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When Do you give up on a read?
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Of Butterflies & Books
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Apr 30, 2014 02:44PM
What has to happen or not happen in a book or a series to make you put it down and never look @ it again?
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I recently finished a trilogy that is part of a longer series. I don't intend to read any more of the series. The reason? Boredom. I also left a series because of excessive, graphic torture scenes.How about you?
When I find myself dreading picking it back up. If I'm a good way through (maybe a third or so) and nothing interesting has happened yet, I'm pretty much done. I won't slog through something I don't enjoy just to say that I finished it.
I used to finish a book no matter what. If I hated it, I'd still finish it.Nowadays, I'll read books that I'm not enjoying for academic reasons, or because I'm expecting a big payoff at the end, but I'll drop a book for a variety of reasons. The thing that'll make that happen fastest is a writer injecting half-baked philosophical ideas into the narrative, particularly when those ideas are obviously culled from some loony outside source, and regurgitated in barely disguised prose. A character having a long, Randian mental soliloquy, for example....
Poor prose, by which I mean too much passive voice and/or every sentence in the form subject-verb-direct object. Books written like that sound like they're written by a teenager. Pardon my pedantry, please!
Paul wrote: "Poor prose, by which I mean too much passive voice and/or every sentence in the form subject-verb-direct object. Books written like that sound like they're written by a teenager. Pardon my pedantry..."I agree. Strange, clausal/phrasal sentences can be a problem too.
Poor prose, boredom with the story, feeling like a specific message is getting pushed down my throat via symbolism or character soliloquies. Sometimes if I find the main character/main perspective too annoying, I stop reading.I stopped reading the House of Night series because I got tired of reading "bullpoopie" and similar replacements for curse words...but only by the main character. Other characters cursed, but the main character was vaguely puritanical in this sense? Also I got tired of reading "brown pop" because the authors never actually referred to soda brands or anything similar throughout. That and the entire story hit a point of "what, seriously?"
I used to tell myself I would finish any book I started. I did for the longest time, too. Then when Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton came out, I just stopped midway through and never picked it or any other Anita Blake book up again. Since then I've let myself relax about whether I'll finish a book or not.
Usually it's bad writing or editing that does it for me. I just recently stopped reading a book about 4 paragraphs in when the word 'wandered' popped up 7 times in the same paragraph. What made it worse is that the author meant 'wondered'!I mean really, just because spell check says the page is ok, doesn't mean it doesn't need further editing!
To be honest I give up on individual books fairly quickly, like after the first couple of chapters, for the same reasons a lot of you already mentioned (bad prose, annoying characters etc.)Query: Have any of you ever rage quit a book? Like you were fine with it, but then something like a character death happened and you decided to never look at it again? Or are most of your quits after long struggles with trying to like the thing in front of you?
Nemi wrote: "Query: Have any of you ever rage quit a book? Like you were fine with it, but then something like a character death happened and you decided to never look at it again? Or are most of your quits after long struggles with trying to like the thing in front of you? "Usually if I rage quit a book because of a character death, I come back to it and finish it a few days later. I had that reaction in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, but I couldn't stop reading the books because they were too good. I did have to put the book down for several days, though.
Most of my book-quits are after a long struggle to try and like the book. Or to ignore the things that bother me about it.
I haven't rage quit a book, but I've tossed a bunch of them across the room after finishing them.If I put down a book, I usually go "Well, that's enough of THAT" and simply put it down.
I rarely throw books out, preferring to give them away, donate them or trade them in for more books, but on occasion I've tossed books out, and once I returned a book to get my money back because I hated it so much.
Nemi wrote: "Query: Have any of you ever rage quit a book? Like you were fine with it, but then something like a character death happened and you decided to never look at it again? Or are most of your quits after long struggles with trying to like the thing in front of you?" War and Peace by Tolstoi and Harry Potter 4. With WaP I couldn't get over the fact that I had been reading for over a thousand pages how awesome that one character is just for the girl to pick someone else just when he had managed to free himself of his obligations. And I just hate Ron in book 4 (as far as I ever made it into the book). I mean, I never like him but I actually threw Goblet through my room in anger and then put it away to never read it again.
I 'rage quit' whilst reading American Psycho, when a dog is harmed I decided to give up the ghost, but I finally did finish it a few months later. That book just seemed to drone on and on, with intervals of graphic violence. I also quit on a book called Bitten because I just hated most of the characters.
Cassandra wrote: "Usually it's bad writing or editing that does it for me. I just recently stopped reading a book about 4 paragraphs in when the word 'wandered' popped up 7 times in the same paragraph. What made..."So very true! Sometimes I make a game out of it to amuse myself.
I usually don't realize I've quit a book until I have finished the other ones I was reading alongside it, I'll just sort of drift to something else b/c the story/writing simply doesn't hold my attention against something else. I did however say WTF to Stephen Kings' Gunslinger series when one of the books I had been waiting for spent entire chapters talking about some stupid bear on a forest planet with a powerline running down the middle, ugh, honestly now that I think about it, I'm not really sure I've read him since.
Gary wrote: "I haven't rage quit a book, but I've tossed a bunch of them across the room after finishing them...."
I'm more likely to yell at them than throw them - recently a character walked into a room and I screamed "Don't you DARE" because even on that first meeting I could see where it was going. And it did, and it was BAD.
I have been known to read a really poorly written series to the bitter end, just to see if the writing or editing got any better (they did, but the plotting went down the toilet), but generally I take the advice of an old editor of mine "Life's too short to read bad books". If I really don't care about any of the characters by about 1/4 of the way in, I abandon ship.
Alicia wrote: "I'm more likely to yell at them than throw them - recently a character walked into a room and I screamed "Don't you DARE" because even on that first meeting I could see where it was going. And it did, and it was BAD."I do tend to throw them a lot less often nowadays since I'm reading more and more in electronic format....
If a book is just boring, I'll give it awhile to get better, but bad writing is pretty much always a dealbreaker.
usually i can tell buy the fifth/sixth chapter if im going to like a book or if im going to have a hard time finishing it.
The answer to this is always different for me. Sometimes I give up on a read because I stop at a perfect time, on accident, leaving the book at a moment where it already feels complete. Other times I stop reading because it's boring, rambly, or uninteresting to me. I've stopped reading because something out-of-character happens. I've stopped reading because the story went somewhere and I didn't really see why. I've stopped reading for many reasons and only rarely do I pick the book up again if I stop like that cold turkey.I stopped reading the twilight books as soon as Bella started acting like a love-sick suicidal space-case (early in the 2nd book then). I stopped reading Rose Madder as soon as the heroine felt safe and had a new apartment but right before that I stopped reading because something so graphically horrible happened that I was perturbed beyond belief (i picked the book up again because I realized it would probably have a delicious ending eventually).
The reasons to pick a book up and put a book down vary and they can be strange...
I rarely put a book down because of bad editing or spelling errors. That sort of thing really doesn't bother me at all. As long as the story makes sense and it's entertaining I will usually keep going.
Some times the best books are the ones I've had to absorb in fragmented pieces, putting them down several times before actually finishing. Different writing styles are mostly to blame for how I read a book and how I finish a book.
I will give any book three chapters to grab my attention. If I am not interested by that point, it goes back on the pile. I might pick it up later and try again to make sure my mood at the time wasn't contributing to me not liking it. Once again, I will read three chapters. If the book again fails to interest me, then that's the end of it. Life is too short to read boring books!
Gary wrote: "I do tend to throw them a lot less often nowadays since I'm reading more and more in electronic format..."Well yes - that gets expensive!
As far as rage quitting, I will put the book in a kinda "time out" when I get mad at them. My husband thinks its hilarious. I do this with TV series also. I will eventually go back and finish them but my feeling towards the story have changed. I guess I can forgive but not forget :) On a side note, I also put off finishing a book if its the final novel in a series I love because I don't want it to end.Boredom and not connecting with the story are the main reasons I will not finish a book but that doesn't happen often.
If I'm falling asleep during the sex scenes and dreading picking the book back up, then it's time to quit. I can give more slack or leeway for paranormal or urban fantasies than contemporary. Also, if I paid a little bit more for the book, I expect spot on editing. If it fails, I return it. I'm on a book budget and I'm not wasting it on shoddy books.
I just gave up on one yesterday for several reasons. One, the author was preachy. I hate being preached at when I'm trying to relax.And then he was switching from first person past tense to third person present tense. (That seems to be so common lately!)
And finally the author did that thing. I don't remember what it's called, but it's that darned annoying thing you find occasionally. The protagonist is thinking about doing something, puts it off (all in first person) and then the author breaks in with...."Little did Hero McFancyPants know he'd never see her again, for if he had known Hero McWannaBe would have rescued her. But he never saw her again."
And then it goes right back to first person 'no one came to my BBQ angst. I hate that, I really really really really really really hate that. And now I'm getting mad all over again. Time to shut up! lol
Gary wrote: "...A character having a long, Randian mental soliloquy, for example... "Has anyone ever managed to read the entire radio speach in Atlas Shrugged?
I am more likely to put a book down because I am bored than because the writing is bad. To say it another way, I've read books that fail in so many ways, yet continue to intrigue me to the very end, and I've glad I've read them; whereas there are other books that I just can't seem to get into, even though they are probably good.That said, really good writing grabs me, so if I'm bored the book is likely partly to blame.
I make sure I'm fine with the writing style and check out the storyline. This ensures a pleasurable reading experience 98% of the time.The only two books I've ever Lem'ed were "Dino Park" by Crichton (started two or three times) and "50 Shades of Grey".
The main reason for me giving up on a book is the same as why I give up on a tv show: not being able to identify with any of the characters (especially if the plot doesn't really interest me to begin with). Another reason is a writing style so bad it makes me wish for a punching bag (only ever happened with Joy Fielding and E L James).
