Episode 52; Accidental Abandonment or Giving Up on Books

[Kate]

I quite often abandon a book early on because I can't get into it, but I usually put it back on the TBR shelf to try again. A recent(ish) example of picking one back up again is Break of Day by Colette, which I found really slow and draggy on first attempt but second time round I loved it. I think that was just a timing thing. Most of the others are "classics" that I feel I should try again to get through, even if it is hard work.

I have finished far too many meh books, but usually because they were easy, quick reads that weren't at all fulfilling but didn't take much time or brainpower to get through!

[Dan (aka Utterbiblio)]

I often abandon books, but it's usually an accident. The accident being that I see a shiny new book and read that instead. oops.

I also have a 60 page rule, like Simon.

[Elizabeth☮]

i will read what is tolerable - whether it's ten pages or 200. i feel no shame about abandoning books. life is too short.

[Paul]

I'm also in the "happy to abandon a book" club - There's a lot of stuff to be read and not everything is for everyone.

For me, it's usually the characters involved that will sway my decision. I am happy to dislike a character, but if I get to the point where I don't have any buy-in with the players, I give up.

The other, occasional, challenge I have is one of scale - the particular example I can give is Lord of The Rings - half way through the second book, I lost what was going on, I couldn't grasp how large the land was, nor where all the characters had ended up... I had to put it down....

I take a different approach to non-fiction - where I appreciate fact, detail and good research - I have struggled with a couple of non-fiction works where the writer has tried to characterise historical figures, and it has felt very false - distracting away from the information and story I'm actually interested in!

I think everyone has a story or two about books that have rewarded patience - my favourite being Martin Amis' London Fields. I abandoned the book at my first attempt in 2004 - At the half way point of my second attempt last year, I was really struggling - but I'm glad I persevered, reading the last third in one sitting...

[Louise]

I often give up on biographies without finishing them - I think George Sand and Talleyrand are some of the few I've finished in one go :-)
And then there are those you plan on going back to and try again later- I've recently done that with The Game by A.S. Byatt

[Alexia]

I tend more to abandon series when I feel as though I'm resding the same book over and over again. I will sometimes put a book down for various and sundry reasons and forget to pick it back up bit don't consider it abandoned because I really mean to finish it someday.