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When do you decide to stop reading a particular book?
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What a good question! I rarely read a book straight through. I read the beginning until it doesn't interest me or the suspense gets intense and I know it won't be answered until the end and then I read the end. I might go about in the middle pages until the writing or ideas grab me and then I'll read it through if it satisfies my curiosity or interest but normally I'll drop it if it doesn't. I still feel a little guilty not reading it if it's well received elsewhere but life is so short and there are so many books.
I try to give a book at least 100 pages and if it still doesn't move me I have to abandon it. But I'm glad that I haven had to abandon very many.
Somebody at a book club mentioned that if things are going slow for her, she'll skip ahead 10, 20, then more pages to see if the story picks up. Maybe I'll try that time I face a similar situation.
Mod
If a book is assigned reading, such as for book club, I usually endure because I feel there is value in effort. I want to contribute to the discussion and be able to articulate why I didn't like the book. I have managed to complete a number of books I didn't like except for Atonement which was dreadful in so many different ways (including being full of awful people) I couldn't bear to read another page.
Occasionally, however, a book has turned out to be worth the effort. An example of one that started very slowly was Wolf Hall. I'm not going to lie, that book was WORK and in nearly every other situation I would have quit. But I had suggested it to the book group so I soldiered on. In the end I was truly glad I had stuck with it. I now consider it one of the greatest works of English literature out there. (Not everyone in the group agreed, but I think they forgive me.)
Mod
Sometimes if the book is popular and I don't like it, I, like Brendle, will finish the book so that I can articulate why I don't like the book. I feel like I can only really review and evaluate what I've actually read, so if I haven't finished it I don't have the right to really rant about it. Except for Twilight. I couldn't finish, although I tried and tried, switching media and everything but when I finally realized I was avoiding everything that involved listening to books just because that was my obligatory book, I stopped the madness and turned the book back in to the library. For my own pleasure, if it's not a book that draws and keeps my attention well by, say, 50-100 pages, I'll get something else. There just aren't enough waking hours to read all the things I want to read, so why waste time reading things that don't interest me?
Brendle wrote: "I read a lot and if a book doesn't grab me or give me something to care about, I am more than happy to move on to the next one. I usually give a book at least 50 pages, but I have been known to bai..."Wolf Hall? I keep thinking I read that. I'll have to look at it and see.
I recently gave up on two books in mid-story, both for different reasons. I was listening to the audiobook "When We Were Animals," and quit halfway through. There was enough of a teaser in the plot which lured me that far, but nothing more seemed to materialize and I was starting to dislike the characters. Around the midpoint of the story I was no longer interested in continuing.The other book I gave up on was the alternative history "Hitler's War," by Harry Turtledove. It had a great premise--what if Neville Chamberlain refused to sign the Munich Accords in 1938, prompting Germany to start the war a year early--but the huge cast of characters and settings got too hard to follow. To be sure, the book is well-researched and very detailed. However, the plot jumped between different groups of characters all over Europe. I frequently had to stop and ask myself, "Now, who are these people and what are they doing?" and flipping back through the pages to find out what was happening to them the last time they appeared in the story a hundred pages before. For all its good points, reading it was an effort, not an enjoyment.
John, great point, when reading is an effort and is no longer an enjoyment, that's when it's time to quit.
When it takes deliberate effort to pick up a book I've started (oh look, there's laundry to fold!) or I'm tempted to start and finish other books, that is not a good sign. But I NEVER skip ahead or read the end. If I abandon a book I do so without further ado and move on. Interesting to hear that other folks will quit a book because they don't like the characters. I'm not sure I've ever done that (case in point: Hausfrau). Usually it's writing or plot issues that drive me away. Or in the case of audiobooks, an annoying narrator.
For me I like to give it about a hundred pages. I think that is quite generous. But sometimes I can just tell the book is not for me and quit after about 25 pages. The last couple I dropped were ones that, for authenticity purposes, the author used a lot of slang and accents. For some people that is fine but for me it is a distraction and time to move on.
I heard someone's method called the rule of 50. If you are under 50 read the first 100 pages, if you don't want to keep going after that it is time to put it aside. If you are over 50 subtract your age from 100 and read that many pages before making a decision. That's what I tell myself anyway. When I was younger I read every book all the way through. Now I read until I can't take it anymore, e.g. bored, fed up with the style, incredulous about the plot or world development, or just tired of the content, I'll give it up where ever that point is. I have better things to do than to read books that don't hold my interest. Like read better books. I think we do our selves a disservice by forcing ourselves to read books that don't edify us in some way, even if they are considered in a good light elsewhere. Even if it is a book club book and I don't like it I don't feel obligated to finish it.
When it's boring, I would stop reading it.
I'm sure everyone has seen the bumper sticker/T-shirt/book bag slogan - "So many books, so little time." I keep that in mind when I start considering giving up on a book. When my desire to read another book overwhelms my desire to keep slogging through this one, I switch. No hard and fast rule, so many pages, percentage of the book, anything like that.I also keep in mind that sometimes it's just the wrong time. I started and dropped "Steppenwolf" twice. The third time, I couldn't put it down.
Mod
You know, I think I like this method best!
In the past, I would plow through the book to make it to the bitter end but I'm now thinking about just putting the book down if it doesn't do anything for me. Why bother suffering through a book when reading is supposed to be enjoyable? However, the question is how much time should I have the book for it to catch my interest?
Looking forward to other people's thoughts.