I don’t quit, but I have been known to skip the middle 300 or so pages.
If I put the book down and don’t remember what happened when I start reading again or don’t look forward to continuing it.
Like someone else said," life is too short."
I’ve given up at the Prologue more than once, and on one occasion at page 6, but usually I’ll give it a few chapters.
In my youth, I had to read the whole damn thing. Just had to! It wouldn’t be fair not to!
I read the entire damned series of “Silistra” novels by Janet Morris, figuring it had to get better eventually. (It didn’t.)
For a couple of decades I adopted a 100-page rule (and, like you, sometimes cheated a little.)
Now? The minute it starts to smell fishy, I’m outta here. Life is too short. Let the author insult my intelligence just once, and that’s it. Bore me, lose me.
(And, yeah, too many grammatical errors and I walk.)
If it’s non-fiction, I usually start skimming and will run through the book in scatter plot fashion.
As to fiction once the characters have been introduced and the plot is set in motion, if I discover I don’t care about said characters or I’ve no interest in seeing how the story plays out, I’m done.
Also there is no greater a satisfaction than giving up on a book and then hurling it across the room.
Amirite?
I’ll give up on a book of fiction when I get bored with it. If I’m much of the way through it, I might skip to the end and re-judge accordingly. For non-fiction I further evaluate it as a dipping book.
- Sometimes less if it’s really excruciating.
Time was, it was a point of honour for me to finish every book that I started. Mind you, that was decades ago when I had plenty of time to waste on rubbish books. Now, not so much.
It doesn’t really happen very often. I can’t remember giving up on a novel since “Lisey’s Story,” and that was 100 pages, give or take, before I surrendered.
I read fast so if a novel is bad there’s a certain “I may as well spend a few more hours on this to see just how bad it can get” motivation.
I don’t generally force myself to read anything I don’t *have *to read. If a story or character can’t grab me and hold me in a few pages, I can’t be bothered to keep reading. The real kiss of death is if I find myself reading a passage over and over again because I’ve forgotten it as soon as I’ve finished it. Not a sign of good writing.
Most recently, I forced myself to continue reading a book that was supposedly about engineering disasters, because I’m interested in various design processes. But besides being repetitive and tedious, it was horribly written and I’ve got to assume the glowing “reviews” were bought and paid for. I’m torn between donating it to a thrift store or just tossing it into recycling.
50 - (my age). Currently that’s sitting in the single digits, but I look forward to the day I can toss a book after the first sentence.
Depends if the cover is cool looking.
My parents taught me to give a book 50 pages to fall under it’s spell.
I’m impressed with you guys who go 50 or more pages. If it’s not working for me I wouldn’t be able to keep reading. If I forced myself I’d just have 0 retention so it would never connect for me.
Sadly, I’ve basically transitioned completely to e-books now. Which makes this simple pleasure less satisfying, and potentially a lot more expensive. than it used to be.
Yeah, I’m the same way.
I read a book by Robert Anton Wilson that made no sense the entire way through. Then I found out it was the first book of a trilogy. I bought the 2nd and 3rd and slogged through without enjoying a single moment. Then I bought one of his other books, which sucked as well. 
So you are basically the last person on earth who should share a Kindle account. 
Life’s too short to read bad books.
It depends. If the story is engrossing enough I’ll keep with it. If the quality declines I won’t bother to read the final book in a series (cough Jean Auel cough). If I don’t care about the characters I’ll give up.
I did throw one book across the room. Ivylad was on a six-month submarine Med run (he left two days after our daughter was born) and I was reading a Tom Clancy book that featured an explosion on a submarine, killing all the sailors. Nope, couldn’t do that one.
I started The Danish Girl but realized in the first few pages I wasn’t interested enough. I’ve been on on Lisa Unger kick for a bit now.
I once sawed a book in half and mailed one part to the author and the other part to the publisher. It was the first book in a series, but that wasn’t indicated on the cover anywhere. You get to the end, and “To Be Continued” leers at you. I was furious.
“You want to sell me half a book? Here’s half a book!”
I also wrapped a book up in duct tape, sealing it completely, and put warning labels all over it. “This book is Crap. Do not attempt to read.”
Finally, I like to make up fake dust-jackets for books. I’ve got two side by side on my shelf titled “How To Throw Your Voice” and “How To Get Your Voice Back.”
Years ago, when I had an infinite life expectancy, I always finished a book I had started. These days I just don’t have time to waste on bad books. I don’t have a specific rule, but at some point if a book doesn’t keep me interested, it’s over.
Movies and TV, too.
Since I’ve converted primarily to Kindle (except for re-reading books I already own), I don’t really have a rule anymore, although my hard-copy rule wasn’t so much a set number of pages as a percentage of the book - if it hadn’t caught me by the time I was 20 - 25% into it, I was done with it. To be fair, I read so very quickly that I will often finish even awful books just to see how far down the rabbit hole of sucking despair it will go.
On the other hand, if it’s boring, I’m out. Also, if I have to spend a significant amount of time puzzling out unfortunate grammar/spelling issues, I’m out. Proofreading failures annoy me. See also those fantasy authors (occasionally in other genres, but this is mostly a sci-fi/fantasy thing) who seem to think that making me learn a fictional language in order to follow along with them is a good idea. They can die in a fire. They can be joined in their roasting by the cadre of authors who forego use of vowels in creating character names. Also, the authors who insert extended passages (sans translation) into their works in languages other that language the book is primarily written in.
I have the meteor rule for fiction though - if I ever get to the point when I am actually starting to root for a meteor to strike and take out more than half of the recurring characters, and there is nothing otherwise redeeming the experience, I’m out.
Ugh, I wish I did have a rule. If I commit to a book, I read it to the bitter end. I always keep some book I’ve had a hard time finishing in my basement to read when I’m waiting for the laundry to do a 10-minute presoak. I figure I can stand anything for 10 minutes, and eventually, slooooowly, the book does get read. Obviously I can’t do that with library books. Those I read for 2-3 chapters and either push forward or return to the library.