"Give a writer an hour to hook you."

"...Books can be solid gold.
The great ones have gotten us through the nights for centuries.
Give a writer an hour to hook you.
If he can't, find someone else."
~ Anthony Hopkins' character, Hearts in Atlantis

Reading is definitely one of my passions. I love the classics, the new ones, fiction, non-fiction, (anything but paperback smut romances...most westerns...and I've never met a science fiction I was crazy about). So many books, so little time. If I was able to read one book a week, that's only 52 books a year, multiply by years of remaining eyesight, mental clarity, etc....carry the 1...factor in the total number of books available...you get the point.

Most books take me around 2 weeks to read, (if you are following along at home, that's a mere 26 books a year!) and tend to hold my interest to the point it's difficult to say 'goodbye' to the characters once the final chapter comes to an end. Then there are the books which lose me several chapters in--such that I will actually procrastinate reading it (wash dishes, iron, re-organize the closet...). In extreme circumstances, sorry to say, I just plain don't care what happens to the characters, and the book gets put it aside in favor of the next book in the queue. The question is: When do you cut your losses and move on? An hour seems like not quite enough... But a month or more, like I've given the current book I'm reading? (see right panel) For me, that's just foolishness.

~~~~~~~~~
Heyday by Kurt Anderson (Back cover description):

"During a single amazing month at the beginning of 1848, history lurches, sending one eager English gentleman off on an epic transatlantic journey....[yaddayaddayadda]...three restless souls...[blahblahblah]...falls hopelessly in love... Beckoned by the frontier, new beginnings, and the prospects of the California Gold Rush, all four set out on a race west--relentlessly tracked, unbeknownst to them, but a cold-blooded killer bent on revenge."
~~~~~~~~~

Sounds great, right? It really IS a good book...but 622 pages long...and as of chapter 40 on page 386, we are just beginning to travel West. I'm bored with it, and have been for some time now...which is why I haven't been reading lately, and that's just a shame.

My choices are:
a.) Cut and run.
b.) You've come this far...
c.) Give the guy a break. Could you get a 622 page novel published?