How easily do you abandon books?

SnShne322 · February 2016

I'm listening to Euphoria by Lily King. I've been listening to it for like a year and a half. It's not a long book, but I just can't finish it. I WILL finish it today (see? I have to convince myself), but it's like pulling teeth. For some reason I just can't abandon it. Maybe it's because it's a short book and I feel like I should just be able to plow through it. Maybe it's because I already put a sizable dent in it and don't want to have 'wasted' my time.

I have several books in my TBR pile that I refuse to give up on even though I've tried several times to read each of them. Several, I know have amazing reviews.

WIMOHB -Don't hate me, I'm halfway through!
Mistborn - I've stared this twice and am only 7% in.
The Great Hunt - Started twice as well
Dead Wake - I've been working on this 2 pages at a time for 4 month.
Heart Shaped Box - I'm not sure this counts since it's only been a month.

I feel like I should the adopt the philosophy of there's not time to waste on bad books, but I don't know that I think these books are bad. Just slow? Random musings for a Friday. How easily do you abandon books?

lab7979 · February 2016

I have to finish a book even if it's bad. I know it's a waste of time but I can't help it.

dmlk413 · February 2016

^^^^What she said. I usually like to give books a chance to get better and by the time I have decided it's terrible, I'm far enough in that I feel like I have to finish it.

kelliebeans · February 2016

I have the hardest time giving up books. I think I've only put down five books in my life. I will suffer through to the end. I just listened to Life After Life on audio and it took me about two months. It was so slow and I didn't always feel like listening so my library check out ended twice and I had to wait for it again. I should've given up on it after the first time my hold expired but for some reason I have to finish!

packfan20 · February 2016

I give it about 10%. If I'm not hooked, I put it down. I'm pretty good at knowing if a book is going to grab me by then (basically by the writing style - if the story seems dumb but it's an easy read, I'll probably keep going. But if it's a hard read, I have an easier time giving it up ). There are too many books to read for me to read a "bad" book. If I get farther into a book and am still struggling (like I am now with The Lake House), I will just skim.

SusieBW · February 2016

Nope. No time in my life for books I'm not enjoying, and too many that I really want to read to waste that time on bad ones.

When I used to have reading goals for the year, it was harder to give up on books, because I would feel like I had just wasted so much time trying that bad book, so I should finish it so it can count toward my goal at least. But then I realized that just didn't make sense, and I was essentially forcing myself to read stuff I wasn't into. I also don't set goals anymore. I try to read more than I did the year before, but I'm not strict about it.

There are plenty of books that I find slow, but I keep reading anyway. It took me something like 3 months to read Thomas Jefferson's biography. It was a great book, just very big and very slow. I read something about the history of cancer research a couple of years ago that was the same way.

I quit on Dark Witch last night. I feel no remorse. I gave it something like 30%, it wasn't getting better and so many NBCers were dissing it, I just couldn't do it.

dutchgirl76 · February 2016

I have a really hard time putting down a book too, however I have a hard time getting into most books. As PP's have said, usually I get 50 - 100 pages in before I say it's really not good, but I'm so vested I have to keep going. My issue is that I don't put them down and come back to them later, so it just takes me longer to read that book.

sfgiantsjo · February 2016

I really really really have a hard time giving up on a book. So I rarely DNF. A couple times my perseverance has been rewarded when I finally finish book I didn't enjoy the whole way through, but when it was finished, and I thought about it a bit, I realized I loved it. That's only happened like twice, but still.

dutchgirl76 · February 2016

sfgiantsjo said:

I really really really have a hard time giving up on a book. So I rarely DNF. A couple times my perseverance has been rewarded when I finally finish book I didn't enjoy the whole way through, but when it was finished, and I thought about it a bit, I realized I loved it. That's only happened like twice, but still.

This just came up on another thread. I had a REALLY hard time with "We Need to Talk About Kevin" but the very end was like phew thank goodness it was really good. I'm always glad when there's a good ending to reward you for sticking with it.

sassypants527 · February 2016

I just gave up on Lena Dunham's book. If I'm reading and IJDGAF about anything that is happening, that's the point I give up. It's a rare thing for me, though.

Raeily · February 2016

When I was little my Dad told me I wasn't allowed to abandon a book until I read 60 pages in to it.

Nowadays, I make myself finish every book. I hate that I have all these incomplete books and I'm working to finish them, interspersed with new books.

GilliC · February 2016

I can't bring myself to quit. I only have three books that I've ever given up on (and one of them I started by mistake, because it had the same title as an IRL book club selection).

That said, I do have 5 books that are on my "currently-reading" shelf that I started years ago and set aside for some reason or another. But I fully intend to finish them eventually!

SnShne322 · February 2016

For the record, I did end up finishing Euphoria, and I probably should have abandoned it.

distracted · February 2016

The books I'm interested in reading vastly outnumber the time I have to dedicate to reading, so if a book is difficult for me to get into and it hasn't grabbed me by 50ish pages (maybe 100 if it's a long book), then I don't feel bad for moving on. Sometimes I come back to it, but more often than not, I don't.

CeeCeeSugaPie · February 2016

It seems that the older I get, the easier it becomes for me to abandon a book that I'm not into. Up until about 2-3 years ago, the only book that I ever DNF'd was The Grapes of Wrath. Now I'm in the camp that gives the book about 100 pages, depending on the size of the book.

j*&p* · February 2016

I guess it depends on the reason it's slow going for me. If I pick something up and I don't like the author's voice or it's got cliches that drive me crazy, I usually just put it down. If I feel like it starts slow but has potential to be good, I usually push it out until 10% or so and see if I'm still not into it. If I've made it past 25% I rarely give up though. It feels like I've put all of this time into it already that I should suck it up and finish.

julie37619 · February 2016

I'm pretty quick to give up on a book I just don't care about. I do tend to finish any book I have strong feelings about, even if I dislike it, just because it's eliciting strong feelings. I'll also finish a book that has discussion value or artistic value (classics or book club choices) or slower books on a subject I want to learn more about.

Lauren620 · February 2016

I have started abandoning books pretty regularly. It's taking more and more to get my attention, so if a book doesn't draw me in early on, I'll probably be putting it down. In the past I had a really, really hard time abandoning anything and now I just can't stand to read something I don't really even want to read.

CTDec03Bride · February 2016

sfgiantsjo said:

I really really really have a hard time giving up on a book. So I rarely DNF. A couple times my perseverance has been rewarded when I finally finish book I didn't enjoy the whole way through, but when it was finished, and I thought about it a bit, I realized I loved it. That's only happened like twice, but still.

Ditto. I don't know why I have such a hard time stopping, I always feel guilty lol.

RevJen · February 2016

I think for me it's about my mood at the time I'm reading said book. There have been books I've started and set down because I wasn't in the mood for them at the time. I've gone back to them and enjoyed them. I find that I tend to enjoy books less if I have to force myself to finish them.

I also tend to put physical books aside more easily than I do audiobooks. The only audiobook that I've abandoned was a recent one. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Magic. I hated it. Hated everything about it so I quit. I don't care if it ever gets better. And that reminds me that I need to get it back to Audible so I get the credit back.

booknerd226 · February 2016

It depends on the book, though I really hate giving up on any book that I spent money on. But if it's a book that's mostly gotten great reviews, I'll struggle through and probably end up finishing it so that I can at least discuss it with others. If it's one I got for a Kindle daily deal or for 50 cents at Goodwill I'm more likely to give up after about a fourth of the book if it's not any good.

How easily do you abandon books?

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