Read 'Til You Drop

I finish about 95% about what I start. I figure, if I took the time to get the book, then I should try to finsih it. If I pick up a book and find that I hate it or it bores me to death, whether or not I finish it depends a lot of the page count. A 200 page book that is less than pleasant is a lot easier to finish than a 600 page one.

I tend to know when I'm done when the book has been gathering dust for a few days, and I've had plenty of time to read it.

I finish everything, even the crap, because I need to know how it ends, and because I hold out hope that it will get better. The moment I open a book, I am making a committment to "hear it out", to read it to the end and then judge it. I wish I had the willpower to set it down, but then again, I've heard that it can be good to read crap, to remind yourself of what is good, what doesn't work, how not to write.

You mean there are people out there who don't have book emergencies? Or worse yet, folks who fail to understand how traumatizing a major BE can be?

I've actually not paid attention. Most stuff I start, I do finish. I did recently set aside one, and it depressed me to do so because the story IDEA was wonderful -- it was the way it was written I couldn't get through. (You can see more on it here.)

And I set aside another book for something "Easier" to get through while on my plane, but I do plan to plow through it. When I'm done with this other book i started on the same plane where I finished Solstice Wood. lol

No, I'm not making excuses! Honest! ;)

There have been books that I've given up on, but it doesn't happen often. I don't have a set place to read to before I abandon it; usually it's just to the point where I realize it's not what I expected, or it doesn't come together the way it should, or something throws me out of the story completely. Once or twice, it was because I either didn't like the story, or I didn't care for (or about) the characters.

During the school year, when I have to squeeze novel reading into maybe a half an hour on school nights and a couple hours per day on the weekend, I often set books aside without finishing them if another novel more interesting, highly recommended by certain friends, or long-awaited happens to come to my attention.

During vacation periods, I almost always finish one novel before starting another unless a long-awaited work suddenly comes to my attention. [I try to pay attention to publication dates in order to avoid this.]

Two or three times a year, I pick up a novel just because it looks intriguing, and then find myself having trouble finishing it. This rarely happens with an author whose other books I have enjoyed or novels recommended by certain friends.

I know what you mean. A book has to be quite bad for me to set it aside, but I usually make that determination in the first 20 pages or so. Otherwise, I forge ahead, hoping it will get better, then hating myself for wasting the time on it. I have so little reading time these days, that I pick and choose very carefully what I do start.

I finish about 50%, some I toss at 20 pages, some I go to about half and then read the last chapter.

I'm starting to resent books of "epic" proportions because my tbr pile is so huge and I read so slowly.

I'm actually better at finishing non-fiction.

I finish about 10-15% of what I start. I seem to find most books disappointing these days. Some I can tell right away that I'm not going to like it--usually within the first chapter. Others, I don't realize it until a few weeks have gone by, or a few months, and I realize I haven't been reading. Then I remember what I was reading, and I don't want to read again. That's the death toll for those books.

FWIW, I finished yours! :-D

It depends. I generally finish books I don't really gel with, if only for the fact that I *purchased* the book and like to get my money's worth; but if the book's part of a series, I just don't buy the rest of the series.

It's like sitting in a restaurant; darn it, I paid for the meal, so even if I don't like it that much I'll bring it home and eat it for lunch the next day.

I've noticed this tendency as I got older. I'm a fast reader and when I was young, I always finished every book I started to read. Now, aware as I am that life is short and time is a precious gift, I see no reason to give more hours to a book I'm not enjoying. If it hasn't grabbed me in some way-- made me care about the characters, made me wonder what's going to happen, made me laugh, something! -- then it gets no more of my life. And after all, why should it? Having been on the writing side as well as the reading side, I can clearly see the bargain. If I want someone to read my story, I have to give them something worth that chunk of their time. If I don't, that's my failing, not theirs. The money is less an issue. I have bought books because I saw the author on a panel or a TV show and thought he/she was nice or interesting or in some other way worth encouraging. But if the book I already paid for didn't grab me, then I saw no point in regretting my time as well as my money. And 50 pages is actually pretty generous. If I’m noticing the page count, I rarely make it past 25.

I used to finish everything. But then time and life got busier and busier, and soon I had to do something different. I don't have a page limit that I'll read to and decide--but I might try it. Now I start it and if I put it down and don't feel like picking it up again, then that's what I do. I keep a lot of the books around for a second try, and even a third, because sometimes it's my mood. But if it keeps happening, it's not the book for me. But interestingly, I don't ever do it in a bookstore. I never read a first chapter. Never have. Somehow I find that oddly contradictory in myself . . .

Di

Ha, yeah, I have this HUGE TBR stack. Or, half-read stack. For me, I think it's usually just a matter of an attention span that, while not short, can't be focused on just one thing at a time. There are a few books that jut don't really grab me, though. Usually, if I like the book but just put it down (sometimes for as much as months) to read other things, I do go back and finish it. Sometimes I just need a different mood of book, or style of writing.

Ever since I first learned to read, I felt like it was some sort of sacred duty to "tough it out" and read every page of any book I picked up. The sole exception that I can remember was the time I tried to read "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, when I was in third grade. I slogged my way through a couple of hundred pages before I admitted defeat and moved on to "The Hardy Boys" or something.

Thus, that book was always in the back of my mind as "unfinished business", so I finally read it in my mid-20's.

A related question would be: is there any portion of a book that I've just felt compelled to skip over? Yes, exactly once: John Galt's long-winded 80-page (or whatever) radio address to the nation. The most recent time I read "Atlas Shrugged", about a year ago, I just skipped John. It just wasn't worth it.

The only other work of fiction I've ever come close to abandoning was this horribly disappointing fantasy title called "Dragon Blade", by Sasha Miller. It was the fourth installment of what started out as a trilogy, "Cycle of Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan", with Andre Norton as the senior co-author. I loved the trilogy so much that I bought "Dragon Blade" in hardcover, and almost hurled it across the room about half-way through in complete disgust. Andre Norton clearly had very little to do with writing the story (not surprising, given how she was on or near her death bed). If ever they were to give Darwin Awards to stupid fictional characters, it would be some of the ones in this book.

Even still, I made it through, and the story did marginally improve in the second half of the book. I briefly contemplated writing a scathing Amazon review, but I just don't have the heart to trash people's novels. (Bad software, on the other hand, is fair game!)

Still, I'll never pick "Dragon Blade" up again. That's another thing about books: I hate throwing them away, so they end up in boxes down in the basement, next to the fossilized ferns, covered in cobwebs.

Bob from Denver

I may not finish every book I start within a good short timeframe, but eventually I do finish them.

The Flux and Anchor Series, for example, I started when I was in schooling for the Marines (91), I didn't actually get into it and finish it until I was at Camp Lejeune in 93.

I have a stack of 5-7 books next to the bed. Some are finished and need to be put back, maybe 2-3, the others are in various states of reading. Heh.

I still haven't finished Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I made it to book 9.

I have 9-11 books on my To be read stack and bought 3 more today. Heh.

I hate having unfinished books that I know I'll never finish, so I only buy books with the intention of reading through them.

That being said...

You sound alot like me; I have books scattered around waiting to be read, half-read books I'm still working on, and I keep buying new books (it's hard working in a Borders, lol). Though I have recently sworn off buying new books until I finish the ones I'm still working on, barring any exceptions. Of course. ;)

Hi

Looks good! Very useful, good stuff. Good resources here. Thanks much!


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