiblon was completed on de Bury’s 58th birthday, January 24th, in 1345 and first printed at Cologne in 1473. The first ‘true’ ( according to the Preface of the King’s Classic 1907 edition I have) English translation is by Ernest C. Thomas, published by Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co. in 1888.

"The full appreciation of fiction, as of poetry, history or drama, depends upon a skilled technique which in turn can only be obtained by constant watchfulness. The aim is the development of a ripe sensibility, capable of sensing the meaning within the meaning of words and sentences. The skilled reader is not dependent on the adventitious aids of easiness or brightness; he is no longer, for instance, dependent upon plot for his enjoyment of fiction, or upon what is called 'actuality' or 'incident', or mere verisimilitude of description. Such things are elementary and they evoke but superficial feelings. They are for the callow reader, or for those moments when an easy escape from trial or tension is necessary. Imaginative experience should induce a sensitiveness towards inner meaning, towards understanding the subtlety and tenderness which an author experiences when he puts himself into plot or character or incident."

from The Reading of Books by Holbrook Jackson.

Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish quotes one Tyler Cowen who thinks we should put down bad books:

and then, plugging e-books,  suggests that economics may be reason enough not to finish a book: sunk costs:

"If a reader paid $25 for a book, it’s a lot harder for them to put it down after ten pages than if a publishing house sent you a free review copy. That’s why e-books make more sense. They cost less and so the investment is lower. By the way, I think the same principle should apply to meals. If Americans simply left half their food on the plate, most of our obesity issues would disappear."

I’d say it’s more about time and boredom.

Dr. Johnson used to enjoy starting ‘pedestrian and solemn’ scholars, as biographer W. Jackson Bate once put it, by flaunting his inability to ‘read books through.’ As he said to Mrs. Thrale: ‘how few books are there of which one ever can possibly arrive at the last page!’ Or to one William Bowles: ‘I have read few books through; they are generally so repulsive that I cannot."

Apropos of which, one of my favourite Johnson remarks, via Boswell, via here: ’ "what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read."