Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. Fascinating ideas, but I got tired of looking for a plot, put the book down, and never picked it up again.
I’d say it really differs for me between fiction & non-fiction. Most of what I read is fiction & I probably finish 95%. With non-fiction: I probably finish 70%.
Some of the books I’ve put down:
Moby Dick with about 50 pages to go because I just couldn’t make myself read anymore of it.
Dune. Yawn.
Asimov’s Fountations.
Almost every self-help book I’ve every bought. I have all these ideas about how this book will help me, and sometimes they do, but mostly I read until I get something out of it and then my attention wanders.
Also, I buy how-to-make-stuff books, and I rarely read those cover-to-cover. I use them more like reference books, as I imagine a lot of people do.
Lately I can’t finish fantasy or sci-fi books. I haven’t bought one/borrowed one in a long time because of this. In HS I read these almost exclusively.
I think I’m more likely than a lot of people to put down a book because I did an English lit MA and hated it. I forced myself to read so much stuff I didn’t enjoy during those two years that I have no tolerance for it now.
I love reading but I love stories even more If I find myself avoiding one of the books I’ve got going at the moment, I usually ditch it.
I really try to give the book a fair chance - sometimes it at takes a while to get into the story - as with “The crimson petal and the white” which was worth it. But if it keeps being dull I usually quit it.
The only I didn’t quit lately because of dullness, was “The DaVinci Code” - a terrible waste of time really, but I just had to find out whether it was really a just rehash of “The holy blood and the holy grail” as I suspected, or if it had any originality in the basic story (not to mention (sic!) the absolutely horrible danish translation) - no originality - alas!.
Anyway, I’d usually quit if the story’s not engaging, but sometimes, even if the story seem dull, I intuitively feel there’s something to it, and, from experience, I know that I maybe should just wait until I get a bit older until I try again - as what I did with E. M. Forster and is still doing with Thomas Mann.
Really, the only time in recent memory* it’s happened to me was with China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. I gave it about half the novel before I gave up. Cool setting; just hated all of the characters.
I’ll give anything a 100-200 page benefit of the doubt.
- Not counting assigned reading. You’re almost required by law to ignore those.
Yes. There are a number of books I put down because they sucked or were unpleasant to read for other reasons. It’s perfectly alright for you to do that.
Which is not to say that some books may be worth working through; e.g. Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, the two-volume translation with oodles of end-notes, was very difficult, but well worth it.
I used to not finish books because I didn’t know I needed Ritalin. A while after that discovery I discovered that there are two types of difficult to read books (not counting those that are just plain disturbing/gross): stuff that’s over your head and gobblety-gook. If I find myself w/ the latter, then I’ll often drop it (The Liar’s Tale); if it’s stupid, infantile, and pointless (American Psycho); if it’s offensive by virtue of it’s racism/sexism/&c. (Reasonable Creatures); or if it’s just out and out nonsense (Seduction). If the book turns out to just be over your head, then it may not warrant the struggle.
So don’t feel bad if you put the book away and not read it.
p.s. What book is it? The curiosity is going to kill me.
Damn! I forgot the “How?”
For me, it has been just a matter of waiting for the straw to break the camel’s back. Sounds like you’re ready. Take the leap!
Good luck with that. My copy is mocking me from the shelf every night. I love Gould’s writing, but this is in a quite different style. I got about 100 pages into it and it seemed like he was still introducing what he was planning to do over the course of the book. Very heavy going. I think it will be worth it, ultimately, but it’s miles away from his Natural History stuff.
Most recently I didn’t finish a book by Laura Lippman, a mystery author I usually like. It wasn’t her usual detective and the plot looked like it was going to be a real downer. Not in the mood for dead babies.
I almost gave up on Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I like his imagination, but the over-the-top gore gets on my nerves sometimes.
I’ve also read all of Dickens, except The Old Curiosity Shop. Just too Lemony Snicket for me.
This book sounds like one you** have** to finish. It touches on your life and work. Does it make you question your assumptions?
It’s hard for me to put my finger on quite why this book is so disturbing to me. It concerns a cultural group in the US (to which I do not belong) and their actions over the last hundred or so years. Those actions amount to a perversion of the justice system and an institutionalized culture of self-centered pragmatism that seems inhumane to me.
It touches upon my life and work only tangentially. I suppose the real issue is that I’m a problem-solver by nature (tell me your problem, I’ll solve it for you), and the issues raised in this book seem beyond resolution. That’s sad, because generations are being born into the culture, and likely believe what they’re being taught about how it’s okay to lie and cheat and steal and kill, as long as those you’re hurting are outside the group. Maybe I think that if I delay finishing the book, I can figure out a solution before I’m done, although I know I can’t. People much smarter than I have tried, and it’s still a problem. And isn’t that depressing.
I don’t necessarily finish the books I start, but I’m another person who usually reads several at once. On the other hand, I’ve been known to stay up far too late or wind up sitting in a bathtub full of cold water because I couldn’t put a book down. I think I’m currently in the process of giving up on The Canterbury Tales, which is a shame because I really wanted to read it. I do realize some of the tales are better than others and I also read an interesting biography of Chaucer. On the other hand, I have no regrets about giving up on Wuthering Heights – I was getting annoyed by the main characters. Eleanor Rigby, I share your opinion of the Bronte sisters.
If a book is disturbing or thought-provoking, that’s a very good thing in my book. If it crosses the line into annoying, forget it.
CJ
Civilization by Clive Bell.
First got it when I must have been only 14-15 in an used book store. At that time it was far beyond me, and the next few times I attempted to read it since also met with failure. However, I am right now on page 77, using it to distract me from exam study at the moment. I don’t think I’ve ever quit a book without returning to it, though it may be years later.
I’m waffling on one now. It’s Jamaica White, a fictionalized historical account of Rose Hall and its owner, Annie Palmer. Now I understand the time period and the characters who call the slaves the N-word, but there’s some creeping racism in the narrative that’s getting my back up. Still, I think the white owners get what they deserve in the end, so I’ll keep plugging away for now.
I did read Atlas Shrugged, but I skipped over John Galt’s radio address. I figured I’d gotten enough of Rand’s philosophy by that point, I didn’t need a 30-page rehashing of “A is A.”
But, as my sig says…
Sorry about that…