Giving up on a book

[marcosgt]

Inspired by someone in another thread, what's your view on abandoning books part way through?

I can only think of two books I've ever started and not finished, but it annoys me slightly to have failed to have finished those two (In fact, it rather annoys me that I even started one! ).

I will usually persevere with a book, however dull, predictable or cliched, in the hope that there's some kind of redemption in the end (for the book, not the plot or me!).

I find myself currently reading two books, one fiction, one fact, on my Kindle and feeling a sense of dread each time I open them. Many a time I'll open the book read a few lines and close it again.

So, do you give up on books you don't enjoy? If so, when have you given it enough of a chance?

Should I stop agonising about my failure to see it through to the end?

M

[droopsnoot]

I really try not to. Partly because sometimes a book starts out badly but gets much better, and partly because I feel a bit of a failure for not getting through it.

[Iva Barchetta]

I've just started reading a large book about Le Mans stuff.

Luckily the chapters are short and the pictures numerous, which will help me finish it.

I am hopeless at reading a book to the end.....

[bloomen]

It doesn't happen very often for me but I've no problem chucking something away if the author isn't on the ball. There is no place for reading as a chore.

The last one was 'The Last Ship' which is some kind of TV series now. The author's style was so agonisingly verbose, stuffy and pointless that my mental health immediately improved the moment it was binned.

[grumbledoak]

The first of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, "Lord Foul's Wastepaper Basket" was aptly named.

And "Scrum, A Pocket Guide" is so dreadful I've actually got further into the "Guru Granth Sahib" (God is pretty big and powerful, apparently).

[condor]

I was given a book by it's author but struggled to read more than 30 odd pages - I gave up when she used an acronym that I couldn't even guess at. I'm guessing it was self-published.

[downthepub]

Last book I gave up on was Infinite Jest after about a hundred pages; I wanted to read a book not have a fight. Plenty to read out there (for instance I've got three books cued up and waiting at home), so didn't particularly want to waste my time on something that wasn't particularly enjoyable. Library book, so not wasting money or anyfink.

[TheChampers]

Catch 22

Ulysses

A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

I've started each at least five times, I'm beat, they won; are they any good?

[Gnits]

Amusingly Thomas Covenanent I absolutely could not put down, I found Lord of the Rings a little mild by comparason, but horses and courses, etc.

Gave up on Les Miserables (endless descriptions of the tiniest thing) and The Quran (god is great is every other line and the order of chapters can do one) although made it through Anna Karenina which was tough going in parts.

Finding The Early History of Heaven a little dry in places but helped by some rather interesting ideas....

[Piersman2]

Another positive for the first Thomas C trilogy although those that followed were not so gripping, to me anyways.

For me it was:

Catch 22 - tried several times to read it but could never get passed the first couple of chapters
Discworld( or some Pratchet book my brother suggested was a starter for the series) - just didn't think it particularly funny or clever, like it was trying too hard, so gave up.

[Frankthered]

There's definitely a sense of incompleteness when I don't finish a novel, so I usually try very hard to get to the end.

I remember giving up on "The Guns of Navarone" when I was at school (we HAD to be reading something for English class) but I've done pretty well since.

I had a spell of reading classics and didn't manage to get through "Gulliver's Travels" of all things, in both cases I just couldn't get into them, probably because they are different to the (many in Gulliver's case) TV & movie versions of the stories.

I am also reminded of Thomas Covenant, I enjoyed the First Chronicles, although I found them very, very dark. I tried the Second Chronicles, but it seemed to be much of the same, so gave up on them too.

I will give everything I start a good try though!

[dmitsi]

downthepub said:

Last book I gave up on was Infinite Jest after about a hundred pages; I wanted to read a book not have a fight. Plenty to read out there (for instance I've got three books cued up and waiting at home), so didn't particularly want to waste my time on something that wasn't particularly enjoyable. Library book, so not wasting money or anyfink.

Snap! I read a bit more than that as my brother had given it to me with. For such an acclaimed author I'd hoped it would take an interesting turn. No, it's just trying to be clever with an obscure lexical diarrhoea that chops and changes styles too often without building anything worthwhile. I imagine it received glowing reviews from pompous critics trying to show just how clever they were.
I tried to continue reading it after the author died but still couldn't engage with it, even though I'd gone in knowing what it was like.
It's the only book I've never finished.

[bearman68]

Piersman2 said:

Another positive for the first Thomas C trilogy although those that followed were not so gripping, to me anyways.

For me it was:

Catch 22 - tried several times to read it but could never get passed the first couple of chapters
Discworld( or some Pratchet book my brother suggested was a starter for the series) - just didn't think it particularly funny or clever, like it was trying too hard, so gave up.

Agree on everything there - but then I read Discworld again. I knew the vague story, so could concentrate on the words, and then it was very funny.

[hidetheelephants]

I've tried to read 'Of human bondage' twice and both times abandoned it half way through; the protagonist is just too unlikeable and it does drag on rather.

[paulguitar]

I always make it to the end, it seems almost to spite myself somehow… Two I can think of I did it to see if they were really going to be so awful all the way through. So these would be probably the worst two books I have ever read, I still somehow got to the end:


1: 'When the Wind Blows' by James Patterson. This is about, and I am not kidding, ‘secret flying children’ and apparently the author is the best selling on earth. He is truly terrible.



2: ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls... Astonishingly awful. They made into a film too, I believe!

[fat80b]

Piersman2 said:

Catch 22 - tried several times to read it but could never get passed the first couple of chapters

Same here - got about 50 pages in first time, 150 pages in second time but both times gave up on this one.

Bob

[Frenchda]

I used to doggedly fight my way through anything I started. My Kindle has made me a lazy reader, if I don't enjoy the first quarter I give up. Instant access to anything is not a good thing, I have undoubtedly abandoned some good books.

[Halmyre]

I read the first and second Covenant chronicles when they first came out, but gave up on 'The Last Chronicles' after a few chapters; it was just too bloody tedious. I had intended to re-read the first two at some point, but it's even put me off doing that.

I managed to plough through a Peter F Hamilton doorstop, but balked at the thought of reading the whole trilogy. I read the synopsis on Wikipedia instead and that was bad enough.

[droopsnoot]

paulguitar said:

1: 'When the Wind Blows' by James Patterson. This is about, and I am not kidding, ‘secret flying children’ and apparently the author is the best selling on earth. He is truly terrible.

I haven't read that particular one, but I have read a lot of James Patterson "normal" stuff, and it's generally very good. I know nowadays he has quite a lot of different groups of characters, and co-authors with people, so I wonder whether that's another string and I've missed it.

I generally steer clear of fantasy or horror so that would be why. But really, his more down to earth stuff is very good. IMO of course. It's always a pity that a one-off like that puts someone off an author, though I've had that myself. Just can't remember who it was.

[Halmyre]

droopsnoot said:

paulguitar said:

1: 'When the Wind Blows' by James Patterson. This is about, and I am not kidding, ‘secret flying children’ and apparently the author is the best selling on earth. He is truly terrible.

I haven't read that particular one, but I have read a lot of James Patterson "normal" stuff, and it's generally very good. I know nowadays he has quite a lot of different groups of characters, and co-authors with people, so I wonder whether that's another string and I've missed it.

I generally steer clear of fantasy or horror so that would be why. But really, his more down to earth stuff is very good. IMO of course. It's always a pity that a one-off like that puts someone off an author, though I've had that myself. Just can't remember who it was.

It's probably not who you're thinking of, but one of Christopher Brookmyre's books (Pandaemonium) has a distinctly horror/SF slant, and some of the reviews on Amazon are howls of outrage about "if I'd known it was horror/SF I would never have bought it".

Iain Banks has a similar thing where people who like his 'mainstream' stuff would never in a million years read an Iain M Banks book. 'Transition' got criticism from some, as it was seen to have an SF theme, and in fact it was released in the US as an 'M' book.