Do you finish every book you start?

[Chrissie]

I get grumpy, not just bored by bad books.

Nevertheless books DO turn around and I do not dump a book unless I absolutely hate every minute spent with it and I am almost 100% sure it cannot possibly improve.

[Chrissie]

Bad books make me grumpy, not just bored.

Nevertheless I stick with a book unless I hate every minute with it and I am sure it cannot possibly turn around. I want to make sure that I am not being unfair.

A book that is not written well but teaches offers at least something, to keep you reading.there are so many elements to consider. I have to HATE it to dump it.

[Leslie]

I suspect I have said this here already but what the hey...

I will discard a book I am hating but I am more likely to reshelve books as to-read than mark it as abandoned. Often I feel like the book might just not be the right fit for me at the moment rather than truly terrible (particularly books from the Guardian's list or that have won awards).

[GeneralTHC]

I used to be a stickler too about finishing every book I started. THAT totally went out the window over the last year or two--especially this year.

I've gotten so bad about not finishing books, mainly because it's just impossible to read everything I wanna read, that it seems I rarely ever finish a book anymore.

To put into to perspective: My first year on Goodreads I read like 160 books—around 60,000 pages. Sometime in 2014 I started getting to where if I wasn't enjoying a book, I'd go to something else and hope to come back to it. I finished with a little over a hundred books in 2014, but I probably had just as many half-read books. This year I've only finished like 50 books, and I guarantee you I've read just as much if not more than I ever have in any year of my life.

I've turned into the guy who listens to the radio or watches tv around the clock almost, but is always flipping the station hoping to find something better, heh.

[H]

I used to be so anal about finishing a book I read. Torturing myself for days to push through a book I found boring. I haven't quite let go of that and will often plow through it once I've begun one BUT occasionally I will realise how precious and limited my time is for reading. I have just under 4000 books on my tbr list and I can't be sacrificing so many of them for paltry books! The worst feeling is when a book starts out great then the greatness dwindles but you trudge on in the hope that it will improve. Then you're left disappointed!

[Shirley]

Heather wrote: "I used to be so anal about finishing a book I read. Torturing myself for days to push through a book I found boring. I haven't quite let go of that and will often plow through it once I've begun on..."

Yes, I know what you mean, Heather. I also struggle to abandon a book when others have found it great, and I feel I should finish it just to see what they were raving about, and then I am still disappointed when I finish it! We all have different tastes, but I love trying out new books because every now and again you discover a real gem of a book, which makes it all worth it...

[H]

Very true - there's nothing better this an unexpected gem!