Quit on a Book

[Maude, Book Boss]

I recently started a book and within the first 3 chatpers I was done with it. I've been on a pretty solid streak of reading fantasy books by female authors, but this one in particular sat so wrong with me. It glorified sexual violence in an objectifying/slavery kinda way. It was... gross. Audible is so good about allowing you to return a book, no questions asked... and I certainly made the most of that. I did feel a little bad quitting on something I'd started, even more knowing that the book wasn't rated terribly.

So I wanted to ask our club, have you quit on a book? Have you ever returned a book knowing it just wasn't for you? Or if you start the book, are you determined to see it through? Would love to discuss!

[Thierry]

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Yes, this one. I've given a pass to many horrible things done to characters in books in the past, (gaslighting, mental torture, torture, physical arm, partial dismemberment, rape, incest, etc...) because they had a narrative purpose for the story. But, in the first chapter of BL,RW, a character grabbed the genitals of a child for no other reason that he could. Sexual abuse of a child is a big NO NO for me especially when it has no other purpose then ''Because I can and I'll show you''.

Because it was audible, immediate refund.

Others were just because the narrator of the audiobook wasn't doing it for me, but I wouldn't be against revisiting in physical book form in the future.
Exemples: Wheel of time series and Mistborn (same narrator).

[Kris]

Audible has a fantastic return policy... that I may have abused in the past. There are some books that I have read and come to the conclusion that I would never like to read them again. Shadow and Bone as well as The Magicians are a few. I have returned books that were abridged and missing parts and short story I found I already had by getting the anthology.

I have, and I feel bad about this, read a book and returned it just to read the next one in the set with the refund credit. My ability to refund was temporarily suspend. They be watching for cheapskates like me. I have about 220 audio books on my audible account. I got book greedy and credit poor. Still, my fault.

Sooo, can I guess the book that you had to trade in? Was it Kushiel's Dart? It was Kushiel's Dart wasn't it? There are more then a few books it could be but that's my bet.

-KRIS

[Andre]

It's been a long time since I can remember quitting on a book. I'm sure there has been some not that long ago, but the last one I recall vividly for some reason was The Hobbit when I was a kid.

I have a long-time friend from middle school who reads a lot and who has lent me a bunch of books in the past. We share similar tastes so I've generally liked all the books I borrowed from him. I think the main exception would be a bunch of books from the Wheel of Time series as although I've read several of them, I never really enjoyed them much. While the world building is amazing, I disliked the large majority of characters. I've been trying to get him into the Book Club, but to no avail.

[Aaron]

I've probably quit about 4 books in total in my life. 2 were not because of the book itself but just burn out of reading a series non stop and needed a break. The other two were for quality of the book itself. Black Leopard, Red Wolf was one like with Thierry but for different reason. Mostly due to the structure of those first chapters in the beginning. It was written so non-sensical that it was hard to follow well at all, and would jump around so much that it was hard to establish what was going on. According to some, the author did that intentionally which irks me so much that it wasn't that they couldn't write it was that they wanted to write it that way which is kind of arrogant and mean spirited in my mind.

The other was The Gunslinger, book one of The Dark Tower series. But to be fair, that book was not written as a traditional story originally but as something published in a magazine, chapter by chapter. So the pacing was due to how it was released, like a serial story given in chunks like here is the next adventure for the main character. King did go back in later editions and change it to connect better to the series as a whole, but the version I had didn't have such edits in them.

I do hope one day we can read the series as I love the combination of horror, fantasy, western and sci-fi all wrapped into one and touch on many of Stephen Kings other stories too.

[James]

I have attempted to read Catcher in the rye 3 times now and failed to do so about halfway through. Just get so bored with it but maybe one day I will hit the right stride and mind space to get through it.

[Isaac]

I have returned a few audiobooks because the narrator was horrible for me or just the wrong pace, like they didn't wanted to do it? as for kindle books I think I've returned two book, once because I bought it in English and wanted it in spanish lol and another one because I started reading it and after two chapters I just wasn't into it so I returned it.

[Avery]

I actually can’t remember the last time I intentionally quit on a book. I have set books aside and forgotten about them before. Unless the book is super boring, I usually try to finish it. Then I’ll just give it a really low rating on Goodreads and avoid the rest of the series

I get most of my books from the library so returning books is no issue 😂

[Avery]

*from the library oops

[Nick]

I really don’t DNF any books if I can help it. I think it’s mostly because I am very selective with what I read in the first place. I am also a completionist so I have this urge to just finish even if I am not enjoying the book. The last book I DNF’d was a random book I got in a 10 for $1 sale my local library was having. It’s still sitting on my shelf haunting me, I should probably get rid of it lol.

[Lisa, Upkeeper]

I've DNF'd quite a lot of books. Some intentionally like BLRW, and others, I've taken breaks from and just have never picked back up. The way I look at it, if you don't jive with a book, don't force your way through it or it could end up ruining your reading mojo and you won't want to read anything. (That has happened to me before too)

[Kate, Steady Regular]

I usually don't DNF a book unless I'm really hating it. What I do though is I'll skim (and I'll skim A LOT if I'm really not feeling it).

[Colleen]

I am a big-time completionist. I think there have been books that I got interrupted and didn't get back to right away. I set them aside with the intent of finishing later. Some are still waiting, but my intentions are good. One book I just could not finish was Fifty Shades of Grey. I wasn't particularly interested in reading it, but so many people were talking about it, even the English teachers at my school seemed just absorbed by it, that I decided I should read it to be able to base my opinions on more than hearsay. I didn't even finish the first chapter. The writing was so bad that I just couldn't get through it. It felt like a middle school student had written it and that might be underestimating some middle school students

[Rachel]

I used to force myself to finish books. But life's too short to read bad books or books that I'm not enjoying.