I Can't Not Finish a Book!

[goldberry]

This is insane!   I just finished 1Q84.  It was 1100 pages long.  I couldn't stand it!  The writing was unbearably boring to me.  I kept thinking it might get better - that was until about page 600 or so.  Then I thought, I have to find out what the big mystery is still - which it wasn't that big or that exciting. 

 

But by golly, I plowed through it!  Until by the end, I actually felt beat up and relieved it was over.   I've had other books that weren't "great" or "I didn't get into" and still finished, but none of them were THIS LONG and THIS UNPLEASANT to me.

 

What in the world is wrong with me that I couldn't just put it down?  

[RebeccaS]

I have no idea!  :D  I also have no qualms about Googling the ending to appease my curiosity so that I can stop reading a terrible book.  ;)

[sparrow]

I used to do that. I have decided that the world is filled with too many good books that I want to read to waste my time on a book I'm not enjoying. If I'm not liking it by page 50-75, I'm done. It doesn't mean that I can never revisit the book for another try, but I have got to move on!

[goldberry]

 I also have no qualms about Googling the ending to appease my curiosity so that I can stop reading a terrible book.   ;)

 

 

That's a great idea, and I should have done it.  I need to reform.  This was ridiculous...

[melbotoast]

I have a hard time stopping reading a book too. I did manage to stop reading the second Eragon book....I disliked that one enough :)

[beezus]

I used to feel that if I started a book I needed to finish it.  There are just too many good books out there that I haven't gotten to yet.  I'm pushing 50 now and I may have another 50 reading years to come - or not.  Any more I hate to waste my precious reading hours on something that doesn't feel that worthwhile to me for whatever reason. 

[GailV]

I have a harder time actually finishing books.  I've been known to give up sometime in the last 2 chapters, deciding that I really didn't care what happened.

 

The turning point for me was in college when I was working at a bookstore.  We would rip the covers off of the mass market paperbacks to return for credit, and the manager let us take big bags of books home to read and then throw out.  A lot of it was absolute schlock.  Since it was already "trash" I felt no remorse throwing the books away halfway through reading them.

 

Perhaps you could download a bunch of free Kindle books.  A lot of those are pretty bad.  You'll be deleting them half-unread in no time!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I'm the same way. In high school I stared reading a horrifying and awful dystopian book (and I usually love dystopia, but this was way too much) The Bridge. I didn't want to keep putting that in my brain, but I couldn't not finish the book! :banghead:  I ended up blocking it from my memory, it was so traumatizing, until a year later when I looked at my reading log, didn't recognize the title, and looked at it again and then remembered.

[Catwoman]

I used to be like that.  Now I don't care if I don't finish a book (although I rarely do this if it is something I read to my kids or assign to them).  I figure life is too short to read books that suck.  Especially if I don't have to!  LOL

 

That would make a good bumper sticker.  :D

[Ravin]

There have been few books I ever put down. The Beach is one. The Hunger Games is another.

 

As I've gotten older I've gotten pickier. I also try harder not to pick up a suck book in the first place.

[PrincessMommy]

I used to do that. I have decided that the world is filled with too many good books that I want to read to waste my time on a book I'm not enjoying. If I'm not liking it by page 50-75, I'm done. It doesn't mean that I can never revisit the book for another try, but I have got to move on!

 

I used to be that way too... I felt obligated once I'd started a book.  No more.   I usually give it about 50pages too... except the most recent book - I couldn't even make it past 10-15pages until I knew it just wasn't right for me.   Maybe another day, but my TBR pile is so long anyway.  There's always something new to try.

[Kim in Appalachia]

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was the first book I stopped reading.  I could not bring myself to read another page.  I should have stopped reading Mieville's Kraken, but I kept thinking it would improve.  Also, In the Name of the Wind.  I should have put it down.  I did like the story, but I had a hard time with his writing.  

 

But it took me till Chabon's book before I learned to just drop the book. 

 

 

[Stacia]

I usually have no problem dropping books I don't like. Too many great books out there to waste my time on ones I don't like.

 

That said, I recently read 250+ pages of a book (that was around 475 pages) & finally ditched it after dithering awhile. I haven't done that in a long time. I guess this one was the exception because I kept feeling like I should like it (it had all the elements/types of things I like in books, but this particular book just wasn't doing it for me). Oh well. I felt relieved when I finally ditched it. I need to remember to go w/ my gut on things. (I usually do but 2013 has been a weird, wacky, out-of-sorts year for our family, so maybe that was my problem.)

 

I'm on Goodreads (where I like to track my books & reading) & actually created a category called 'abandoned' since I abandon books somewhat regularly. LOL.