sarah · dessen

I quit when I know I don't care anymore. Sometimes it's 20 pages into the book, sometimes it's 30 pages from the end. It really depends. But I have quit a book I was almost finished reading because I knew that (a) I didn't care about the characters or the story and (b) I kept falling asleep on it.

Put it aside. Normally I love all forensic/science books. Most of the books I read for fun now are science related (because I am that much of a nerd). When I checked a book out of the library by this really famous scientist guy, I thought for sure I would enjoy it. But, reading it was slow and dull and the language was just not what I could digest. I put it aside and went to better finds.
Althouh, the most books I have read the past few years have been textbooks.

stop and put it aside
if i can't get into a book i give up because i know there are 9487097 other books out there waiting for me to read.

I've found myself in that dilemma way too many times to count. I tried reading Cold Mountain and I did finish it, but only through force. I didn't want to give up on it right away because, like you, I thought that if I gave up, it would show that I wasn't cultured enough or whatnot. However, I don't waste my time doing that anymore. I read books for pleasure and when the book I'm reading doesn't entertain me, I won't read it, regardless of whether it's a Book Club staple.

I put it aside. Sometimes I'll come back to it later, although it usually takes me a couple years to do so.

I have a few books that I'm stuck on right now, mostly before the 1/3 mark. I finish most of the books I start, but sometimes I skim a lot or skip to the end and read the book backwards to see if any of it sparks my interest.

A few notable did-not-finish books I can think of right now are the Harry Potter ones (and I tried all of them, up to book 5); I think I just don't have the HP gene because by all accounts they should be books I like and, well, everyone else seems to love them.

I think, though, there are some books I have to grow into or read at the right time in order to fall into the story or appreciate it.

Sometimes, when I am reading a book, it just doesn't grab me at first. It could be the mood I am in that day, or circumstances. I put it aside and try again. I give the book a few chances, and if by the 3rd time it doesn't engage me enough to finish it, I put it aside. I do take books out of the library rather than buying them, so I don't feel as "guilty" for not finishing one if I just can't get through it.

Critically acclaimed is nothing more than an opinion, when it all boils down to it. You just have a different opinion. It's okay.

you need to acquaint yourself with nancy pearl's rule of 50. it's genius.

http://booklust.wetpaint.com/page/The+Rule+of+50

I love that rule too. I usually abide by it!

My 9th grade English teacher advised us to always read 10% of the book before deciding whether to put it down or not. Twelve years later, I still stick to that.

Sometimes it's just not the right time for a particular book, you know? There are books I've been really bored with the first time I try to read them, but then I pick them up again a year (or three) later, and they enthrall me. I've had up to four or five false starts on some books that I've eventually finished and loved.

Life is too short to read things one doesn't enjoy! I have twentysomething half-finished books scattered about; maybe someday I will be in the mood to read/finish them, maybe not :)

i usually finish a book even if i'm not digging it, just because i'm an optimist and i keep telling myself that it will get better. :)

ya, i usually finish books too, if not for the story but for the sake of just reading. some books do actually get better.

i always want to give up and stop reading it, but then think that it has got to start picking up and getting good...unfortunatley many times i read it through and it never picks up.. but i would say to finish it, or stop now and try later, because sometimes it is worth it.

and just as a note, you books are always hard to put down, so dont worry no one would be finishing them out of guilt, but out of want

Dianna

I always have the same guilt. But I get it twice. First I feel guilty that I just spent $15-$25 on a book I should finish it. Then I think...damn you know how hard it is to write a book! It was a lot of work! Then I think yeah sorry author-dude I just don't dig it.

Slang is my friend. It makes me sound oh so smart, don't you think? :-)

I can totally relate.
This January I had the same dilemma and wrote about it here:
http://chantelsimmons.blogspot.com/2007/01/finishing-school.html

My new year's resolution was to finish books,but then, someone said to me, if it's not holding your attention, it's not worth finishing. Which totally justified me NOT keeping my new year's resolution. Still, like you, as an author I feel badly! Because it's hard to write a book! So now, I'm trying to finish more books, but I also try to remember that every book isn't right for everyone. So don't feel bad about putting the book aside. It's just resting up for someone else to read it.

I read (honestly!) an average of a book a day and if it isn't working, then I dump it and move on. I only go back if I think I didn't like it because of reasons beyond the book. Like I am really enjoying In My Blood by John Sedgwick (about Edie and the rest of the depressed Sedgwicks) and it is really good, but dense and goes back to the 1700s. So I am reading chunks of that and bits of food writing at the same time.

As for good reviews on slow books, I tend not to worry about the blurbs, if I don't like it, it is out! Besides, sometimes I think those 400 page literary novels get good reviews because people THINK they should like them, not that they actually do.

Put it down!!! Maybe you're just not in the place to read it right now. You may pick it up next year and totally love it. But if you're not into it right now, that doesn't mean anything bad. It just means you're not into it. There are way too many books out there that you'll Love to waste any time on books you're not really that into.

I generally give books 50 pages. If they don't have me by 50 pages, they're gone (at least for the moment). And I know how you feel about having made it so far into a book and not wanting to give up. But finishing a book you don't really like doesn't really accomplish anything either...

I have a very, very hard time not finishing books even when I'm not enjoying them. It's dumb. I think it has more to do with obsessive need to check things off of lists than out of guilt or anything else. And if they are award winners, I feel especially impelled to finish it so I can say I did. Sometimes I just end up skimming so that I get the gist of it. On the other hand, there are a lot of books and life is short.

I don't have a set number of pages I judge with, but I usually give it a few chapters before I throw in the towel. The bad thing about trying out new books for me is that I'm in college and have SOOO much reading I have to do for classes. If it doesn't catch my attention in the first few chapters and actually HOLD my attention, I'm done and don't have time for it.

I'm dragging through a YA book that has gotten tons of accolades, but it's just not doing it for me. I'm a fairly speedy reader, especially if I love the book- and it's taken me two weeks to drag through 150 pages.

And that's because even after 150 pages, I don't yet care about the characters and the plot holds no intrigue for me. In this particular case, I feel it's important for me to finish the book because of all the awards it has received, and as a teen librarian, I should know about it.

In other situations, it would have been tossed after page 75 or so.

I'm still in that mentality that if I start reading a book, I should finish it. This means that I forced myself through The Poisonwood Bible (why everybody adored it, I'll never know) and hated it the entire way through. But damn it, I finished it. It's just one of those things; I think, like you said, it's partially respect for the writer. But I also consider it as an achievement once I finish a book, whether it's amazing or horrible. Perhaps I'm also a tad masochistic in that way. haha

I read The Poisonwood Bible for my Lit class, and I have to say that I enjoyed it, though I definitely wasn't a fan for the first 100 pages or so. I think it would have been betetr if she left a little more to the imagination.

Depends. Assuming it's fiction, I'll push on if someone I trust has raved about it. Otherwise, I don't waste my time.

I have no problem putting down a book that I'm not into. I say, a la Berger, "Sorry, I'm just not that into you."

If you are looking for some "keep you up at night,recommend to eveyone" kind of books, you should try the Maisie Dobbs novels by Jaqueline Winspear. Seriously. We have similar tastes (Owen Meany and Daisy Fay are both in my top five/ten books of all time), and I'm positive you would love these books. There are four of them... Maisie is a thirty-something between the World Wars in London. She has her own investigation/psychology business, most of her cases somehow involve past events of WWI. The books are great... and I am no mystery fan. (I haven't read mysteries since Trixie Belden... and the occasional reread of Ellen Raskin's THE WESTING GAME.)

Anyway, give 'em a try.

One week, three chapters, or 50 pages...whichever comes first.

I must have some kind of OCD-like problem with finishing books, because I almost always finish them even if I can't stand them. It just kills me to give up halfway or even one quarter through the book. I'm too anal to leave things unfinished.

I will say that one of the only books I've straight-up given up on is The Cider House Rules, because I tried to read it for six months and was still only halfway through. Normally I am a very fast reader. And normally I find John Irving easy to get through.

I say: give up on the book! I would if I could, but I think I'm too neurotic. Still, maybe it's something I can work on.

Also, if it's labelled an "instant classic" I tend to be more wary of it than just a normal, everyday work of fiction. For example, Jonathan Safran Foer - I didn't like either of his novels while everyone else LOVED them. But oh well. I'm entitled to an opinion, and so are you.

Here's my opinion: the value of a book lies in the context in which you're reading it.

A book is almost like a blurb on the news. People gravitate towards watching people, places, and things we are familiar with. I live near Detroit and we get some Chicago channels, but which news station do you think I tune into? The Detroit one.

However, there have been instances in my life where suddenly something unencountered before becomes familiar, and then I begin seeking it out. I took a really good vacation to Ft. Lauderdale and after that, I found myself checking their weather at weather.com rather than my own. Are you following me so far?

In essence, there have been instances where a book just didn't do it for me at a particular time. Then I may have had an experience that brought me closer to relating to the chaos or simplicity, whatever it may be. Some of the books I've abandoned have turned out to be the best ones because I waited for "their time."

Another possibility is when I've got a million things in my mind, any book just seems hectic and disorganized but only because I'm not in need of any more distractions.