The Sword and Laser discussion
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Sadly I never got to enjoy the thrill of throwing a book, as although I read quite alot before I got my kindle. My addiction to books didn't start until I got my kindle.
I have come very close to stopping with the malazan books of the fallen numerous times but there is always just enough to keep me coming back. I just learnt to make it an infrequent I foray into the world. I read the first four in a week or two and was burnt out just on the scale of everything.
But u couldn't stop and since then I love jumping back for the next one every now and again.
Trike wrote: "Since we can no longer take out our frustrations on our devices, we have to start wars. "Which, coincidentally, is what happens in Ninefox Gambit.
I felt dropped into the deep end when I started reading Ninefox Gambit, but that's also how the main character feels. I became more interested in the narrative as she struggled through events.
I didn't lem this book, but as other have said, there is no shame in lemming a book. There are plenty of other books to read.
I think the only time when lemming a book makes me roll my eyes is when some says something like "I read 5 pages and..." or "... for 5 minutes...". There are a few cases where even that is fine - something horrific or very triggering on t he first couple of pages - but those edge cases aside, I think we owe it to authors to give them a fair shake. For me, that's about an hour of reading or ~50-70 pages. If it's just slow, I might continue but if I'm actively disliking it then? Yeah, no.
Of course, there's nothing magical about that time or page count - it's just me. But I'd have a hard time accepting less than a half hour and much less than 30 pages or so as a fair shake for a book (triggery things aside).
Rick wrote: "Yeah, no. "Calling Veronica! It's not just you!
John (Taloni) wrote: "Rick wrote: "Yeah, no. "Calling Veronica! It's not just you!"
Bwah?
Rick wrote: "I think the only time when lemming a book makes me roll my eyes is when some says something like "I read 5 pages and..." or "... for 5 minutes...". There are a few cases where even that is fine - something horrific or very triggering on t he first couple of pages - but those edge cases aside, I think we owe it to authors to give them a fair shake. For me, that's about an hour of reading or ~50-70 pages. If it's just slow, I might continue but if I'm actively disliking it then? Yeah, no. "
It takes you that long to make up your mind? The only books I've well and truly lemmed, as far as I understand the term, I disliked pretty instantly. If I'm 70 pages in and still struggling, I'll put it down, but I'll probably pick it up again in the future. Might be months, might be a couple of years, but I'll probably get back to it. Not so much with books I hated from the first sentence.
Yeah I agree, that's why I kept going with nine fox for so long. I wanted to keep going and really give it a good go, hoping to maybe find a link with a character, or maybe the calendrical warfare would click with me. If I gave up on books that took me a long time to get into I don't think I would have got into Wool by Hugh howey. The first couple of hours I couldn't get in at all, and it's now one of the only book series I have read twice.
And I think there is definitely something to coming back to a series, I read the first book in Brian mclennans trilogy(can't remember the name) and I really didn't enjoy it so didn't carry on.
Then I read sins of empire and absolutely loved it and am thinking of going back to finish the trilogy now.
Giving up on a book after a couple of pages isn't lemming, it's stopping to read the book. Lemming is implying a certain amount of time and effort spent trying to get through the book.
Anne wrote: "Giving up on a book after a couple of pages isn't lemming, it's stopping to read the book. Lemming is implying a certain amount of time and effort spent trying to get through the book."Two awful pages can be worse than 200 mediocre pages.
I had a pretty good track record until I decided to read the Wheel of Time series. Round about book five or so, I declared it the worst book I'd ever read (this was before I wrote an article about free ebook erotica on amazon). Then book six was even worse. And about partway through eight, being even worse than any of the others, I questioned what I was doing with my life, put the book down, and have never looked back.The only other book I've quit was William Gibson's Spook Country, but that doesn't count since I eventually gave it another try, still hated it and quit about a third of the way through, then because I am stubborn, tried it a third time, finished it, and loved it even though it's basically a long story about someone buying a pair of jeans.
Darren wrote: "It takes you that long to make up your mind? The only books I've well and truly lemmed, as far as I understand the term, I disliked pretty instantly...."
sometimes. Keep in mind that I don't read selfpusblished stuff that's just straight off the Amazon recommended lists, etc so what I open up usually has been through the filter of "I like this author/have heard good things about this book (here, for example)",
My point about instant dislike, though, is that you might have hit something on page 3 that annoys you but which turns out to be a minor part of the book and, if you read the book, you'd actually like it a lot. It's about getting a feel for what the book is, vs what the first few pages are.
Plus, I usually don't Lem a book because I hate it but because it bores me and I just don't have any desire to read 400 pages of it if the first ~50 or so don't interest me.
Darren wrote: "Anne wrote: "Giving up on a book after a couple of pages isn't lemming, it's stopping to read the book. Lemming is implying a certain amount of time and effort spent trying to get through the book...."See above - you don't really have any feel for the book as a book after 2 pages. You might have a book that has a terrible first chapter and then gets markedly better. You will not know that in 2 pages. You might in 20. You WILL know that in 100.
I lemmed Night Circus for content after ten minutes, with the mother committing suicide and sending her young daughter to meet a father she'd never known with a note pinned to her. I don't care if it got better. That was enough.
John (Taloni) wrote: "I lemmed Night Circus for content after ten minutes, with the mother committing suicide and sending her young daughter to meet a father she'd never known with a note pinned to her. I don't care if ..."Yeah, as I noted, some stuff is triggery for a reader and just puts a book, no matter how good, into the "nope, not reading" pile.
There's some grimdark stuff where the author is obviously just trying to do over the top, evil violence to establish that the character is bad which causes me to do the same thing. That's partly because of the nature of the violence but also because I think it's cheap, lazy writing - the classic example being "I need to show X is bad and traumatize Y, so I'll have X rape Y violently..." This is overwhelmingly a male author thing and immediately causes me to stop.
I lem books all the time except when they are group reads and I was the one nominating it. I don't have an point exact where I decide I should lem a book or not but most of the times it takes around 15-30%. If I reached 50% I would skim the rest.
As for throwing books I never did that - only came close to throw my tablet when reading the Red Wedding chapter. Now I have Goodreads to vent my frustration and give a one-star rating.
Keith wrote: "I had a pretty good track record until I decided to read the Wheel of Time series. Round about book five or so, I declared it the worst book I'd ever read (this was before I wrote an article about ..."right there with you on the Wheel of Time, can't remember if it was book 5 or 6, but I remember throwing it across the room
I haven't abandoned a book in around 6 years, but the last one i DNFed was also Wheel of Time, though it was halfway through book one.
I skimmed big parts of Wheel of Time to get through it, and really gritted my teeth on a stupid plot point in either the 4th or 5th book. That was my last one. No more Wheel of Time, I don't care about the end of the story. I can't do two million words just to get to the end of a plotline that should have ended at trilogy.
John (Taloni) wrote: "I skimmed big parts of Wheel of Time to get through it, and really gritted my teeth on a stupid plot point in either the 4th or 5th book. That was my last one. No more Wheel of Time, I don't care a..."This is why Jesus invented Wikipedia.
I should do a country song, Jesus Take The Wheel (of Time.)
John (Taloni) wrote: "I should do a country song, Jesus Take The Wheel (of Time.)"Oh, man. I can't believe this hasn't already been done by Jonathan Coulton or Paul and Storm. You/they really should.
I haven't abandoned a book for a really long time, but the discussion on S&L a couple of weeks ago about not feeling bad about a lem gave me the motivation I needed to put this one down. It was The Doomed City. This book is so loved by so many and I was really looking forward to reading it - I even requested the ebook from my local library in Overdrive so I could read it! I felt bad that a librarian had approved my request and I had put quite a bit of reading time into it, even though I wasn't enjoying it at all and the bizarre events of the book just kept annoying me. But thanks to the S&L discussion of this topic, I finally was able to put it down and move on to another more enjoyable book. They're right - there are just too many good books in the world to stick with something that isn't for you.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Doomed City (other topics)Ninefox Gambit (other topics)
Assassin's Quest (other topics)
Ninefox Gambit (other topics)
Too Like the Lightning (other topics)
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Slamming the phone down is truly missed. Especially on pay phones, which are practically extinct.
I don't know about defacing books. I've never done that. Books I hated I always just sold to second-hand bookstores and bought more books. Now with kindle, that is denied me.