Our parents taught us to always finish what we have started. This also related to books.

A number of times we told our parents that the book we're reading is pointless or boring. The answer was always, read on. It will get better. And you know what? It always did.

Well, now we're adults, and for better or for worse, our parents do not help out with our reading. Yet we still try to finish all our books, no matter how pointless or boring they seem to be in the beginning.

Such was the case with "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin. We were so intrigued before picking it up. It won awards, got rave reviews, and was praised as marvelous magical realism. We expected something in the vein of Borges or Garcia Marquez. What we got was something we wanted to put down five pages in. It was pointless, it was boring, it was anything but magical.

Alas, we didn't put it down. Remembering what our parents taught us, we read through to the last page. We're sorry we did.

No more, dear parents! We will no longer waste our time! If we start reading something we don't like, we will put it down immediately!

We just wish we made this decision before opening up "Winter's Tale"...