The Reader's Bill of Rights

Daniel Pennac, a French writer, wrote a book called Better Than Life (1999, Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers). In it he laid out the Reader's Bill of Rights:

The right to not read

The right to skip pages

The right to not finish

The right to reread

The right to read anything

The right to escapism

The right to read anywhere

The right to browse

The right to read out loud

The right to not defend your taste

I don't think I would be a reader if I didn't have these rights. Sometimes, I do have to read a book all the way through, because it's required for a course or I have to read it in order to learn something. But I don't have to do that with every book I read, and neither do you.