It's funny how abundance has changed reading, vs. scarcity. There used to be this implicit assumption that if it got published, it was worth reading (with a few caveats), so you were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the piece, really engage with it, wait for the payoff. A lot of fiction demanded that approach.

Now I, like you, am willing to give up on things. I demand proof that you have something to offer before I'm willing to invest in the relationship with a book. Only very rarely do I violate this practice -- if something gets a ton of a buzz I might push through when otherwise I'd quit.

I wonder if we're better or worse off. Certainly we're different readers now, and probably writers.