How Often Do You Give Up on a Book?

[Gamal]

I just stopped reading a book after only reading about 25% of it. Part of me feels like I'm wasting money by abandoning the book and part of me feels like I'm wasting time reading a book that bores me.

Do you finish every book you start? If you don't what makes you turn away from a book mid read? I'd like to know because I want to avoid doing things in my own writing that turn people off.

Thanks in advance.
G

[Anna, Moderator & Founder]

I used to finish every book, especially those I had to read (like in school etc). I regret I did that. Life is too short for boring books, and those that you don't enjoy, or that don't give anything to you.

Now if a book does not interest me in say 30-50 pages, I let it go. Sometimes I'm willing to go up to 25 % of the book if I suspect it should get better but that's stretching it.
And sometimes a book is so bad I have to see how bad it gets, so I finish a few really bad ones too.
But if a book does not get me interested in 30-50 pages, or there's just something that really turns me off, I'll pass.

I buy nearly all my books second hand and/or from charity stores, so a randomly not interesting book is not a big loss. I can always label it with a bookcrossing tracking number and set it free somewhere where someone that might like it more will find it...

Hmm, what kind of things turn me off? The story being just plain boring, with boring telling and nothing happening. Like a shopping and relationship obsessed woman trying to tell an action story where there's nothing happening and not even anything funny in the first 50 pages - I'll pass that thanks. Also I remember trying once as a teenager to read a popular author's book for young people - after I was done with the Hardy Boys type books, I had already devoured all the Agatha Christies my local library had before I was 13. So I started to read a book for teenage girls that someone had recommended, and I made it to page 9 and gave up. What grossed me out was the protagonist talking about tampons (and that hasn't changed that much - I don't like to talk or read about certain bodily functions. I guess I'll just pass the 50 shades too). A second odd reason for giving up a book was for something by Jonathan Kellerman, I forgot the title. The story was told as an investigator/detective or similar, a heterosexual man who just seemed boring in his very female seeming ways of seeing his family. I gave up when he used the word 'lavender' for describing something. It seemed like the cherry on the ice cream; not a description of a blueish color any hetero male I know would have used in that (or any) circumstance.

Dostoyevsky bored me to death in high school. As did most classic pieces of literature we had to read. End result was probably that I, like so many others, stay pretty far from anything considered classic literature unless there's a really good reason for a piece.

[Robin Jonathan]

If the book is bad, abort! Not like there aren't a zillion other options. I buy a lot of my books at used bookstores or library fundraisers, so if they don't work out, I haven't lost much money. I often donate them back because there's a lid for every pot -- someone will like it.

[Gamal]

Thanks Robin. Do you use the Amazon sample feature to weed out books you might not like?

Have fun
G

[Angela]

Gamal wrote: "I just stopped reading a book after only reading about 25% of it. Part of me feels like I'm wasting money by abandoning the book and part of me feels like I'm wasting time reading a book that bores..."

Gamal wrote: "Thanks Robin. Do you use the Amazon sample feature to weed out books you might not like?

Have fun
G"

Gamal wrote: "I just stopped reading a book after only reading about 25% of it. Part of me feels like I'm wasting money by abandoning the book and part of me feels like I'm wasting time reading a book that bores..."

[Robin Jonathan]

Gamal wrote: "Thanks Robin. Do you use the Amazon sample feature to weed out books you might not like?

Have fun
G"

Hey Gamal,

No, not really. I will visit Goodreads and other book sites to check out reviews, but the ultimate decision will be made by me. It's not an exact process. Some books start with sizzle, then fade and vice versa. Everyone has different tastes, but again, I'm at the point in my reading that if a book doesn't catch me early, I'll likely move on.

Best,

Robin

[Gamal]

Thank you Robin. That makes a lot of sense. :)

[Anna, Moderator & Founder]

Some of my friends have suggested creating another exclusive shelf in Goodreads for the books they didn't finish. The standard exclusive shelves are "read, currently reading, to read". I think it'd make sense if you want to separate those from "read". (The same way it's nice to have a "wishlist" shelf - if you add only the books you already have to "to read").
Create a new shelf, and select it to be exclusive - done. Or if you already have e.g. "too awful to finish" shelf that you want to make exclusive, edit the shelf, and tick the "exclusive" for it.

I also rely on Goodreads recommendations. Especially if some friends with very similar taste in books have loved something, I'll most likely base my buying decision in friends' reviews. There are a few friends whose taste in books and star ratings is so similar, if I see them give 4 or 5 stars, I'll most likely be very pleased with the book.
Even if friends hadn't read something - even reviews from other people in GR tend to be better than the advertising slogans on the back of the book.

[Michele]

I very rarely give up on a book - my sense of curiosity usually wins me over & I cling on for grim death.

But the latest book handed out by my local book club (thankfully a borrow from the library that runs the club) has beaten me into submission.

It is sitting on the shelf sulking, awaiting its return to the library when our book club starts back in September.

It is a literary award winner too. But it made me laugh out loud in places where it shouldn't have done and then made me want to fling it across the room for annoying me by its self-conscious show-offy writing. So I gave up because I don't want to damage library property.

[Gamal]

@ Anna: Ever since Amazon offered their "try a sample" feature I use that to figure out what books I'm going to read, because I really don't consider anyone else's opinions when it comes to books. I clearly have trust issues. :). But even then some books slip though the cracks and I have to let them go. I have commitment issues too. ;)

@ Michele: Wow. I've had a lot of responses to this thread, but I think you're the first one that wanted to physically damage a bad book. It must have been horrible. :o

[Ken]

I read everything, because I frequently forget what I've read. Poor books generally take me a long time to read, but I'll read other books during the time it takes to read it. I good book I will not forget.

[Jasmina]

I don't remember the last time I gave up on a book (I don't even know if I ever did), but if a book starts to lose my interest, I'd rather skim through it than drop it completely.

But honestly, I think I do a good job picking the books in the first place (except for a one.......) so I don't feel like dropping them.

[Anna, Moderator & Founder]

Maybe the books are a bit like good wine or restaurants - once you get the good karma for finding the stuff you like, you rarely pick bad ones. Find your style, don't be afraid to try new things all the time, and when you know what you like it will be easier to be found by the good stuff. It just seems to apply for all of those. Nothing wrong with not liking something popular if you know what you like, whether it's a wine or a book or a movie.

[Angela]

I can never give up on a book. Sometimes that drives me crazy, even if I really dislike a book (Eat, Love, Pray), I still have to finish it.

[Darren]

if I cannot get into the story in the first 2 or 3 chapters, I'm done and move on. I also get most of my books second hand, so I'm not out a lot of money

[Deb]

Agree with Angela!!! I never do ....I plug on hoping it gets better!

[Anna, Moderator & Founder]

Try it the next time a book leaves you cold or makes you furious after 30 pages (or some amount you should have got some clues for why to want to follow the story). Put it down and walk away.
I recommend trying it also when you see a really crappy movie. Walk out of the cinema. I think with movies I've done it once or twice in cinema... Should have probably done more often. On tv it's so much easier to switch a channel once something completely puts you off, isn't it? Try to do the same when needed in cinema, and with books. Try it just once (and maybe try it with a library book if it's easier... Ue your local library)
Life is simply too short for bad and mediocre things when you can have better.

[Cateline]

Some books, I'm simply stalled in, those I put aside and know I'll finish them "later". But some I just can't stand to read anymore, I put them aside, and will never pick them up again. 2666 was of the latter type. I actually read 500-ish pages and was in such a bad humor from it, I put it aside, forever.
Right now I'm reading Ship of Fools and while I am a little over 1/3rd of the book in, almost 200 pages.....I don't think I can stand to finish it. I've started two other books during this reading, and don't want to go back.

Occasionally there is an exception. John Banville's (one of my absolutely favorite authors) The Untouchable put me off the first time I started it. Which upset me seeing how I usually love his books. Well, a while later, maybe 6 months or so, I went back to it, restarted, and loved it.

So, mood had a great deal to do with finishing or not finishing a questionable book. It's a crap shoot really. :) I don't usually believe in wasting as much time as I have on the above mentioned books, but I try to give it 50-100 pages at least, just to be sure it doesn't turn around.

[Michael]

Hardly ever. But sometimes it takes me years to finish a book. Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux is one I have been reading, off and on, for a long time.
It is his condenscending attitude to the people he meets which turns me off.

[Alejandrina]

Gamal wrote: "I just stopped reading a book after only reading about 25% of it. Part of me feels like I'm wasting money by abandoning the book and part of me feels like I'm wasting time reading a book that bores..."

Good questions. I think it is a matter of degree, don't you think? Sometimes the author has failings that you can live with, so you plod on because there is a redeeming quality, but in other cases it is so egregious (in one's opinion) that you are annoyed way too often. Time to drop the book, IMHO, and give it away or put it up for swap. I have recently dropped two books due to grammar issues/repetitive story summaries which I have subsequently swapped.

It is also the case, as others have pointed out, that re-reading a book after a long time can make a world of difference. My example is Dostoevsky. The Gambler was a novel I could not fathom and now I see in such a different light.

If you have the room, I guess you might keep some of the books you can't finish now :)

[Michael]

I just gave up on
I found it to be no where as interesting or original as

half way through and I am reading less and less each day. time to move on.