How many pages do you give a book to grip you before giving up?

Having just put down a book before reaching the end, I asked this question on Twitter as I was curious about how others felt.

To my surprise the majority of people stop reading if they are not enjoying a book, rather than persisting to the end. There was a range of answers related to page count and chapters, with the most extreme answer, I think, coming from Philip Pullman:-

About 100 usually. Sometimes much less. I’ve given up after 2 before.

— underjoyed (@rosserger) June 29, 2019

First chapter

— josephine horman (@2013Horman) June 29, 2019

About 50.

— Melinda M. Snodgrass (@MMSnodgrass) June 29, 2019

If it's a pronoun, one word. Apart from 'I'.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) June 29, 2019

Sometimes the answer was proportional to the length of the book

Well, it depends. If a book has 100-200 pages, than probably 20-40 pages. If it has like 800 than 100 is max. But if a book is really good it usually gets me from first two pages, like Fight Club or Catcher in the Rye.

— ᗷEᗩᑕK TᗩEEᖇOᗯ (@biktairov) June 29, 2019

Sometimes the answer was related to cost

My endurance is tied to my costs. I'll stick with purchased books longer before bailing. But I'll ditch a library book in a hot minute.

— Karen Dawn Zachary (@KarenDZachary) June 29, 2019

So, here’s a follow up question as a poll. I wonder, if the general stance has changed because in 2019 we have TV and films on demand, whole TV series arrive in one chunk and can be binged, hundreds of cheap digital books available at the press of a button, and there’s more content than ever before.

Are we less patient with books? Do we want them to get to the good stuff sooner? Has all of this impacted your reading attention span? Are you less forgiving?

Take Our Poll