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When to give up on a book

Fenster said:
I wanted to get some input on this before I go any further. How often do the rest of you give up on a book?

I have a tendency to start reading and get bored with the book very fast, and then mope as to whether or not to continue it. At first I thought maybe I had ADD, but a professional I saw about this said no, it was more likely that I just wasn't finding reading material to hold my attention.

Sometimes I do find books that just pull me in, I can't put them down, etc. and I get through them in a matter of days. Others, like the one I'm reading now, I feel like, "Well, it's good, but not great."

Does anyone else have thoughts on this? :confused:
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Hi
It happens sometimes, but not often! If a book is not interesting after reading 100 pages, or i just dosen`t like it, ill drop it and read something else!
What are your interest? What do you like? Sci-fi, fiction, action, Thrillers???
There is thousands of realy good books out there. I have a very good tip for you. It`s a book called "Neuromancer" by William gibson, try to read that, and i promise you that you will love it! :) :) Google it and read about the book.
 
I just gave up "catcher in the rye" at page 80. I've never liked novels written in slang. I thought I ought to give this one a try nevertheless, as it is a classic, but I realized today I have to push myself to read page after page.
 
Reply

Truthfully, I find most classics to be ponderous to read. I have attempted to read most with the reward being able to converse with more people. Sometimes I discuss with others whether the fact that they are not popular reads today, and probably would not even be considered for acceptance by today's editors, is a good or bad thing. It does not matter the position, because ANY list is debatable. Having a list of classics helps give everyone a basic groundwork on certain character types and story plots from which we can attempt to perfect or assure our own uniqueness.
 
alfinge said:
It`s a book called "Neuromancer" by William gibson, try to read that, and i promise you that you will love it! :) :) Google it and read about the book.
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Actually I have been thinking of taking that one up. I've been reading a lot lately about sci-fi and its different subgenres and it sounded really promising! Thanks for the tip! :)
 
i also use the "lanscape rule" - if i'm skimming over pars not described the physical qualities of the setting, i know it's time to move on to something else. i use to finish whatever i started in an almost superstitious, obessive way, but now i find i don't have time for that - there are so many other books out there.
having said that, i am now struggling with stendhal's the red and the black - i knew the politics would be slightly offputting, but i'm finding the protangist thoroughly unlikeable and unrelatable and i'm not getting much out of it. i know he gets his "come-uppance" and likely changes, but honestly i don't know if it's worth the effort.
anyone else read it and liked it???
(I'm on p239 out of 730pp)
 
bluecaffeine said:
I generally try to read until I realize that I don't care what happens next or what happens to the characters. Then, I quit.
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That's the same with me. Although like Stewart, I usually end up reading on to the end regardless.
 
I really dislike giving up on a book. I prefer a fast-paced read right from the start of a book, but sometimes the slow-starters are worth sticking with.

I suppose it depends on just how bad it is. If it's really bad, I'll give up after 30 pages, but usually I at least get about 100 pages in. It's always so disappointing when a book appears to be just up your street, and then just doesn't push the right buttons when you start to read it.
 
steffee said:
Stewart - what about Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller?
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I only took it to the loo and read the first few pages to see if I could be bothered making it my next read. I couldn't.
 
I read for my enjoyment. Sorry sirmyk, I don't really give a darn how much work the writer put in to the book. If I don't enjoy the book I will start skimming and then probably go on to something else. Life is too short to waste time on books that are not enjoyable.
 
Stewart said:
I only took it to the loo and read the first few pages to see if I could be bothered making it my next read. I couldn't.
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Must be pretty bad to not even rate as bathroom reading material:p
 
muggle said:
I read for my enjoyment. Sorry sirmyk, I don't really give a darn how much work the writer put in to the book. If I don't enjoy the book I will start skimming and then probably go on to something else. Life is too short to waste time on books that are not enjoyable.
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THat's pretty much how I feel. Once in a while I will keep reading something if I think it's "good for me", even if I don't particularly like it. Take the collection of Arthur C. Clarke stories I just read. I knew it was good in a literary sense, but I didn't enjoy them that much.
 
Giving up the book

At what point do you give up on a book? It was suggested to me once, that if a book didn't grab me, read only up to your age. Yes, I was confused too. What you do is minus your age from 100 and the result are the number of pages you persevere through. For example, if you are 25 years of age, you read 75 pages of the book, hoping it will grab you at some stage. If not, then you can give the book up at page 75. If you are 40 years of age, that will leave you with only 60 pages to read, etc.

Supposedly the idea is that the older you get, the less time you have to offer a bad read, so therefore you can give up earlier and earlier. Hope that all makes sense? Anyway, I thought I would share this with you as I found it extremely funny. I have used this technique a few times now and sometimes the book does grab me before I have to give it up and I'm glad I kept going. :)
 
That's a good question. I have a few books that I feel that I should read but could never get into them enough to make any significant headway. I'll give them another chance in a few years and if they still don't hold my interest then I will wait another few years. Wash, rinse, repeat.
 
This just happened with me while reading The Brother's Karamazov i got stuck in one of Ivan's long rants and just decided to stop and swith to Middlesex which appears promising so far
 
Cities in Flight. 640 pages long according to Amazon. I gave up two pages before the end. It was a painful struggle to get through and I kept thinking to myself 'It's nearly over, I'm nearly there', and the frigging author just wouldn't let well enough alone. He couldn't just end it, he had to try and be clever. My little brain drew its line in the sand and I could never finish it. SF Masterwork my arse.

I think it was being considered a 'masterwork' that made me stick at it for so long. Love in the Time of Cholera didn't last more than a few hours, Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell I made it half way through. Probably, rather than feeling my life slipping away from me, I give a book more or less of a chance based on its reputation and my opinion of the people I know that liked it. People I would almost have considered sane like Jonathan Strange, but some absolute tossers completely adored LitToC.
 
Usually, if I can make it passed the second chapter without my eyes glazing over or hearing voices in my head screaming the question, "Why are you torturing us", then I'll keep going. If I find myself wondering why I should give a rat's patooty about the characters or their situations, then I start thinking about it's time to move on.

BTW-So glad to see Litany again. Hugs! What are you knitting?
 
Yes I Agree, It takes me a lot to be drawn to a book it has to hit a core with me or a time or a fantasy of mine.. If a book is overly detailed I truely get bored easily I know detail is extremly important in book's but not to the point they are overly expressing a moment more than 1 page long it just becomes to much for me and I just want to end the book at that point. I think a book that is expressed to much and over imaginated or to much of any aspect of the book really truely bore's me and than I just set it aside until I am ready to read it again. What I love about owning books you can always go back into reading it cuz ur level of interests change with age. I prolly wont be interested now but later on I may be more interested in a book that may bore me at the moment.
 
I never finish books in one sitting, and I always have started several. So . . . . if a book just never gets picked up aqain, it has just answered its own question about whether it is interesting enough to finish. I put the unfinished ones on the shelf as "deferred" and move on to others.
It's dog-eat-dog in my TBR pile.
 
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