What an image. Imagine people spending the rest of their lives insisting that what they read in middle school was the best literature evah! They’d be laughed off the Internet.
I’m way past the “So many books. So little time” slogan. At my age, I really do have little time. Why continue a book hoping that it will finally turn into something good after 100 pages when there are a million other books I need to read?
I admit that I gave up on Midnight’s Children after a bad first chapter, and then later picked it up and breezed through it. But how many other novels are going to wind up being that good? Better to stick to nonfiction.
Interesting rule, but I respectfully disagree. My sister and I (and some friends) use a metric we call the “Rivendell Point”. Meaning, if you don’t like it by that point, you aren’t going to like the rest of it, either. Based on the need to get past Gandalf’s exposition bomb at the beginning and wandering around the Shire to some actual adventure before judging the whole thing. If you’re not hooked by Rivendell, give up. It’s not your thing.
Some books, especially those with a very distinct voice, have a very early Rivendell Point. I just read the Golem and the Jinni, and I’d say that the Rivendell Point for that one is on roughly page two. If you like the voice, you’ll like the book. If not, don’t bother.
Two books that didn’t do it for me lately: Money by Martin Amis, which is supposed to be “funny” but manifestly is not, and Aurorarama, which I wanted very much to like but hated, and I mean I used to live in Alaska and I like Steampunk and I was looking forward to it but I really was wishing that both main characters would drop dead as soon as possible, so I dropped it midway.
Now that I think of it, one thing that both of those books share is a main character who is only interested in banging hot young chicks and getting wasted. Not really compelling reading for me, so I guess I should have known better.
Theobroma, I entirely agree that what you call the “Rivendell Point” (“if you don’t like it by that point, you aren’t going to like the rest of it, either”) depends on the book. Sometimes, if I’ve started a book and am having trouble getting into it, I’ll try looking for what people have said about it (e.g. in the customer reviews on Amazon) to see if anyone tells me (directly or indirectly) where that point is for that book.
I try to read at least 100 pages of a book, if it is semi tolerable. But like movies, if I can’t finish it, I no longer feel any guilt about dumping it.
I do know sometimes I can’t read a book in the first few pages. That horrible Lisey’s Story and that swear word she kept using - was it smucking? It was awful. I barely got through three pages.
Never having known about her definition I didn’t pay attention.
War and Peace saw a couple attempts. Likely at least one failed since I was pretty young. Once made it a good chunk of a less weighty novel through.
Dune failed at least once. I tried again and remember jumping around so I probably read more total pages before chucking it aside but might not have made the appropriate page number.
The older I get the more willing I am to put a book down. When I was a teenager the idea of giving up on a book?! Oh, god. Never. Now? Look, I got like halfway through Let the Right One In. I liked the movie. But that thing was just SO bleak. I didn’t like the way it was making me feel, and I was happy when I decided I didn’t want to keep reading.
I’ve always liked the idea of the Pearl test - when I was younger, yeah, I didn’t know my own mind as well. Sometimes I’d end up keeping on with something and turn out to love it, and would have missed it if I’d given up in thirty pages. Now unless it’s something that gets very different (like The Name of the Rose) later on in, I think I’m experienced enough to know if I should put it down. Maybe I’ll pick it back up again in a different mood. Some I know I’ll never want to read.
I have to say it’s way different for me whether it’s a library book (meh. Throw it in the return slot.), something I bought, or something a close friend recommended or lent. If I laid out the money, damn skippy I will eventually finish it. Something a friend recommended, I’ll skip around in it just so I can make intelligent conversation.
Does it make any difference to you whether it’s a library loan, or a purchase?
I know someone who is an editor and was a publisher. She sometimes judges writing competitions, and she can tell long before 100 - her age that an entry is crap. I have a book called “The First Five Pages” build around the premise that if you want to sell a book it had better be damn good at the start. A lot of this is around craft, but in general if a writer can’t pull it together at the beginning of a book, it is not going to get any better.
This makes sense to me. I know I persisted with the *Wheel of Time *books FAR longer than I would have preferred, because a friend was crazy about them. (Still didn’t get past the middle of the fourth one, even so. And sadly, that did affect the friendship.)
Great. I now have to read only 31 pages of a book. Why didn’t I wail till now to read Dune and Dhalgren? I was way too young, and forced myself to finish them.
That’s absolutely true. But we’re talking about published works, ones that were read by an editor and purchased by a publisher. Unless you have read amateur works you can’t have any comprehension of the difference.
I had only not finished 2 books in my life before I bought my Kindle. Now, if I don’t like it, I simply buy another one. I think it is because I don’t research (for want of a better word) a book very much before I buy it, I will check out the synopsis, average customer review, price and decide from there.
When I was buying paper books, I would spend time checking out the book before buying it, including opening it somewhere near the middle and reading a few pages to see if I liked the authors voice and repeat the process with a few other books on my short list. It felt like I was making a commitment to a book before purchasing it.
Exactly this. There isn’t enough time for everything. I’m currently about a thousand books behind on my reading list. I’ll never get caught up. All too often, I’ll opt for a lightweight, easy read over something more worthwhile but that takes more effort and requires more thinking.
However, being an experienced reader does have something to do with it, too, as I know more quickly what is worth the time and effort, and what isn’t.
Some of them were published. Not by major houses, no.
And I’m sure you’ve run into the e-book author who “published” five or six books, sold a couple dozen of each, and is now an expert.