How many pages should you read before you decide a book isn't for you and switch to something else?

[RandomAnthony]

How many pages should you read before you decide a book isn't for you and switch to something else? What other variables are at play?

[~Geektastic~]

That's a tough one. With some books, I will read a chapter or two, and if I care what will happen next I'll keep going. Some books I've made it more than halfway through before realizing that it's not something I want to finish (like American Psycho; I made it about halfway and couldn't take it anymore.) I think it is unfair to determine a book's worth after a few pages, but that doesn't mean I don't do it anyway.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I usually go with 50 pages. The exceptions, the variables at play, are when I don't have huge expectations that the book will be good anyway. In that case I might stop before 50 pages. I'm sure that's what happened with Smilla's Sense of Snow. The other exception is if it's a classic work, or some work that critics have been raving about for years, or decades. Then I'll go at least 50 pages, probably more. Because then I'm thinking, I don't like this, but what am I missing? Maybe the first 150 pages are a hideous slog and then it gets really great. Or maybe the whole thing is kind of miserably unpleasant but I want to see what happens at the end, or I want to be able to say I've read it, or whatever.

The number of books I abort is tiny, compared to the number I finish.

[Koeeoaddi]

Fewer and fewer, as I get older. I used to have a hundred page rule. No more. Life is short. I have to be engrossed by 30-40 pages, or I chuck it.

[Janice]

I quit reading as soon as I ask myself, "Why am I reading this book?"

[Cyril]

I always finish a book I've started, otherwise there's an unchecked box in my mind that'll bug me forever.

[Kevin]

Janice wrote: "I quit reading as soon as I ask myself, "Why am I reading this book?""

Koeeoaddi wrote: "Fewer and fewer, as I get older. I used to have a hundred page rule. No more. Life is short. I have to be engrossed by 30-40 pages, or I chuck it."

^^^^ they stole my answers

[Angela~twistedmind~]

I have abandoned only a handful of books in my entire life. I have this mentality that I absolutely refuse to be defeated by a book. I also will convince myself that it just has to get better or nobody would have published it. I'm actually in the middle (literally) of a huge novel right now that I'm detesting. I'm reading something I want but I'm adding a chap. or two of the classic from hell each night. I will finish it, I will, I will!!

[~Geektastic~]

I take it this is in reference to Les Miserables, Angela?

[Sarah]

I have a lot of books I've put aside as "not right now" on the basis of a page or two. "I will never finish this" takes a few more than that, but I'm practicing not slogging through the ones I don't want to read. Except for Perdido Street Station. I have a feeling I'll still be reading that in five years, and still wondering why.

[Cynthia]

With "On The Road," I read the first page about a hundred times and then quit. Never looked back.

Any more I don't really enjoy books about cruelty to a child or animal or about extra-marital affairs. I've got too many other things I want to read about.

I have several friends who give up right away on books about cancer or the Holocaust. I can appreciate their unwillingness to devote time to topics that are painful to them.

[RandomAnthony]

I'm a huge Cormac McCarthy fan but I've never finished more than fifty pages of The Road. That novel freaks me out too much.

[Cynthia]

I meant "On The Road" by Jack Keroac, RA.

[Michael]

I loved On The Road and I have it on my Nook. Anyway, I'd say at least 50 pages or three chapters. I tried reading Lonesome Dove a few times and kept quitting because it was so boring and then one day it clicked and I got past the boring beginning and enjoyed one of the best books I've read.

[~Geektastic~]

Sometimes there are no rules, it's just the luck of the draw. It took me well around 200 pages before I decided that The Stand was worth reading, and I'm glad I did. Granted, I was warned that the beginning was something that needed to be slogged through, so I probably gave it more effort than I would have coming to it without any preconceived notions.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Barb wrote: "I've abandoned a couple of books as early as one page in. Usually, if I make it past that point, I'll finish it ... but not always."

If I only get through page one, I don't even count that as "started reading," so I wouldn't count it as unfinished, either. That's just called "seeing if this book is potentially readable."

[Mary]

I try to read 100 pages but I have been known to ditch a book if I find it too silly or disturbing.

[Scout]

If a book is by an author I like or has been recommended by a friend, I'll stick with it through a hundred pages or so before I make a decision to give it up. Sticking with a bad book after that is a waste of time. If it's one I picked up off the new book shelf at the library, I'll give it 50 pages - unless a love interest is introduced sooner. Romance novels suck.

[Angela~twistedmind~]

Amber wrote: "I take it this is in reference to Les Miserables, Angela?"

You would be correct.

[~Geektastic~]

Scout wrote: "If a book is by an author I like or has been recommended by a friend, I'll stick with it through a hundred pages or so before I make a decision to give it up. Sticking with a bad book after that is..."

Wait, so if any love interest is introduced prior to page 50 it's a no-go? And I don't intend this question to be as snarky as it sounds, I'm just curious.