For the longest time, I’ve felt guilty for not reading certain books considered classics or starting books and never finishing them. According to Lennard J. Davis’ article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, I shouldn’t feel this way.

In Davis’ well-written and short piece, he really caught my attention with these lines:

I like to read four or five books at once. It’s like being at a horse race–only one or two of the books might win. I don’t feel committed to finishing every book I start, and, in a way, isn’t it the writer’s fault if I’m not pulled along? I’m an inveterate book buyer, but like many collectors I don’t always think the proof of the pudding is in the reading. I’ve got some beautiful volumes that I will probably never read.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.