Why the Need to finish EVERY book?

[Miira]

Even if it's bad, I want to know how it ends. Lately, I have been giving in more and looking up the plot synopsis on Wikipedia and calling it done.

[Anne]

Miira, I did that for the first time the other day reading The Passage. I did end up finishing it, but at least I knew where I was headed.

[D.G.]

I used to be liked that (finished every book I started), until one day I was a reading a crappy book and I thought...if I were to die today, this CRAP would be my last book on Earth!

Since then, I don't have problems dnfing books. I don't have a certain number of pages to dnf - sometimes it's 10 pages, sometimes it's a 100. I still put books aside to finish later but if I don't think I'll ever read them, I just let them go. It's not as if I don't have lots of books on my TBR!

[Rosanna]

I don't finish books I don't like, which is likely why my ratings are quite high on this site. I leave off the ones I couldn't finish. Life is too short and I'm too busy to spend time trying to like a book I just don't like. It makes me sad, because I want to like them all, but I will put it away if it doesn't appeal to me.

[Sonya]

I used to force myself to finish. Now I don’t.
Reading is supposed to be fun, and seeing as it has been a long time since I had to read for school or university, I don’t see why I should spend my free time torturing myself! :)

I have more review books than I can keep up with, so sometimes DNFing a book is what I have to do.

[Vanessa]

I have to admit the same... If I am not liking the book, it gets dropped...

[Leandra]

I did it! I said no to reading OCD!
I stopped myself from finishing book 2 of a series that pissed me off with its misogynistic double standards (Larissa Ione Demonica sorry I hated it)

Even though I forced myself to finish book 1 I stopped before reading the next 4!

Soon I'll be able to put the first book in a series down!

[Reed]

I have a golden rule of sorts. If I can't find something to be excited about by page 25, a character, a plot point, etc, I pitch it. Unless I've signed on to do a review.

[Paganalexandria]

azerjaban wrote: "I did it! I said no to reading OCD!
I stopped myself from finishing book 2 of a series that pissed me off with its misogynistic double standards (Larissa Ione Demonica sorry I hated it)

Even tho..."

azerjaban, I am so proud of you. I know from experience exactly how hard that can be. We should start a 12 step all us afflicted reading OCD. LOL

[C.C.]

This might be completely unrelated but, do you guys have any tips to an OC reader like me who always needs to finish a book. Because I've tried doing it. Dropping a book, but in the next days/weeks I'd be thinking about the book that I didn't finish and then I'd feel like I failed. Okaaayyy... I know I totally sounded crazy there.

[Leandra]

C.C it doesn't sound weird At ALL. Before if I didn't finish a book it would always be on the back of my mind and I'd feel guilty even though it was painful to pick up.

As a former (Ok not really but I'm getting there) reading OCD here's what I did: as I read the book I would pause and update my goodreads status on everything that pissed me off or was excessively stupid. If I found that I was updating my status every other page, I read back on my last comments- told myself that I don't deserve to waste my time on a book that's THIS bad, then... stop. I get rid of the book ASAP, if it's an ebook I delete it.

good luck!

[Leandra]

Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "We should start a 12 step all us afflicted reading OCD. LOL "

You know what that's a great idea! Then we can help those who don't know how to stop- Like C.C *cough* and me *cough*

Step 1: Admitting we have a problem, that our reading habits our no longer in our control

LOL

[Ann]

Well, I don't have finishing OCD, but I could still participate in your proposed Step 1 - my TBR pile is definitely no longer under control LOL!!! Thank heavens for external hard drives !

[Ann]

There was a time I finished every book I started. Not anymore. If the characters don't grab me and the plot screams "convenient plot twist," I don't finish the book. Life is too short and my pleasure reading time too limited to waste it. I also don't review books I haven't finished. I figure it's not fair to the author or to other readers since I don't have the whole picture.

[Leandra]

Ann wrote: "I figure it's not fair to the author or to other readers since I don't have the whole picture.
n.."

But shouldn't you at least review that you could not finish it and why? I think that's completely fair- especially to other readers who may have the same views a you:
ie. If I had read a review that read "DNF because heroine forgives hero for cheating" I wouldn't waste my time on the book.

I think NOT reviewing, no matter how much of the book you read- is not fair to fellow readers. We can take your comments with a grain of salt knowing you didn't finish the book.

[Wendy]

@azerjaban I am with Ann. I don't review books I don't finish. Mostly because often times I give up on a book because it hasn't "grabbed" me at the time and that could simply be a mood thing. Case in point.... years ago, I tried 3 times to pick up and read Naked in Death and thought that being sci-fi/police procedural with limited romance would not be for me. I picked them up 3 times, because they kept getting recommended to me. Needless to say on my fourth attempt, I was completely hooked and now I eagerly await reading book 40Thankless in Death.

If I had 'reviewed' Naked in death at my 1st, 2nd or 3rd attempt I would have given the book an unfair rating, because the book is awesome, it just took me awhile to get there.

[Sonya]

azerjaban wrote: "But shouldn't you at least review that you could not finish it and why? I think that's completely fair- especially to other readers who may have the same views a you:
ie. If I had read a review that read "DNF because heroine forgives hero for cheating" I wouldn't waste my time on the book."

That's what I think. I'd like to know if someone DNF'd a book, and I'd like to know why.

If the book I can't finish is a review copy I've been sent by a publisher, I at least leave a note that I couldn't get through it...

[Sonya]

Additionally, sometimes I DNF a book because it offended me. If I hit a deal-breaker in the story (rampant misogyny, for example) then I'm going to share my thoughts on it...

[Leandra]

LibraryLass wrote: "@azerjaban I am with Ann. I don't review books I don't finish. Mostly because often times I give up on a book because it hasn't "grabbed" me at the time..."

Thats fair, were all in different 'moods' for different books. I'm not into vampires right now and probably wouldn't finish a book that has them, that doesn't mean I'll give it a bad review,I'll just move it back to my TBR pile.

But if I didn't finish a book because I HATED it- and considering I'm a recovering reading OCD it has to be that bad- then I'm going to write a review.

[Wendy]

azerjaban wrote: "LibraryLass wrote: "@azerjaban I am with Ann. I don't review books I don't finish. Mostly because often times I give up on a book because it hasn't "grabbed" me at the time..."

Thats fair, were..."

I was recently in a reading slump and had picked up and thrown down numerous books just 'cos I couldn't be bothered and nothing appealed to me (I HATE when that happens). I have since picked up some of those 'throw downs' and rated them 5 stars! LOL!

[Kiersten]

I do this with both books and movies. I will finish extremely bad movies that actually make me angry that I wasted time watching it. I guess I just have to know how the story resolves.

[Jess]

I have this problem. I like to the it's the optimist in me. that it just can't be this bad all the way thru... It must get better. usually I am wrong, but I still do it every time.

[N.D.]

I'll give a book until about 50% before I determine if I can't go on. I don't like wasting my time on something that is painfully difficult to continue. I don't have enough hours in a day to spend it a boring activity.

It's funny since there was a time before I became a student in school, and I don't recall always feeling this way about that! Now, my time is so limited, I need to spend it studying, so if the book sucks, I can't do it.

[Kayla]

ill try to finish a book even if its not good just so I can say "yeah I read that and didn't like it" there have been books I didn't like in the beginning but it picked up and I liked the ending.

[Emily]

For me, it depends on the book. Some books are pretty and I'll like the world or descriptions or the writing, even if I don't like the story. In that case, I might finish the book. An example of this for me was Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. I enjoyed the writing but not the story. Other books are short enough and I'm stubborn enough to want to plow through. White Oleander comes to mind. But if the book is boring, I put it down.

[Nancie]

It's pretty much out of compulsion/obsession. It's a human trait. If you start something and then, after investing hours in it, you don't finish it, it will feel like all the effort has been wasted.

Again, it's a human thing. We feel that if we don't finish it, then our effort will have been wasted. And we generally have some kind of mechanism that guides us to make sure our time and energy isn't wasted--so we finish stuff to get something out of it, even if it's a crappy novel.

[Brianna]

I give a book 50 pages. In that time you can normally tell what's going on, *most* characters are introduced, and depending on the length of book, you're well into it. Depending on what other people have said about a book, I may revisit it and try to push through, i.e. Meyer's The Host, I was bored out of my mind, came back to it 6 months later and started over, thought it was fantastic. Sometimes your brain needs a breather.The Host

[Irina]

When I don't like a book I can't just put it aside, so I usually force myself to finish it. But when that doesn't work I put the book back in my TBR list; sometimes you just feel like reading something diferent and that doesn't mean you won't find the book interesting in the future

[Heather]

I don't do this anymore, tho I admit it is still hard to give up on a book. I want to like EVERY one!!! lol
But life is too damn short for crap.

[Menia]

Heather wrote: "I don't do this anymore, tho I admit it is still hard to give up on a book. I want to like EVERY one!!! lol
But life is too damn short for crap."

Totally agree! And I love your line: But life is too damn short for crap. :)

[C.C.]

I've finished all the books I've started because I get anxiety if I don't. Not the kind of panic attack anxiety. It just feels wrong knowing that I haven't finished a book. If I'm not into the book it would probably take me weeks to a couple of months to finish, I also take breaks from it but I see to it that it is not left unfinished.

[Menia]

I used to finish every book I started, but not anymore.

I do not know when this started but I find myself giving up on some books nowadays. I mean in the corner of my mind, I note that I'll continue reading them some day but I don't think I will.

As many have already said here, it does not worth it, it steals your time, reading is fun, if, you hate it then why doing it?

[S.W.]

Gosh, I don't. I used to when I was younger, and was pretty much limited to the library for books. Now, I find most of my books by downloading samples off Amazon, and don't usually make it further than a page or two before I decide to buy or bin.
It's probably because my life is much busier than it used to be, and I don't want to waste it reading anything other than the good stuff.

[Anne]

I don't think I've started a book that I've truly hated. Disappointed, yes, but not enough to keep me from finishing. But perhaps that's my curiosity. It would eat at me not knowing what happened. I guess I could skip to the end and be done with it, but I would still wonder what happened in between.

[Sonya]

I don’t need to hate a book to DNF it. It seems especially at the moment with publishers latching onto “The Current Big Thing” there’re a gazillion carbon copies of stories coming out and I get so bored reading them.

For example, so many ARCs I’ve looked at recently have been about wedding planners who get pregnant to the best man at a wedding. Seriously – I only need to read that story once in my life, not 10000 times.

But I *have* truly hated books. I also have some trigger thingies that will make me quit a book as soon as they pop up. The misogyny and prejudice so many romance writers seem to like including in their books… I have no desire to read that.

[Ann]

I use Amazon's "look inside" feature too. It's very helpful for telling me if I'll like an author's particular style and I can tell in the first few pages how much tell there is versus show. I can also figure out if it's first person present tense, which drives me nuts. Despite my best sleuthing, I sometimes find myself a ways into something that just doesn't hold my interest. When that happens, I'm not adverse to booting it off my kindle and starting something new.

[Reyna]

I actually WISH I had this compulsion. There are books I have been told are GREAT and I can't get past the first few chapters before I give up. A book has to catch my attention immediately for me to keep reading. :/

[Ann]

Sonya Heaney wrote: "I don’t need to hate a book to DNF it. It seems especially at the moment with publishers latching onto “The Current Big Thing” there’re a gazillion carbon copies of stories coming out and I get so ..."
By misogyny and prejudice, do you mean the current trend to have guys who treat women abysmally?? Just wondering because that bothers me too.

[[deleted user]]

Reyna wrote: "I actually WISH I had this compulsion. There are books I have been told are GREAT and I can't get past the first few chapters before I give up. A book has to catch my attention immediately for me t..."

I agree, Reyna. I'm sure I'm probably missing out on some pretty great books but if they don't catch my interest fairly quickly, I usually don't continue. Not just because I don't have much time but if the pacing is off, it takes me much longer to get through a book and then...well, I just don't have that much time. Reading is one of the best ways for me to unwind, so I might as well enjoy it.

[Pippa]

If I've bought it in paperback I feel compelled to finish it. But - I only buy in paperback if I'm pretty sure I'm going to like it (i.e. I've skimmed the first chapter or I already know the author). So there shouldn't be any reason to DNF.

I would probably have more DNF's of ebooks if it wasn't for the ability to read a sample on amazon.

I've only DNF one book and it really was a mess. The opening chapter grabbed me, and I was so disappointed when it went down hill from there. I almost felt betrayed by the author! ;)

[Nomadicbynature]

Pippa wrote: "I would probably have more DNF's of ebooks if it wasn't for the ability to read a sample on amazon."

DNF? I think I sat though a season of Nascar once upon a time... LOL

Anywho, books are like anything else in life.... if I am not enjoying it I don't bother. I will tell you for the 1st time ever, I stopped reading a book last month cause I was mad at the main character..I just could not take her possible betrayal.

[Rachel]

A long time ago I had serious book ADD. I would start a dozen books and never finish any of them. I trained myself to read one book at a time and read all the way through. It worked for years.
Now, as I get older, I am reversing that direction. I don't finish books if I am not enjoying them. Time is just too precious and there are too many books I want to read.
I don't have a set number of pages. I read until I find a reason not to. Sometimes it's the writing. "One more typo," or "One more paragraph I have to read two or three times to understand." Sometimes it's something a character does that offends me.
I rarely review books I didn't finish. However I think if you stopped for some solid reason, that's a valid thing to state in a review.

[T.S. Thorn]

I skim books, I don't normally read word for word. I read lots of books :P

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

If I'm absolutely convinced I'll not like it (usually because of the plot and I was iffy on it anyway, or the writing is a HUGE turn off ), I WILL abandon it. Don't do that much but trying to more.