Stopped reading again

[dawtheminstrel]

I'm getting pickier and pickier as a reader. At one time, I finished pretty much any book I started. Then I took to giving a book 50 pages before I asked myself, "If I lost this book, would I care enough to replace it?" If the answer was no, I stopped reading. In the last two months, I've probably set aside at least half the books I started.

Comments

[shveta_thakrar]

I try to finish, but if I'm really not enjoying a book, or it offends me, I do stop. Lately, I've been bored, too.

[dawtheminstrel]

Where are all the good books, Shveta? Where are they???

[jongibbs]

I'd say about two-thirds.

When I stop reading it's not usually because I hate the writing or anything like that. I'm sure other folks found the books I give up on very entertaining. I just realize I don't care about finding out what happens next.

[dawtheminstrel]

That's usually why I stop too.

Doesn't that seem like a low percentage though? I suppose it's just a clear indication that not all books are right for all readers, no matter how well written they are. After all, I reject most books every time I go into a bookstore.

[jongibbs]

"After all, I reject most books every time I go into a bookstore."

Good point :)

[sarcastic_elf]

I actually finish a high percentage of the books I start. Even the ones I don't really like I'll at least skim to the end. There aren't too many I just stop reading.

Though, I haven't been reading many books at all lately. :(

[dawtheminstrel]

At one time, I finished everything. I think I've just gotten more and more impatient.

What do you do with your time if you don't read?

[sarcastic_elf]

I still read. The "Thor" movie re-sparked my interests in American comics so I've been reading a lot of those. Just not book books.

Also, World of WarCraft.

[dawtheminstrel]

Oh yeah. I can spend a ton of time on a game if I have a good one.

[radbooks]

I used to feel bad about not finishing a book - that old parental nagging, 'finish what you've started' is probably the main reason I felt that way. But now I've decided that my time is too valuable and there are too many other things I'd rather read or do to waste my time on something I really am not enjoying.

I still read most of the books I start, but I bet there are 5 - 10% of them that I don't finish for one reason or another. Sometimes it can be as simple as picking up a different book and liking it better and never getting back to the first book! :)

[dawtheminstrel]

I think picking up the new book is a sign the first one didn't engage you deeply. If it did, you'd have been eager to get back to it.

I finally decided to reread George R. R. Martin's first four books so I'll remember what was happening when the new one comes out this summer. That'll keep me busy for a while.

[tropic_dm]

I'm about a 99% finisher. The very few that I don't finish are usually because the story is driving me insane, or the font is just too difficult to read. One of those is sitting on my bedside table - it looks like a really good story (a very different premise), the small part I've managed to read so far, but the font is fairly small compared to most paperbacks I read so that is going to be a "lazy morning out on the patio in bright sunlight" read, and I don't have that many of those these days.

I actually refused to finish one book recently because the author has only one thing on her mind, and while the locale and time period might change, she manages to drag this one character into it by various means, and once I'd twigged on to this in this book, I put it down, ripped out the bookmark so I wouldn't know where I'd got to, and put it back on the shelf.

[dawtheminstrel]

I'm laughing at how annoyed you were with this writer and her compulsion. But you kept the book. The next step in your 12-step-program is to give it away. Believe it or not, I'm now up to actually throwing books away.

I'm rereading GRRM's Storm of Swords and my paperback of that has very tiny print, so I hear you.

[tropic_dm]

I'm building a small pile of books to take to my local book exchange - that one will be added to it, along with all her other books that I have that were okay for books 1-3 but then it got ridiculous - not sure just how many she's written but this one character, in all her alternate reality personas, is in there, every ****** time!

[radbooks]

Small print is getting to be a problem for me too - just another reason I love my Kindle with it's adjustable font sizes!