Series 5: Reading.

Reading a Poorly Written Book

• “Poorly written” is a judgment, not a categorization. You are the one making that judgment. There is no reason to be afraid of reading any book. Just try to be as objective in your judgment as possible.

• Even if you are a beginner, don’t be afraid to read a book that may be poorly written. Your reading insight will extract the useful and discard the superfluous through an innate sieve, and you will probably not realize that automatic filtration.

• Even with a well-written book, you don’t have to accept everything it says. You need to keep your critical senses sharp in order to agree, disagree, or comment on everything you read, no matter what level of writing and regardless of the nature of opinions and views; and with more confidence in your insights each time.

• Do not give in to the judgments of others, whatever those judgments are. Make sure to put your own opinion on the book after reading it. And do not hesitate to review and change your judgment whenever you feel the need to do so after rereading or during any subsequent review of the book.

• Referring to some books as “well-written” does not mean that the rest are poorly written, as the former is an expression of appreciation for outstanding books, while the rest can be evaluated as okay or ordinary. Do not rush to call a book poorly written just because you did not like it or because you think there are other books that are better.

• Don’t get too worried. A book that really deserves the designation “poorly written” often exposes itself quickly.

• Don’t be alarmed when you see that a professional evaluated a book you like as poorly written. The issue is often so relative that another professional could describe the same book as being well written. Don’t let other people’s opinions change your assessment of any issue, no matter who those other people are and no matter what the issue is.

• Regardless of the relativity of the evaluation, a person who writes a bad book is not necessarily a bad writer. Don’t be in a rush to decide not to read another of that author’s books.

• Even when you are firmly convinced that what you have read was poorly written, do not let that stop you from extracting even a single benefit from what you have read. That benefit could be nothing more than developing the skill of judging what is poor.

• Judging books as being poorly or well written changes, of course, from one group of people to another and from one person to another. However, the most important factor affecting judgment of writing seems to be time, especially when the judgment relates to the general mood of reading rather than being based on objective justifications. Even the objective justifications seem to relate to time.