So many of us who are readers are afflicted by this habit. Let me give you some unsolicited professional suggestions of a reader's advisory nature:

We used to have to finish the book because there was a quiz on it somewhere along the line. No more.

We all still have professional or required reading to do that can be stultifying at times, but our "enrichment" reading now belongs to us.

A good rule of thumb: If a book doesn't grab you in the first 150 pages or the first third (whichever is less), it's not worth your time. Really. If it isn't good after 150 pages, the book fairy didn't visit this one.

If you think the book worthwhile but ill-timed at this point in your life, you can come back to it later, the way I came back to asparagus as an adult. You can put it down until then. If you die without getting to it, it was never well-timed.

Once reaching the age of 65, subtract your age from 150, and that's the number of pages you read. Why waste time when there's so little of it left?

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

To sum up: Life is short, homework is through, and books are like streetcars. If you don't like the look of this one, another will be along in 10 minutes.