To finish the book...

[rric528]

...or not?

I usually try to finish what I start, and this includes books. But have you ever hit a book that you just can't push through?

I find that if I don't finish a book, it is hard for me to start another. Maybe I feel as if I have failed, but I keep returning to the old book and re-trying to get through it.

How 'bout you?

[JLM]

I always try and finish books I start and there's only been a handful of books I haven't finished. I don't go back to them. If I'm not enjoying it, why should I carry on reading it?

It is satisfying to finish a book though, particularly if it has been difficult to get through.

[The Watcher]

Slightly off topic but I find that I have no interest in books that people have given me. The only books I read are the one's that I buy for myself.

If I get bored with a book, I usually head straight to the index (assuming it's nonfiction). It lets me pick out topics that are interesting and helps me avoid the boring stuff.

Also, I'd guess that the Bible is the one book that more people start to read, but don't finish, than any other book in the history of mankind.

[Babytoxie]

Absolutely. If a book can't hook me by the first several chapters, I see no point in continuing. I try to give the book a fair shake, but why torture myself? That goes for fiction, non-fiction, biographies; classics, modern lit., etc... This drives my wife crazy because, as an English teacher, she feels the need to finish any book she starts, just to add it to her knowledge base.

There are a few books that I have stopped reading, only to try again years later, with mixed results.

[Doc Sonic]

I currently can't finish "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell". It's a monster at 900+ pages. Despite it getting rave reviews I find it slow paced and boring. Also, hard to read with many grandious descriptions, asides and footnotes.

I feel like I should struggle through it but it is so tiring!

[thecallahan]

I currently can't finish "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell". It's a monster at 900+ pages. Despite it getting rave reviews I find it slow paced and boring. Also, hard to read with many grandious descriptions, asides and footnotes.

I feel like I should struggle through it but it is so tiring!

Thank you! I'm not the only one who couldn't finish that thing! :buttrock:

[Johnneeukca]

I used to struggle through a book no matter what. But then I realised that so many other books were crying out to be read, so now I give a book about 100 pages to grip me before I put it down. Although non-fiction books I give a little longer (Collapse by Jared Diamond is a real eye-opening book that I took a break from halfway through and went back to).

[NovaKane]

This drives my wife crazy because, as an English teacher, she feels the need to finish any book she starts, just to add it to her knowledge base.Although I'm not a teacher, that's my approach too: try to learn something or get a new perspective out of the book. If nothing else, it can be good fodder for helping refine one's likes/dislikes and maybe a vocabulary word or two. However, I do think it takes a compulsive personality to force oneself to trudge through an unlikeable book, but there is a certain sense of accomplishment after having done so.

Generally, I will read fiction, and the only book I have had to abandon (so far) was Lavondyss (http://www.amazon.com/Lavondyss-Robert-Holdstock/dp/0380711842) by Robert Holdstock. It was a complete snoozer, but I'm willing to admit my reading enjoyment and understanding might have been hampered by not reading Mythago Wood (http://www.amazon.com/Mythago-Wood-Robert-Holdstock/dp/0765307294/sr=1-1/qid=1166563332/ref=sr_1_1/105-1603827-5053244?ie=UTF8&s=books) first. C’est la vie.

For really long books (like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/1582346038/sr=1-1/qid=1166563499/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-1603827-5053244?ie=UTF8&s=books) or Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (http://www.amazon.com/Quicksilver-Baroque-Cycle-Vol-1/dp/0060593083/sr=1-1/qid=1166563553/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1603827-5053244?ie=UTF8&s=books) books) I'll read 200 pages or so (over several days), and then swap it out with something light and fast (er, besides comics, that is).

Cool thread, rric! :thumbs2:

[Sleeper]

Mostly shoot to hit the book all the way through, reading all the pages, passages and people inside. Then, if it's not a library copy or a gift, burn the thing if it didn't do anything than make me feel like reading it for reading's sake.

[mrmoto]

I read somewhere between 30-50 books a year. I've always finished every book that I started. Some good. Some great. Some pretty bad.

Being a huge Robert McCammon fan, I waited for 10 years for him to release something. SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD was over 1000 pages of shear boredom. I slogged through it.

But last year, I finally met my match. I finally found that book that I just couldn't finish no matter what. I spent hours reading it, and realized that I'd only gone through 11-15 pages at a gruling stretch. After 1 week, and 150 pages, I finally put the damn thing back on the shelf without a bookmark. I won't go back to finish it.

Do yourself a favor and stay clear away from THE POE SHADOW by numnuts Matthew Pearl. :puke2:

[Teague]

I've failed to get through very few books--and those books that I have left unfinished were more because they got put aside and forgotten rather than me making a definite decision to stop reading and give up. I always want to get to the end.

I have skimmed books, from time to time, just to get there faster, though. And some authors in my literary past (cough...Anne Rice...cough) I ALWAYS skimmed, just because they were such obese pieces of work. Good, but way too flabby.

I figure if I could get through Gravity's Rainbow (which I did) and pay attention enough to appreciate it (which I do), then I can get through pretty much anything. :thumbs2:

[mrmoto]

Just call me the thread killer.

Ha! Somebody to vie for my crown!

[William Paquet]

Do yourself a favor and stay clear away from THE POE SHADOW by numnuts Matthew Pearl. :puke2:

Is this book in any way associated with a graphic novel released by Vertigo, called, "In the shadow of Edgar Allan Poe"? If not it's a pretty bizzare lifting of the title, and I wonder if there isn't some infringment of copyright.

As far as the subject at hand, I usually finish whatever I start unless it's just plain awful, either stylistically, grammatically, or other.

If I don't get into the story within a few pages, it's no good. I can definitely suspend disbelief and get into any character's head immediately provided the author knows what the hell they're doing, and aren't trying to be too cute, or too clever. Just gimmee writing with balls.

[JLM]

There was a survey of UK readers and the novels they had failed to finish. The results are here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6440981.stm). I'm not too surprised at the results.

[NovaKane]

There was a survey of UK readers and the novels they had failed to finish. The results are here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6440981.stm). I'm not too surprised at the results.Knowing many people who have attempted to quit smoking, I love that this book, Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking, is on the unfinished list. It would have been icing on the cake if there was a "Stop Procrastinating" book on that list. :)

[JLM]

I wonder if they didn't finish because the book makes it so easy that they had quit before they had got to the end, or because they just didn't have the willpower to finish....

[NovaKane]

I wonder if they didn't finish because the book makes it so easy that they had quit before they had got to the end, or because they just didn't have the willpower to finish....Yeah, good point. I hadn't considered that, but I'm betting on the lack of will power. :)

[JLM]

I'd tend to agree with you.