I read a lot of books and see a lot of movies, but I begin to read and see them many more times than I finish them. Lately, I’ve been increasingly giving up after a few chapters or about twenty minutes. I rarely return to something I’ve given up on.
The peculiar part, I think, is how absorb them. With books, I read through them very fast, way too fast to comprehend every detail and appreciate every sentence. Long descriptive passages get almost no attention. I skim an awful lot, just enough to get a flavor of the book, a sense of the plot, some idea about the author’s style.
When I finish, I’ll re-read it slowly. Often I’ll read it through a third time, once a little time passes and if the book is a good one.
Usually, with very good books, I’ll give it another re-read every few years, often a thorough re-read of the best scenes and chapters, and a cursory look at the others. There are some books I’ve re-read more times than I can count, in which I could probably recite the exact language of the book before I get to each passage.
This practice pleases me, but I wonder if anyone else does something similar. How does your reading practice differ from what I take to be the standard of reading a book once, with your attention focused on the page you’re on but no re-reading necessary? I literally never read a book that way.
I could never re-read a book. I sometimes will scan through some long, uninteresting parts. Lately, I’ve been listening to audiobooks more than reading books. I listen to them when I walk. I usually go through one a week or a week and a half, depending on how long the book is.
If you’ve truly given up on a book, please bring it to the nearest place where you can donate it so it doesn’t go to waste. There are many such places near me. There are Little Free Libraries with a few dozen books. There are places like the Little Free Libraries which aren’t officially part of that system. There’s a place near me that’s like one of them but it has hundreds of books (and many other things) rather than dozens of them. There’s a room in the local public library that people donate their used books (and other things) to and which you can get those things then for very little money. There are thrift stores. Aside from the thrift stores that are whole buildings, there’s a church near me that has a thrift store open for one five-hour period once a week. One book discussion group I belong to for one of the monthly discussion meetings each year os a meeting in which people exchange books that they want to get rid of. There’s a science fiction and fantasy group reasonably near me that owns a building. They will take any science fiction or fantasy books you donate to them. They check if they already have a copy of that book. They keep the book in their huge collection if they don’t have it already. They don’t want multiple copies of anything, so they donate anything they’re given to the local public schools to be given to children who want books.
I read the books I buy and the ones I get from the library all the way through. I do reread some, but I have too many books in my queue to reread many.
The exception is the 100+ contest books I get from December to March. The majority of those I read at most 10% of. Same situation I’ve seen many times, pitch it. Illogical and scientifically nonsense, pitch it. For humor, not funny in the first 10 pages? Unlikely to be funny later, pitch it. Not good enough to be a winner? Make it part of the way through, then pitch it.
I don’t finish most of the books I read. Even the ones I like.
I am frequently distracted by the next book I want to read.
I have recommended many books I have never finished. Mostly those big doorstop non-fiction books. Guns, Germs, and Steel. Doubt: A History. Why Buddhism is True. A People’s History of the United States. Fantastic books! Never finished 'em.
When it comes to fiction, I will stop reading a book the instant it starts to annoy me. If a story has lost me, my brain can no longer tolerate reading it. Unless it’s truly awful, then I can enjoy a good hate-read.
I once joked of having “Book ADHD” but the joke’s on me; turns out I have whole-life ADHD and my weird issue with books is just one manifestation of it.
I’d say lately I’m batting about 50/50 which is my personal best. I’m tearing through the Expanse series right now which is so good but I’m nervous about getting through it all.
I mean hell, it took me a decade to finish my favorite book series, The Vorkosigan Saga. But that was also because I was trying to avoid reading something that I knew was coming that I didn’t want to deal with. So I put it off for literally years. I actually named my son after a protagonist from a book series I never finished. (But have since finished. Get it, Cordelia!)
Still haven’t finished Dune.
I rarely re-read books, but there are exceptions for my favorites. I’ve read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22 and Mirror Dance many times.
Listening to a song again is nothing like re-reading an entire book. Books have twists and turns and an ending. I don’t like re-reading a book that I already know what’s going to happen. I rarely watch movies more than once.
I definitely skim when I’m reading, especially long drawn-out descriptions. I’ll store it in the back of my mind to think about later, but seldom actually read it again. As a kid I actually preferred reference books, which makes me think I was tailor-made for the digital age. When I took reference classes in library school I usually finished the sets of questions we got each week in half the time the professor said would be required. I don’t think I would have had the patience to spend 10 hours on a set of questions, so it was either be fast or flunk out.