Well. It today is February 10 and I have written ten book reviews. I don’t think I can do anymore, at least not in the format I have chosen. I love all the books I have reviewed but all my reviews say the same thing. “This is a great mystery.” “You should read this.” “It has charming characters, an intriguing plot, and a setting that makes it special.” I am boring myself.
I think if I do this again I will not make it about me. I don’t think anyone really cares what I think about a book. Would you really read a book because I told you it was good? I doubt it. I need a different way to convince people how good these books are.
Right now I have no idea what that is and I have many writing projects that I want to finish before Left Coast Crime in March. I think I will switch my focus from book reviews to short fiction, something that I enjoy much more.
I know ten reviews is far short of the original twenty-eight I planned to write but when I started this I had no idea how much I would dislike writing the same fluff over and over. I don’t need to do another eighteen to learn what I already know.
So back to the world of fiction. I am already more excited about writing so I don’t regret quitting. Stephen Dubner from Freakanomics says that quitting can be the most important thing a person does. I guess we’ll find out.
To help us understand quitting, we look at a couple of key economic concepts in this episode: sunk cost and opportunity cost. Sunk cost is about the past – it’s the time or money or sweat equity you’ve put into a job or relationship or a project, and which makes quitting hard. Opportunity cost is about the future. It means that for every hour or dollar you spend on one thing, you’re giving up the opportunity to spend that hour or dollar on something else – something that might make your life better. If only you weren’t so worried about the sunk cost. If only you could …. quit. Stephen Dubner Freakanomics, Season 1 Episode 5