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Do you ever struggle finishing a book?

T

Thomas London

New Member
Hey guys,

I read a lot of books for my website and while I'm a patient and interested reader sometimes I really struggle if I have a bad book and I can't finish it. Does anyone else have this problem...what do you do? I have this thing when I'm like if I start it I should finish it altho sometimes I'm sure it's better just put it down to read something better. Any ideas?

Cheers, Thomas
 
Sometimes you just need to let go if the book isn't catching you. I think most books deserve 50-60 pages at least, if you still don't like it by then I wouldn't bother. It sucks when you are reading a book that isn't holding your interest, but another book is screaming at you to come read it. I usually will just go to the screaming book if I can.
 
On slow books, I'll try for 100 pages. If I'm not caught by then, I'll put it on my Deferred List, leave it on the current pile and go on to another book, before rotating it back to the shelf after a while. Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent is one I currently can't pick up again. :sad:

And many make it straight onto the shelf because I am just not in the mood.

I am ruthless! :D
 
Yes, I have a struggle finishing some books especially the one I'm reading now for another forum book group read. It's called This Thing of Darkness by Thompson, a fictionalized account of Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle and Charles Darwin. Actually the book is really interesting and I have no trouble staying with it for an hour or so but then I put it down and don't pick it up again for a couple of days. One of the problems I believe is that it is so long, however, I'm in the home stretch now and expect to finish it soon. It seems when it is a set reading it's almost as though I feel it's an assignment rather than a reading for entertainment or insight. May take me back to a bit of reluctance with some of my homework assignments and that is going back a long, long way. Quite strange. :rolleyes:
 
I just put aside another book which failed my hopes for it.

Sometimes I think there should be a thread, "Recently Unfinished." :innocent:
 
Well, it looks like just the two of us, Fantasy Moon, so not enough interest. Back to regular programming on the topic of people struggling to finish a book.
:flowers:
 
I'll chime in. Sometimes, a good book just doesn't grab me and I know I should stick with it. It took me a very long time to finish The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks but I was committed to finishing it. Not sure why I had difficulty other than not much happened over the course of the read, even though it was an important story.

I am now struggling with Death With Interruptions, by Jose Saramago. Great idea for a book but his writing style is putting me off big time. Very little punctuation, no paragraphs, strange for sure. Sentences go on and on. It is a well-liked and reviewed book, and I haven't give up yet. However, I find myself doing other things and not reading it very often.

And then, sometimes a book is awful (IMHO) and this just makes me angry. I do stop reading it, but I get mad at myself for spending money on it. Examples are Darkest Night of the Year, by Dean Koontz, more insulting as I bought the hard cover! In addition, there was The Passage by Cronin. It had a lot of hype, and some people loved it. I hated it and couldn't continue. Unfortunately, I do take it personally and don't go back to that author.

What is also interesting is finishing a book you loathe and how that makes you feel. A prime example is Memory Keepers Daughter. I kept thinking it would be rewarding toward the end, but it wasn't. Not a likeable character in it.
 
Meminger, It sounds like you have had much worse luck than I have had recently. Believe me, I empathize completely and feel your pain. :sad:
 
I agree with most... 60-100 pages, and if it doesn't grab ya, move on. Too many books out there to suffer through one that doesn't interest you
 
Oh and just to add.. I actually just started a book a few days ago, that I won't mention the title as I don't want to offend anyone, and by the 150th page I had to just put it down and walk away. The plot was beyond stupid and even the way the characters were introduced was horrible :(
 
BookManEd said:
Oh and just to add.. I actually just started a book a few days ago, that I won't mention the title as I don't want to offend anyone, and by the 150th page I had to just put it down and walk away. The plot was beyond stupid and even the way the characters were introduced was horrible :(
Click to expand...

Now I really want to know what book this is.

Let's see: there was a time where I would finish a book regardless of how I felt about the quality of writing or story structure. These days, I have less of a problem putting down a book I don't connect with. Just too many books lying around waiting to be read, y'know?
 
BookManEd said:
Oh and just to add.. I actually just started a book a few days ago, that I won't mention the title as I don't want to offend anyone, and by the 150th page I had to just put it down and walk away. The plot was beyond stupid and even the way the characters were introduced was horrible :(
Click to expand...

I can almost guess, but would probably be wrong. Most people put down the one I am thinking of long before that. :lol:
 
Considering I have a couple of stacks of books with markers at various depths, I have no room to talk, but I do hate to actually decide not to finish a book. It does happen, though not often. I usually only give it up to at least 50 - 100 pages, depending on my mood.

Actually I can think of one that I read more than 500 pages of before throwing the towel in. 2666. It finally depressed me so much I couldn't stand it. Believe me, my husband was verra happy when I put that one down! :innocent:

I think I tend to think I'll finish them someday. Not tomorrow, but some day. :whistling:

Never say never. hee hee
 
Anamnesis said:
Now I really want to know what book this is.

Let's see: there was a time where I would finish a book regardless of how I felt about the quality of writing or story structure. These days, I have less of a problem putting down a book I don't connect with. Just too many books lying around waiting to be read, y'know?
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Hahaha, I won't mention it, as I said, I don't want to offend anyone :)

Peder said:
I can almost guess, but would probably be wrong. Most people put down the one I am thinking of long before that. :lol:
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If you guess it, I might agree

pontalba said:
Considering I have a couple of stacks of books with markers at various depths, I have no room to talk, but I do hate to actually decide not to finish a book. It does happen, though not often. I usually only give it up to at least 50 - 100 pages, depending on my mood.

Actually I can think of one that I read more than 500 pages of before throwing the towel in. 2666. It finally depressed me so much I couldn't stand it. Believe me, my husband was verra happy when I put that one down! :innocent:

I think I tend to think I'll finish them someday. Not tomorrow, but some day. :whistling:

Never say never. hee hee
Click to expand...

I do hate putting a book down.. I normally will finish them all, but in todays day and age, there are just so many books out there, why waste my time with something I'm not enjoying when I can move on... life is too short to be wasted :innocent:
 
There are some books in which I continue to have “false starts”. I’ll get a couple chapters into them, lose interest, and by the time I give them another try I have to start back at the beginning. Sometimes this happens with books that I KNOW I will enjoy once they get going. For example, I have had several false starts with Dune. But I WILL persevere, one of these days. I recently broke through and finished another hard starter for me, The Golden Compass, and am glad I did.
 
Bob Magness said:
There are some books in which I continue to have “false starts”. I’ll get a couple chapters into them, lose interest, and by the time I give them another try I have to start back at the beginning. Sometimes this happens with books that I KNOW I will enjoy once they get going. For example, I have had several false starts with Dune. But I WILL persevere, one of these days. I recently broke through and finished another hard starter for me, The Golden Compass, and am glad I did.
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I actually liked the Golden Compass. Thought it was interesting
 
I think it would be interesting to know which books we struggled with finishing. It would be nice if we would not get our feelings hurt by knowing someone else didn't like a book we really enjoyed. After all, we all come from very different backgrounds and have different tastes. We don't hesitate to admit to really liking certain books.

That being said, I sometimes read people's reviews to find out their "credibility" index as far as it relates to my own likes and dislikes. If they like a number of books I really liked, I am more likely to take their review seriously when deciding whether or not to get a book. Maybe this is a different topic all together?
 
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