When to Stop?

[Kristelle]

I am the type of person who almost always reads a book all the way through, even if I am not enjoying it. Does anyone else do this? What makes you stop reading a book?

[Heather]

I have stopped reading books for a variety of reasons. I recently tried to read the Iliad but allowed myself to get sidetracked into easier reading and haven't yet returned to it. I think Dante's Inferno may share this fate as well. I have stopped reading a book because it has to go back to the library and I didn't want to add to my already mounting fines. I usually do this with the intent of getting the book again but by the time it's available again I have moved on to something else and the book sits on my 'to-finnish-someday' shelf. I have stopped reading books because they were less engaging than another immediately available option. I have stopped reading when I disagree too strongly with an author's position and just can't take it anymore. And, finally, I have stopped reading a book when it crosses my personal line of propriety either because it is too graphic in gruesome details, too smutty, or the theme is too disturbing.

[Rebecca]

If I get bored with a book I stop reading it. If I don't get pulled into the book I get distracted so easily that it would take me months to finish a book. I started to read Wicked and couldn't finish that one, I just wasn't enjoying it at all and for me reading shouldn't be a chore just to get through.

[Corinne]

For all the above reasons I stop reading a book and also if it has excessive swearing. I just can't stand seeing those main "yucky" words in print and then repeated as I say them in my mind.

[Marni]

Also, I've decided recently that it's okay to "taste" a book and see if it's something I'm interested in. I do it more with nonfiction. Maybe not currently interested, or interested but don't have time right now.

I usually have several books in various stages of being read, so sometimes I'm too interested in the others and one or two will fall by the wayside.

One I wish I had stopped but kept reading, hoping it would improve - "Angela's Ashes." Already depressing because of all the poverty in it, but about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the main character starts growing up, starts experimenting, and that pretty much never stopped the rest of the book. I read an article recently that gave me a quote that fit perfectly - "blantant immorality in the name of truth."

[Heather]

I too tried to read 'Angela's Ashes' and couldn't finish. I think I understand why he's such a celebrated writer but the subject matter was too much for me too.

[Jaime]

I just returned a book to the library unread. I wanted to try an author I hadn't read before, Jodi Picoult. I had heard good things so I was excited to read one of her books- Change of Heart. I was very disappointed. I would pick it up to read just because I wanted to give it a chance, but I couldn't get into it. It was too over the top for me- modern day messiah in prison. Anyway, I usually don't finish a book because it's not good enough to be worth my precious time!

[Jennifer]

For the most part, I pride myself in being able to finish a book once I've started it, no longer how long it takes. I'm still working on a James Patterson book I started almost 2 years ago (but it was his first and very dry) and the very last Harry Potter book (which I keep losing!) The most common reason I stop reading a book is because I'll misplace it, and simply move onto something else.

There are the books that I just can't bring myself to read, though. When I worked for Barnes and Noble, one month we had a book that the corporate big-wigs wanted everyone in the stores to read and try to promote. No one else attempted to read it, so I tried, and it took me two weeks just to get through the first chapter (about 12 pages), it was so BORING! I won't mention names, because I'm sure someone will come across my posting and take offense, but yeah, it was bad.

[Chris]

Time is so precious that if I start a book and find it boring or inappropriate, I immediately stop reading it and find another.