Author Topic: When to abandon reading a book? (Read 8079 times)

raetsel · **on:** August 29, 2011, 08:29:23 AM

I'm reading an epic fantasy novel at the moment and it is really annoying me. I won't name the book as I don't want to get into a discussion about the specifics.

Suffice it to say it's irritating me. The characters are interesting and the plot is OK but jumps all over the shop and is quite clunky in places. It needs a really good edit. In fact as it is a Kindle book I actually went on-line to check it was a professionally published book and it is from a mainstream print publisher.

I'm 200 pages into it out of 680 and I can't decide if I should just stop reading it or carry on through to the end. It is enjoyable in parts.

When I was in my teens and early twenties I was really, really bad at finishing books so it's become a bit of a point of honour to finish anything I start as I don't want to go back to that situation. On the other hand I'm not the fastest reader in the world and don't find that much time to read either.

I just wondered what other people felt about the subject of abandoning books after getting a decent way through them.

Scattercat · **Reply #1 on:** August 29, 2011, 10:01:05 AM

I used to insist on reading stuff all the way through. These days, if I'm not enjoying it, I chuck it. I've stopped reading a half a dozen books in the past few months alone. Frankly, there's a lot of fiction out there, and I see no reason I should plow through junk if I don't have to.

Heck, I'll even skip short stories if they suck. The bar's a little higher there, though, 'cause the time investment is so much lower.

Listener · **Reply #2 on:** August 29, 2011, 02:24:08 PM

I don't give up on books. Sometimes I want to, but I also will feel that little tickle in my brain that says "what if I missed a really good ending?"

eytanz · **Reply #3 on:** August 29, 2011, 03:11:07 PM

I give up on books frequently. By which I don't mean I put them aside, I mean I jump to the end of the book and read the ending; then, if I feel like there are things I don't understand about the ending but want to, I start reading backwards until I understand everything.

DKT · **Reply #4 on:** August 29, 2011, 03:30:41 PM

Quote from: Listener on August 29, 2011, 02:24:08 PM

I don't give up on books. Sometimes I want to, but I also will feel that little tickle in my brain that says "what if I missed a really good ending?"

I'm similar, except it's not so much "What if I miss a really good ending?" as it is, "God, it can't be this bad the whole way through, can it?" Usually, it is, or worse, and so I'm trying to be better about putting books aside when I get too annoyed with them.

danooli · **Reply #5 on:** August 29, 2011, 11:24:11 PM

I sometimes find myself just reaching a point where I put the book down and just never pick it up again. The next time I reach for a book, I just choose something from the
"next" pile. That's the point when I realize that it has become a chore to finish the book.

jrderego · **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2011, 02:42:25 AM

"...an epic fantasy novel..."

Right about there is where I stop.

Kidding, kidding... No really, I almost never don't finish a book. The last ones I can remember abandoning before completion were:

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein, I started and stopped this one in 1999 about half way through. I love Heinlein, I've read just about everything he's ever written, including his insanely jingoistic travelogues, and cuckoobananas Patrick Henry "WE MUST BUILD MORE NUKES TO EQUALIZE THE EVIL COMMUNIST MENACE" articles. I even finished "I Will Fear No Evil", possibly the most idiotic book ever written, but I finished it. Couldn't make it through the relentless speechifying of Mike the computer in Moon though. I even finished Glory Road, his one stab at epic fantasy that I disliked immensely.

Better Than Life: Grant/Naylor, 1994 This was before Red Dwarf was even on TV regularly here in the states and I'd watched the first three seasons (I think it was the first three) in college in the UK. The book, based on the first season episode, was unreadably awful. I made it all of 110 pages before it went into the recycle bin.

Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling. Made it through the first and was unimpressed, was bored and annoyed by the second and couldn't believe how much people lauded the Scooby Doo quality plot, absolutely hated the third. I gave up on this one before her 130 page catch up and retell the first two books segment ended. Hated every page of it.

I'm pretty sure I've completed every other book I've set out to read, and I've read some stinkers (See above "I will fear no evil") but I rarely just drop the book. Mostly though now I read either classics or nonfiction. I don't like contemporary fiction of virtually any sort enough to seek it out for more than the occasional foray. I mean, I read a little David Foster Wallace, Oblivion was a collection of shorts which had a couple of good stories in it, I read Palo Alto Stories by James Franco (that guy who played son of The Green Goblin in Spider man...) and it was okay albeit a little repetitive storywise. But mostly I read nonfiction now. I hit a few podcast novels, but my opinion of them isn't worth dredging up really, and I usually listen to those until the end even if I vow to never listen to another anything by that author again.

kibitzer · **Reply #7 on:** August 30, 2011, 03:26:58 AM

Seriously, if you're not enjoying it, why continue? I read fiction to entertain myself, inspire myself and set my thinking off in different directions. If the book isn't doing that, well heck, there's hundreds of others just waiting!

NomadicScribe · **Reply #8 on:** August 30, 2011, 08:03:49 PM

For me, it's a question of whether I am getting something out of it. Some really long books are a great read. My favorite novel is Cryptonomicon. Other books I've been compelled to finish even if they weren't that great. I got through Atlas Shrugged, for example. My point is that length is not a determining factor.

As a counterexample, the last book I attempted was The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. I hated this book. It was only about 167 pages. Maybe 30,000 words, written at about an 8th grade reading level. You'd think this would make it go by quickly. Only, I came so close to just chucking the thing clear across the room multiple times. It had to have just about the dumbest protagonist I have ever encountered, and that is saying something. I kept trying to give it a chance, because it was recommended in "The Weekend Novelist". But by the time Santiago meets Fatima, I just couldn't take it anymore. I hated the story, I hated the message, and I hoped that Santiago would never find his pathetic treasure.

And that perhaps is where the line can be drawn. When you can't take it anymore. When the idea of picking up the book just makes you kind of anxious. When you start thinking thoughts such as, "Isn't there a trig test I need to study for? Or um... a dental appointment I'm missing?" A worthwhile read will not torture you every step of the way.

Devoted135 · **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2011, 02:25:47 AM

I have this compulsion where I must finish a book if I start it. Of course, I'm fairly careful about what books I start so this hasn't proven a chore in a very long while. But right now I'm reading this book that is actually stressing me out at times. It's weird, I'll absolutely have to put it down because I can't handle it anymore.* But when I pick it up the next day there's no stress and I fly through the next 40 pages or however many I have time for during my lunch break.

*It's not the writing, which is very good, but rather that I have an unusually low tolerance for suspense and general scariness. Both Sphere and Abyss had me curled up on the floor wishing for it to please end.

NomadicScribe · **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2011, 12:37:34 PM

What book is that, Devoted?

Devoted135 · **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2011, 01:27:27 PM

It's called The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, the first in a trilogy.

raetsel · **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2011, 06:42:10 PM

Quote from: Devoted135 on August 31, 2011, 01:27:27 PM

It's called The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, the first in a trilogy.

Well I said I wasn't going to mention the book in question but it's just too much of a co-incidence. The book I am struggling through is the very same The Way of Shadows .

Spooky, and interesting that you Devoted135 are stressed by the plotting and think the writing is good whereas I think it needs a darn good edit. That said I'm on page 306 and it has reached a point where I at least want to know what happens next as someone is supposed to do something major in the next 48 hours in the book.

I'm coming to terms with the fact the plotting will annoy but taken as individual scenes they are entertaining for the most part so I will probably continue to the end now.

Just picking up on other people's comments it's good to know there are a mix of people who do and don't give up on books. Eytanz method is novel but would make my brain hurt I think. Every book would be like the film Momento.

Oh and at the risk of getting drummed out of the forums I should make a confession. One set of books I've never finished despite several attempts is The Lord of the Rings.

My record is about page 100 of the Two Towers. I have however devoured every other format of the stories from UK Radio 4 serial, the original "animated" film through to the Peter Jackson films.

ElectricPaladin · **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2011, 06:49:52 PM

I used to not give up on books, until I realized that I was a pretentious douche. I'm not saying that this is true for you, but for me "I always finish books I start" had become an enormous pretense. I found myself finishing books not because I cared, but because I didn't want to be the guy who didn't finish a book.

Then I was reading a book (Sarah Douglas's Wayfarer Redemption), and I didn't like it, and I stopped. It's been a serious weight off my shoulders.

I abandon a book when it is obvious to me that:

A) I am not enjoying or compelled by what I am reading and
B) this is not likely to change.

For example, in Wayfarer Redemption I found myself increasingly impatient with the way Douglas treated the characters I sympathized with and provided moral reinforcement to the characters I found execrable. The morality of the setting seemed not only rather one-sided, but unfairly slanted against the people I liked. Nothing in the book led me to believe that I was misinterpreting the author, or that she was likely to change directions. Without anyone who had read the series to tell me that I was mistaken, I decided to abandon the book. I have never looked back.

Devoted135 · **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2011, 08:26:05 PM

Quote from: raetsel on August 31, 2011, 06:42:10 PM

Quote from: Devoted135 on August 31, 2011, 01:27:27 PM
It's called The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, the first in a trilogy.

Well I said I wasn't going to mention the book in question but it's just too much of a co-incidence. The book I am struggling through is the very same The Way of Shadows .

Spooky, and interesting that you Devoted135 are stressed by the plotting and think the writing is good whereas I think it needs a darn good edit. That said I'm on page 306 and it has reached a point where I at least want to know what happens next as someone is supposed to do something major in the next 48 hours in the book.

I'm coming to terms with the fact the plotting will annoy but taken as individual scenes they are entertaining for the most part so I will probably continue to the end now.

Just picking up on other people's comments it's good to know there are a mix of people who do and don't give up on books. Eytanz method is novel but would make my brain hurt I think. Every book would be like the film Momento.

Oh and at the risk of getting drummed out of the forums I should make a confession. One set of books I've never finished despite several attempts is The Lord of the Rings. My record is about page 100 of the Two Towers. I have however devoured every other format of the stories from UK Radio 4 serial, the original "animated" film through to the Peter Jackson films.

Wow, what are the odds!? Well, as I mentioned in the "what are you reading thread" I definitely think he needed a good editor, especially in the first 100 pages. So many details thrown at you and no way of knowing which are actually important! Though I was fairly sure I didn't need to memorize the various styles of architecture used by random surrounding countries that had never been named before or after.... So yeah, I think we agree overall.

Though LOTR is one of my all-time favorites so that reveals how our tastes might differ.

For what it's worth, I've got 2.5 pages and the epilogue left and I think I might have to just dive right into the second one based on where this is ending. I'm not sure if that's an encouragement to continue or to just leave off so that you don't *have* to keep going through the whole trilogy.

Obleo21 · **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2011, 03:47:41 PM

Quote from: Devoted135 on August 31, 2011, 08:26:05 PM

Quote from: raetsel on August 31, 2011, 06:42:10 PM
Quote from: Devoted135 on August 31, 2011, 01:27:27 PM
It's called The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, the first in a trilogy.

Well I said I wasn't going to mention the book in question but it's just too much of a co-incidence. The book I am struggling through is the very same The Way of Shadows .

Spooky, and interesting that you Devoted135 are stressed by the plotting and think the writing is good whereas I think it needs a darn good edit. That said I'm on page 306 and it has reached a point where I at least want to know what happens next as someone is supposed to do something major in the next 48 hours in the book.

I'm coming to terms with the fact the plotting will annoy but taken as individual scenes they are entertaining for the most part so I will probably continue to the end now.

Just picking up on other people's comments it's good to know there are a mix of people who do and don't give up on books. Eytanz method is novel but would make my brain hurt I think. Every book would be like the film Momento.

Oh and at the risk of getting drummed out of the forums I should make a confession. One set of books I've never finished despite several attempts is The Lord of the Rings. My record is about page 100 of the Two Towers. I have however devoured every other format of the stories from UK Radio 4 serial, the original "animated" film through to the Peter Jackson films.

Wow, what are the odds!? Well, as I mentioned in the "what are you reading thread" I definitely think he needed a good editor, especially in the first 100 pages. So many details thrown at you and no way of knowing which are actually important! Though I was fairly sure I didn't need to memorize the various styles of architecture used by random surrounding countries that had never been named before or after.... So yeah, I think we agree overall. Though LOTR is one of my all-time favorites so that reveals how our tastes might differ.

For what it's worth, I've got 2.5 pages and the epilogue left and I think I might have to just dive right into the second one based on where this is ending. I'm not sure if that's an encouragement to continue or to just leave off so that you don't *have* to keep going through the whole trilogy.

I promise, it gets better! I thought that the second and third books were much much better than the first (something about annoying little kids I think). The recently published prequel novella on the other hand...it reads like he dashed it off in an hour.

I am a little irked with Weeks right know though. Why on earth must we wait two years for the second book in the Lightbringer series to come out. I mean REALLY!!!!

Spindaddy · **Reply #16 on:** September 02, 2011, 05:21:28 PM

Quote from: ElectricPaladin on August 31, 2011, 06:49:52 PM

I used to not give up on books, until I realized that I was a pretentious douche. I'm not saying that this is true for you, but for me "I always finish books I start" had become an enormous pretense. I found myself finishing books not because I cared, but because I didn't want to be the guy who didn't finish a book.

Same here.

Now if something isn't capturing my attention in a couple of pages I flip through the the middle looking for interesting scenes, if I don't see anything I like, I pass on it.

raetsel · **Reply #17 on:** September 11, 2011, 10:15:58 AM

Well I carried on and finished it. I'm not entirely sure why, though I think it's the fact it wasn't totally bad and I did want to see where the story went though that ultimately was unsatisfying for me as well. Sorry Devoted135 I won't be dashing out to get the rest of the trilogy.

I suppose really the book wasn't actually "unreadable" ( unlike say Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe but that's another story [pun intended]).

It could have been so much better that's what is most annoying and as I mentioned before I blame the editor in part for that.

Next time I take a leap in the dark with a new author I'll check the page count first (one of the pitfalls of the ebooks is you don't see as easily how long the book is). 300 pages is worth the risk but 680 that's going to need some research.

InfiniteMonkey · **Reply #18 on:** September 11, 2011, 09:59:11 PM

A wise friend of mine once responded to a broadcast appeal about when I should stop reading a book with "if you have to ask your friends, then it's time you stop reading the book..."

Until relatively recently I was very anal (and stubborn) about always finishing books, but someone - in the publishing industry, ironically enough - mocked me for it. And then one day I realized "Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ on a Popsicle Stick, I don't have time for this!!! I have too many other books!!"

I thought at first this was "Dance of Shadows" which I thought (and it seems was wrong in thinking) I had a Kindle Sample for - more irony, because I thought this was a discussion on when to stop reading paper books before I clicked on it.

P.S. The *one* time when I always finish the book is when it's a book club book, because otherwise it would be rude. Ok, except for the Unfortunate Incident with "I Will Fear No Evil"....

Devoted135 · **Reply #19 on:** September 11, 2011, 10:45:46 PM

Quote from: raetsel on September 11, 2011, 10:15:58 AM

Well I carried on and finished it. I'm not entirely sure why, though I think it's the fact it wasn't totally bad and I did want to see where the story went though that ultimately was unsatisfying for me as well. Sorry Devoted135 I won't be dashing out to get the rest of the trilogy.

No need to apologize here! I can definitely see just ending it there, it's amazing what he wrapped up in that 2.5 pages and epilogue. Oh and for a counter point, my husband also stopped reading after the first book.

Quote from: InfiniteMonkey on September 11, 2011, 09:59:11 PM

I thought at first this was "Dance of Shadows" which I thought (and it seems was wrong in thinking) I had a Kindle Sample for - more irony, because I thought this was a discussion on when to stop reading paper books before I clicked on it.

Well I was talking about paper books... Are the "rules" really different for ebooks?

Quote from: InfiniteMonkey on September 11, 2011, 09:59:11 PM

P.S. The *one* time when I always finish the book is when it's a book club book, because otherwise it would be rude. Ok, except for the Unfortunate Incident with "I Will Fear No Evil"....

Yes! *remembers her own incident with a shudder*

jrderego · **Reply #20 on:** September 12, 2011, 12:38:16 AM

Quote from: InfiniteMonkey on September 11, 2011, 09:59:11 PM

P.S. The *one* time when I always finish the book is when it's a book club book, because otherwise it would be rude. Ok, except for the Unfortunate Incident with "I Will Fear No Evil"....

Yes! *remembers her own incident with a shudder*
[/quote]

Sounds like we should start a support group for readers of that book. LOL!!!! I too read it and about 100 pages in said "what the hell am I reading??". I finished it but I needed to shower for a week straight afterwards.

Devoted135 · **Reply #21 on:** September 12, 2011, 02:59:45 AM

I should clarify: I haven't read "I Will Fear No Evil" (nor will I based on your response

. My own experience was with a book called "The Maytrees" and with my generally unenthusiastic book club.

InfiniteMonkey · **Reply #22 on:** September 12, 2011, 03:42:02 AM

Quote from: Devoted135 on September 11, 2011, 10:45:46 PM

Quote from: InfiniteMonkey on September 11, 2011, 09:59:11 PM
I thought at first this was "Dance of Shadows" which I thought (and it seems was wrong in thinking) I had a Kindle Sample for - more irony, because I thought this was a discussion on when to stop reading paper books before I clicked on it.

Well I was talking about paper books... Are the "rules" really different for ebooks?

I don't think that the rules should be any different. Though I do find that I read e-books - on a Kindle - a bit faster than I read paper books.

No, I misread the topic thread as "When to abandon reading books", which I took to mean when to move over only to podcasts and/or e-books.

But that's another matter.