Nancy Pearl's Rule of Fifty

I met Nancy Pearl briefly after hearing her speak a number of years back. I even own one of her action dolls. But today was the best when my friend Kathy suggested I deserved my own action figure. Wow! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would have to have creaking joints and greying hair and that might not be particularly attractive.

But now I realize how much more I love Nancy Pearl. It's here rule of fifty, which adjusts to fit those of us who are aware of our limited time for reading. YOU DON'T HAVE TO FINISH EVERY BOOK YOU START.

"This rule of 50 worked exceedingly well until I entered my own 50s. As I wended my way toward 60, and beyond, I could no longer avoid the realization that, while the reading time remaining in my life was growing shorter, the world of books that I wanted to read was, if anything, growing larger. In a flash of, if I do say so myself, brilliance, I realized that my Rule of 50 was incomplete. It needed an addendum. And here it is: When you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100, and the resulting number (which, of course, gets smaller every year) is the number of pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book. As the saying goes, “Age has its privileges.”

And the ultimate privilege of age, of course, is that when you turn 100, you are authorized (by the Rule of 50) to judge a book by its cover."

Read the whole article at THE GLOBE AND MAIL site.

Thanks for this, Kathy. The first Ann Holt action doll will be yours.