In spired from my post in the “Your favorite History Fiction” book thread.
There are a lot of Books that I just plain can’t “get into”; (That is Ive tried at least once to read the book, and couldn’t finish it)
Dune – I got half way through this, and one of my 9th grade teachers told me I couldn’t read it durring study hall, because it wasnt assigned. (Caused me to put it down for a long while)
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time)
Wizards First Rule (Sword of Truth)
The Hobbit
Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy ((Yet to see the movie Either))
Atlas Shrugged
Neuromancer
Idoru
Lost in a good book ((Granted I didn’t know this was the second Thursday Next Novel))
Thats most of the list.
I started Otherland 2 (After reading Otherland 1) (Tad Williams) but put it down for Shadow of the Giant (Orson Scott Card).
in my entire life there are only a very few books that I have failed to finish. We’re talking 3 or less. I gave up on the Gormenghast books. I can’t remember the other examples.
I almost never stop reading a book in the middle. I may put it down when I’m finished and say, “Well, that sucked ass,” but I’ll pretty much usually finish it.
The exception is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I tried 4 times when I was younger to read it and never made it through the first book. Last year I decided I was gonna finish the trilogy come hell or high water. I got halfway through the third book, decided I just couldn’t take another 3 page song or read another detailed description of every friggin’ mountain within sight, and put it down in favor of a John Varley book.
In fact, the few I can think of is because I lost the book and never bothered to get a replacement. The best example is “Dragonriders of Pern” by Anne McCaffery. I lost that book twice before I gave up on it.
Honestly, I can see why you didn’t finish Dune. That book always ends up on my list of things I don’t understand why people like so much.
The older I get, the more ruthless I am about my reading material. Life is way too short to read books I don’t want to, when I’m going to die before I read all the books I do want to.
No particular interesting examples – but if it doesn’t grab me in the first 50 pages, I’m not gonna finish it. If I think it’s just the mood I’m in, I may try again later – but I’ve got about a half-dozen books scattered around the house that I’m 50 pages into.
That’s how I feel. I used to feel a sense of duty that I had to finish all books I started, no matter how awful they were, but not anymore. If it doesn’t grab me after the first two or three chapters, that’s it. But…
I started The Crimson Petal and The White several months ago, based on the recommendations from posters here and some RL friends, and I still haven’t finished the damn thing. I’m about a third of the way through it. I like it, but I’m just not into it. I’ll read a bit, but then find another book. I think I’ve read at least 8 other books (maybe more) since starting CP&TW. I’ve started another one, and am nearly finished with it now. I looked at CP&TW on my nightstand and swore to myself that I’d finish it over the summer. I do want to see how this oen ends.
Ditto. Sometimes you just need to cut your losses.
Both my wife and I start lots of books we don’t finish. She reads more than I. She’ll go to the public library every 2 weeks or so and get 5 books. She probably only finishes 1 of them.
I can always tell if I"m going to struggle through a book. If I start a book and the next day, I’m reading my latest Sports Illustrated or the New York Times or decide to turn on the boob tube when nothing’s on, I know right then that I’m not going to finish the damn book.
I will almost always finish a book no matter how dry it may be. I take it as a challenge. Also, I want to be able to say authoritatively that book x sucked instead of lamely admitting I didn’t finish it. Otherwise I’m just like the folks who burn or ban books they’ve never read.
The only times I feel justified stopping is a) when the book is just plain WRONG like William Manchesters “A World Lit Only By Fire.” (The guy sticks to old, disproved ideas) or b) I don’t have enough background knowledge to understand the book, such as a 900-page behemoth on the provinces of the Roman Empire. I should get back to that one, though. My ancient geography has improved a little.
Yeah I stopped forcing myself to read books a long time ago. If I knew I was going to be committed to spend hours with every book I started I wouldn’t be so adventurous in picking up books.
The more times you’ve read a book that knocked your socks off, the better you get at figuring out if a book is going to knock them off, and the more you expect that it should. But you still don’t want to pick up books based on the cover or reviews because you know there are hidden gems out there. So what choice do you have? You have to try a lot of things and see what happens. I give some books more of a chance than others. Sometimes I keep them in mind and go back to them another day. Sometimes I can tell there’s something there, but that it’s not the right time for me to get into it.
I think it’s better to save your discipline for pushups and flossing than reading. There are plenty of duties in life and I don’t want reading to be one of them.
I totally agree. I used to feel guilty for putting a book down - now I don’t. Sometimes I just know it’s not working out for me and it’s not a good use of my time. I go back to them sometimes though.
I think it’s near universal that the older you get the less likely you are to finish a book just to say that you’ve finished it. I read a half dozen or more books at a time. If I don’t get back to one to finish it, I consider that a sign.
I do finish hundreds of books a year, mostly non-fiction these days, but even ones that I like I’ll often skip the beginning or end if they don’t seem as interesting or as relevant as the useful stuff in the middle. Many non-fiction books provide a quick introduction to the background or history or a subject, e.g., and I’ve read enough so that I already know it and don’t have to go over it again.
Finishing a book I don’t like is even worse than forcing myself to sit through a movie on television whose beginning is stupid. Why would anyone bother? I once might have, but no longer.
Life is too short and there are too many books to read. Once I was in library school, I was cured of finishing books for no reason. I happily quit, skim, or read isolated bits of books.
I’ve given up on dozens of books assigned to me for classes. Really, if I’m familiar enough with the content to pass a test or seem informed in class, then that’s all I need. I’ll spend the time I save doing something that matters more to me.
For pleasure…only two books in the last few years. China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station (liked the setting, loathed all the characters to the point I couldn’t continue) and Wolfe’s Book of the Short Sun (which I keep intending to return to–it was just bumming me out too much).
For years the only book I could not get through was Dune. Started it, got 30 pages in, and quit. Tried it a couple times too. Never could finish. Then the movie came out (the one with Sting) and I was able to get through it. Started the 2nd book in the Dune series, got 30 pages in and quit for good. Never even tried to pick it up again.
I never understood people who didn’t finish their books. It just didn’t seem right to me to quit. The writer went to all the trouble to put his thoughts on paper, so I should put in the effort to finish it, even if I didn’t like it. Yes, I do eat everything on my plate, starting with the things I like the least and ending with those I like the most. Why do you ask?
That went out the window this past decade. I hit 30 awhile back and now I have a dozen books on my shelves that I started and never finished. And another dozen that I’ve bought and never even started. (The idea of buying a book and not devouring it as soon as possible used to be foreign to me too.)
Other people have replied commenting that their habits have changed over time too. Has anyone kept their same book reading habits over time without changing?
