# Do You Finish Reading Every Book You Start?



## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

I used to proudly state that I finished every book I started reading. (I can be proud of the oddest things.)

Now, though, I proclaim, *"Life is too short to waste it on a bad book."*

"Merrily abandon with extreme prejudice" is my modus operandi. You have a few pages. Maybe even a couple short chapters. If the book doesn't click with me by then, out it goes.

This is somewhat related to the thread about "what makes you stop reading". My bar used to be much higher. Maybe I'm getting older, less patient. 

-David


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

We've had similar threads in the past, but not for a while. As I get older, I have less patience with a book that doesn’t grab my attention. I'd estimate that I don't finish something less than 5% of the books I start. They get abandoned at any phase of reading.

Mike


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

When I was younger, I would force myself to finish every book I started. As I got older, it became more difficult to maintain this dictum. Now (with the advent of sampling), I find that I don't have to abandon any book I buy, because I've sampled enough of it to tell whether I would like it or not. _Yay sampling!_


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## farrellclaire (Mar 5, 2010)

Not any more.  Sometimes I'm afraid that writing and editing has ruined the enjoyment of reading for me.  I think maybe because I've less time to read, I have less patience for books that I can put down without thinking twice.  Sometimes it's my mood and I go back a second time and end up loving the book I thought I wouldn't finish.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

jmiked said:


> We've had similar threads in the past, but not for a while. As I get older, I have less patience with a book that doesn't grab my attention. I'd estimate that I don't finish something less than 5% of the books I start. They get abandoned at any phase of reading.
> 
> Mike


Yeah, there was a thread today in the Writers Cafe about the cycling of threads. 

-David


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## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

Like others here, I used to force myself to finish books. Now I don't. Except for _The Da Vinci Code_ I forced myself to finish that book, just because it was all the rage--and I was in a rage by the time I finished it.

Usually I can tell fairly quickly if I like a book or not--sometimes I'm just not in the mood to read something, so I'll put it down then pick it up again when my mood changes. And sometimes, I know this is *weird* when I _really_ like a story, I read almost to the end then stop! Because I don't want the story to end. I read *The Hobbit* and the entire Tolkien trilogy, and stopped about five pages from the end! I know, I'm nuts. I think I finally read the end about ten years later.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

DavidRM said:


> I used to proudly state that I finished every book I started reading. (I can be proud of the oddest things.)
> 
> Now, though, I proclaim, *"Life is too short to waste it on a bad book."*


Same story here! It has to be pretty bad for me not to finish it though. Sometimes I will finish a book even if I'm not really enjoying it just so I can feel justified in writing a bad review or giving it a poor rating. I don't want someone to be able to say "well you didn't finish it so you didn't know that this, this and this happens which made the book a lot better in the end". But sometimes, a book is just so bad, I don't care what the ending it like.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

That would be a suicidal policy. Life is short, and I would drop a book that wasn't holding me after 30-40 pages.


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## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer (Aug 10, 2010)

No, I no longer feel "obligated" to finish. If the plot is filled with logic problems and the characters are cardboard, I skim the final pages to see who is left standing, and move on.


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## arshield (Nov 17, 2008)

I finish about 95% of what I start.  

A friend of mine says she uses a simple 100-your age to determine how to give a book.  She says the longer you live, the less patience you have for bad books.  Which seems to be the theme of this thread.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I think in the past 3 years, I have only hit 3 or 4 books that I would say were just too poorly written/uninteresting to hold my attention. Guess I'm either not very picky, or just plain lucky in choosing books. considering my normal reading habits, it could be both.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Richardcrasta said:


> That would be a suicidal policy. Life is short, and I would drop a book that wasn't holding me after 30-40 pages.


I can recall abandoning a book or two when I had read 3/4 of it. It's had to have been pretty bad/dull/uninteresing for me to do that.

Mike


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

No. Life's to short to waste time reading a book that's boring.

Sandy


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

The woman who runs my offline book club, an English teacher at a local collage, says to give each book 100 pages - your age before giving up.  If you're young you have more time to spend scoping out average books, but you can getting pickier as you grow older.


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

Sandra Edwards said:


> No. Life's to short to waste time reading a book that's boring.
> 
> Sandy


This


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## A. Rosaria (Sep 12, 2010)

So far I finished all I read....thinking about it that's false, there is one book (I don't remember the title I must have scorched it from my memory.) I skipped a few chapters. I remember it to drag on and on and on and on and to make it worse there was no logic to the story. 

I still read the end and it was horrible, though I did not read the complete story.


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## Lomiel (Oct 3, 2010)

I have the bad habit of being in the middle of several books at once, according to wandering interest/available time/which one I pick up first. However, I've been reading a lot of "classics" (i.e. books you would find on the average high school reading list) because I somehow managed to skip that part of my education. For these titles, there's a strong sense of guilt about not liking them or giving up partway through, so I've been forcing myself to push through to the end, even if bored, because it's a classic and I _should_ like it. If "The Great Gatsby" and "Catcher in the Rye" weren't classics, I would've thrown them out the window halfway through. As it is, I'm halfway through "David Copperfield" and have been completely sidetracked by a book on English culture, and I've been partway through "The Pickwick Papers" for weeks.

So, er...no, then, would be the short answer, I guess.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

Books I buy for my own personal enjoyment, I read it from start to finish. Now, books that I _have_ to read for college, since I went for a BA in English, I stopped trying to read from start to finish. I went online, to Cliff's Notes or Sparks Notes, and read the synopsis, what the novel is supposed to be about, the important characters, and all that stuff. I got tired of reading insufferably self-important novels, so I took shortcuts.


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## Cathymw (May 27, 2010)

As I just said in the Binge Reading thread, I tend to read mysteries.  So even if I don't like the book, I try to read the entire thing to find out the answer. I've been WAY disappointed a number of times though and have been tempted to stop.  Or to skip to the last chapter, but I still feel that's sacrilege. (My apologies to those that do this.)


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

arshield said:


> A friend of mine says she uses a simple 100-your age to determine how to give a book. She says the longer you live, the less patience you have for bad books. Which seems to be the theme of this thread.


Yeah, I've often wondered if it was simply encroaching mortality that chiselled away at my patience. Before I was 30 (some years ago) I never used the phrase "Life is too short..." 

-David


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## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

I can only think of one book that I never finished, though I've read some that were difficult get through for sure.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Like others of you, I'll abandon a book at any point - first page or next to last page - if I find myself thinking, "I don't care what happens to these characters." And I find myself thinking that a whole lot more these days than I used to. Maybe age and having read bunches and bunches of books does that. I think Kindle makes me worse because there are so many books out there and they're instantly available. It's not a case of keep reading this because there's nothing else to read except rereads of old favorites. I also think that Valmore is right in that when you write yourself and start getting critical of your own work for this and that you tend to be more critical of others' work for the same things.


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

Nope.  Most of the time I start reading them before I buy them, either virtually or physically. And since I don't buy most of those books... I don't finish them, either. LOL.


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## Figment (Oct 27, 2008)

OK, then...I guess I'm the only OCDC person here.  I HAVE to finish any book I start before moving on to the next.  Otherwise the failure to do so will distract me to the point I can't enjoy the next read.  I finish everything I start.  I also am able to read only one book at a time.

Total OCDC...


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## theraven (Dec 30, 2009)

I used to read every book until the end, but then for some reason I decided to count how many book I had in my TBR pile. After that I stopped reading if the book annoyed me or didn't hold my interest. Or, if I found myself arguing or yelling at the book ... out loud. Then I stop. I did read one book that I thought was horrible and almost chucked it but it turned so terrible I started laughing. And not in the way the author intended. The book read like a really, really bad parody of a mystery that I had to keep reading to see how much worse it got.


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## William L.K. (Aug 5, 2010)

I used to force myself to read until the end.  But I think I'm getting too old and my patience is wearing thin.  I have no problem not finishing a book if it has lost my interest.  Although, I always leave the option open to go back and finish it at a later date.


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

No, although I do try my best to finish the books that I've paid for, and will only give up when it's clearly pointless for me to try any further.

Freebies, on the other hand, are tossed the moment that I have any kind of problem with them.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

There are some books that are slow starters, but if a book has good press, I'll try and stay with it.  I think that we moderns have lost our ability to give it time, to let it build.  Blame it on McDonalds, your food... on a plate or a bun... forty five seconds after you ordered it... or it's free, or maybe the wait person will be flogged to your satisfaction.  So you get that food, fast, with the essential food groups, sugar, salt, grease and starch and you wolf it down, cause you got places to go and things to do and people to be with.  The French take their time, enjoy life.  We Americans are in a hurry.  

I could go on, but the fingers are getting tired.  Yeah, I try to finish 'em all.  If I start them, and they're supposed to be good, I finish 'em.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

I don't mind slow books. I've read quite a few.

"The Fixer" by Bernard Malamud is a slow book (and one picked at random at the library; a lucky find), but it's a *great* book: subversive, dark, political. Lots of fun stuff. But it ain't no fast-paced tale.

Slow ain't the killer for me. Or I would never have finished that ridiculously huge Warren Buffet biography that came out a couple years ago...

-David


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

I have to confess that I am easily distracted and will abandon books that simply do not hold my interest. There are times that I will go back to a book later and finish it having discovered that my abandonment was premature.

There was only one time that I can remember where I made a conscious decision to throw away a book before getting halfway through it. I will not state the title, but it was a highly publicized book by an author who had been paid a princely sum for the unwritten manuscript. *[Before continuing, I need to state that I am not a prude by any means]*

The book was about a serial killer, but was so graphic in its detail about how the serial killer did his work and how he reveled in the aftermath, that I felt physically ill and tossed it away. In contrast, in Thomas Harris' _Silence of the Butterfly_, the grisly work of Hannibal Lechter is left to our imagination, making it that much more chilling. To this day, I cannot have fava beans with liver without cringing.


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## Jeff Tompkins (Sep 17, 2010)

I used to because if I stopped reading a book, I felt like a quitter and almost felt guilty for doing so.

But I've gotten over that. There's so much out there to discover that it's pointless to waste time on something you're just not that interested in.


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## AuthorTerry (Aug 13, 2010)

I think I've only abandoned three or four books in my lifetime. Probably has something to do with my mother insisting I finish everything on my plate (although how MY eating was going to keep children in other parts of the world from starving never made sense). However, if a book bores me, I tend to move to skim mode. I guess I keep hoping it'll get better. My biggest struggle recently was Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--everyone kept saying, "it gets better" but 200 pages seemed a bit much to wait for any of the 'good stuff.'

The "formula" I saw on another list: *Subtract your age from 100. That's how many pages to give a book. 
*


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

AuthorTerry said:


> However, if a book bores me, I tend to move to skim mode. I guess I keep hoping it'll get better.


Ditto. If the issue is terrible writing quality, I feel fully justified in dropping it early on. If it simply loses steam, I'll just skim to get to the major points. I think that 30-40% is sufficient for you to decide to put a book down because it couldn't hold your interest.

The one exception here is if I'm reviewing. In that case, there's no skimming or skipping allowed unless there's a dealbreaker involved or I really just can't get through it.


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

I used to finish every book I started  - I sort of felt I owed it to the author to stick with him or her. No longer. My time is too precious to waste on stuff I'm not enjoying. I still do stick with some books I'm not liking - just to see if they redeem themselves at the end- especially if they've had good Amazon reviews- but most times, I set them aside. There are a few books I simply can't read - Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom being one of them. It's too exhausting.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

I don't abandon a book until I get past the 50% mark.  Sometimes it takes that long for me to bond with a book. I know that sounds strange, but I don't know a different way to put it.  This is especially true if it is an author I'm not familiar with, or the book was written a long time ago. I like to give myself a chance to get to know the characters and understand the unfolding of the intricacies of the book.


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## AuthorTerry (Aug 13, 2010)

> The one exception here is if I'm reviewing. In that case, there's no skimming or skipping allowed unless there's a dealbreaker involved or I really just can't get through it.


And that's another reason I don't like to review books. Too much of a 'homework' feel. I just finished reading 5 partial manuscripts for a contest I'm judging, and a couple of them, even though they were only 35 pages, were hard to get through. On my blog, I report what books I'm currently reading but prefer not to give my personal opinions. As an author, that opens too many cans of worms. I respect those who take the time to read books and offer impartial reviews.


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

AuthorTerry said:


> And that's another reason I don't like to review books. Too much of a 'homework' feel. I just finished reading 5 partial manuscripts for a contest I'm judging, and a couple of them, even though they were only 35 pages, were hard to get through. On my blog, I report what books I'm currently reading but prefer not to give my personal opinions. As an author, that opens too many cans of worms. I respect those who take the time to read books and offer impartial reviews.


I'm the weirdo who actually _liked_ English homework and journal entries  In any case, reviews are intended for readers, not writers, and I think it's important to explain _why_ you couldn't finish it / were forcing yourself to finish it (nicely, of course). If it's done right, it does benefit the author as well. After all, if no one ever offers up suggestions, how do you improve? Just be prepared to take exactly what you dish out! Goodness knows I've been on the receiving end, too.

Now here's another question for everyone else on this thread: we're taking about percentages, but what about length? If a book is 400 pages long, do you still shoot for 50%, or will you perhaps drop it to the first 100 pages or so? Two hundred pages' worth of reading seems like an awful amount of time spent waiting for a book to excite you . . .


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## AuthorTerry (Aug 13, 2010)

Even though I posted that 'formula' for how much to read before giving up (which has nothing to do with how long the book is), unless I've had a lot of others saying "hang in there" (Like with Dragon Tatoo), it would depend on why the book wasn't working for me. Usually it's because the characters are boring. If the story seems interesting, I'll keep going, but it'll be a fast read. I had that with a David Baldacci -- it was billed as a thriller, but he couldn't make me connect to the characters, so I didn't really get any 'thrills' even though, upon analysis, there were scenes that should have been exciting.  As far as I'm concerned, boring characters can't rescue a great plot, but great characters can make a dull plot more compelling. But that's another topic, I think.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

Alice Y. Yeh said:


> Now here's another question for everyone else on this thread: we're taking about percentages, but what about length? If a book is 400 pages long, do you still shoot for 50%, or will you perhaps drop it to the first 100 pages or so? Two hundred pages' worth of reading seems like an awful amount of time spent waiting for a book to excite you . . .


I don't abandon a book unless I have read at least 50% . I'm reading Les Miserables now, unabridged, and I'm at about 70%. At 10-25% I was thinking "will this never end". The description of the city layout and about the revolution about did me in. But I stuck with it. I was at pages 125-250 at that time. Now I'm at 700 and really moving along. And now I realize the author's purpose of including these parts was not to make me bored. I like the story. If I'd given up to soon I wouldn't have given myself the opportunity to read a book I'm really enjoying.

*edited for typos


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

I'm trying to get through my TBR list starting with the oldest first. And I'm finding that I am not being very patient.  If something doesn't grab me within a couple of chapters, I'm on to the next item.  I have a limited amount of time to read each day and I don't want to waste time on something I'm not enjoying when something better is probably on my list.


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

Alice Y. Yeh said:


> Now here's another question for everyone else on this thread: we're taking about percentages, but what about length? If a book is 400 pages long, do you still shoot for 50%, or will you perhaps drop it to the first 100 pages or so? Two hundred pages' worth of reading seems like an awful amount of time spent waiting for a book to excite you . . .


I never really counted the pages in the hardcopy books I've dumped. It's been as few as 10 pages and as many as 100 or so. It mostly depends on how much I like the author (or used to like, before that book).

With the Kindle showing me such precise percentages, I've found that if I hit a rough/boring patch, and see that the percentage read is 33% or less, I groan and wonder if I can put up with this (whatever this is) for another 66% (or whatever) of the novel.

-David


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

LauraB said:


> I'm reading Les Miserables now, unabridged, and I'm at about 70%. At 10-25% I was thinking "will this never end".


I credit the unabridged English translation of "Les Miserables" with teaching me that life is too short to read a book that is way too long and seriously needed an editor with the balls to tell Hugo: *Enough already!* 

-David

PS I did finish Les Miserables...but not without a ridiculous amount of skimming, wondering when the story would start up again...


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## stormhawk (Apr 29, 2009)

Once upon a time, I only failed to finish books I was assigned in school. Until recently, that is. There have been free Kindle downloads that have been so incredibly awful that I just couldn't proceed ... and I've read a lot of really awful books over the years. I mean, I even finished Twilight. All four of them. Hating them all the way, mainly because the cow orker who introduced them them to me and kept saying, "You'll like the next one better. It has Native Americans in it. You really like Native Americans." Yes, as a matter of fact, I do, but not in Twlight.

Be wary of a book called The Brass Bed. Truly Awful chicklit. I also couldn't make it through some D&D novels, part of some Dragonlance series, I think. I didn't pay for them either, found them on the mailroom table on my apt, returned them shortly afterwards.

I read what I pay for though, even if I'm not really happy with it.


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## CaroleC (Apr 19, 2010)

Being a sensitive, emotional person, I noticed that Les Miserables was actually making me feel sad and depressed. Those poor, poor people!    I think when Fantine had her front teeth pulled to sell in order to pay medical expenses for Cosette, the daughter that she couldn't even afford to go see, that was the last straw. I read the book many years ago but just couldn't get through it this time.

That was about six months ago. Eventually I may finish it but I haven't tried to do so, yet.


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## john_a_karr (Jun 21, 2010)

As so many have mentioned, time is way too short to endure a book that doesn't hold the interest. I'll give it a few chapters and then pass judgment. Now and then I dabble in the classics, if they're not thick as bricks, and will give them a bit more effort just to see what the hoopla was about. But Melmoth The Wanderer was sooo slow despite its intriguing sinister aspects that I haven't been able to tackle it, and doubt I'll return to it.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

scififan said:


> I used to force myself to read until the end. But I think I'm getting too old and my patience is wearing thin. I have no problem not finishing a book if it has lost my interest. Although, I always leave the option open to go back and finish it at a later date.


That is how I use to be as well. I think only within the last year have I decided that not every book is for me and there are so many others out there that I know I lwill ove, that I don't think it is necessary to torture myself by reading one I really don't even like and have to force myself to read.


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## AuthorTerry (Aug 13, 2010)

I think perhaps the reason I tend to finish almost all the books I start is that I have a relatively narrow focus. Mystery, romantic suspense, and generally authors whose writing I've already tried. There are enough series and backlist books out there to keep me busy. And when I book isn't working, I use it as a tutorial to help improve my own writing. It takes quite a nudge to move me away from my preferred genres.


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## Laurensaga (Sep 29, 2010)

I still finish reading every book, though like many others have m,entioned I am starting to consider ending this trend.  I also agree with the digital sampling I can find out if I enjoy the book before purchasing it.  So hopefully I won't have another dud again, but we shall see.


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## Carolyn Kephart (Feb 23, 2009)

If a book doesn't grab me from the jump, it hits the round file...or rather it used to. Now I just press 'Delete.' 

Since I'm pretty careful about what goes into my head, this hasn't happened often.

CK


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## Ruth Ann Nordin (Sep 24, 2010)

I will speed read if it loses my interest.  I've gotten really good at speed reading.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I have no problem giving up on a book that doesn't capture me. I used to go to the used bookstore and buy cheap books to have on hand. I knew at least 20% of them probably wouldn't be as good as I hoped, so that's why I always bought as many as I could find so that I would still have a decent number that I would like.


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

My daughter devours historical romances - sometimes at the rate of one every day or two when she's not too busy with school. This past weekend she was reading one (her fourth of the week) and complaining about how boring it was. Long and boring. She was less than a hundred pages into the 400 page book. I asked her why, if she didn't like it so far, she felt she _had_ to finish it. Why not set it aside and move on to another? She finally did.

Sometimes I have a book I'm actually enjoying, but too many daily life interruptions keep me from finishing it. If it has been a few days since I've picked up the book, by then I may have forgotten what was going on. In that case, I try to just wait until life settles down and I can read it straight through. Sometimes, though, I never do finish it - not because it wasn't good, but because I had other things to do.


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

I do, actually.  Even if I hate it.  I may skim over parts (sometimes often), but I do read to the ending.  If I spent my hard-earned cash (which is extremely limited right now), I feel I must finish the book.  I liken it to when I was a child and my parents would give me a plate of food.  I knew money was tight and that plate of food cost a lot of money, so I would eat every last bite, even if I was full or I didn't like it.  I appreciated the fact that I had a hot meal in front of me, and I didn't want to waste the money it took to get it there.


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## John Hamilton (May 6, 2010)

Like many here, as I've gotten older I give up on books that don't hold my interest. That said, I think as a person ages, their interests change. I recently took up _Moby Dick_ again, and actually found it enjoyable. And I have a new-found appreciation for Hemingway. I couldn't stand most of his books when I was younger, but now I see all kinds of meaning in them.


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## john_a_karr (Jun 21, 2010)

John Hamilton said:


> Like many here, as I've gotten older I give up on books that don't hold my interest. That said, I think as a person ages, their interests change. I recently took up _Moby Dick_ again, and actually found it enjoyable. And I have a new-found appreciation for Hemingway. I couldn't stand most of his books when I was younger, but now I see all kinds of meaning in them.


Agreed on the interests changing w/ age. Always enjoyed Hemingway. Melville is a difficult read for me. I believe he once said he hated writing (or the writing process, not sure); obviously despite this it still triggered something in him.


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## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

N. Gemini Sasson said:


> If it has been a few days since I've picked up the book, by then I may have forgotten what was going on.


Have you ever tried re-reading a little bit to see if you can remember what was going on? Every time I leave a book for a while I just go back a little bit, a paragraph, or a couple of pages, depending on how long it's been, and by the time I finish re-reading the section I find that I remember what was going on.


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## xandy3 (Jun 13, 2010)

I'd say I finish about 95% of all the books I read.  If I don't finish a book it's either because I lost interest in it completely, or decided to put it aside while I read something else and pick it up again at a later date.  

If it's interesting, and in one of my genre of choice (fantasy, mystery, horror) I will pick it up, and give it another go.  Especially if the characters were intriguing.  

Sometimes when I do that , I am pleasantly surprised when I pick it up again and read it through to completion.  (it's how I got into Mercedes Lackey's Gryphon trilogy).


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## Debra Purdy Kong (Apr 1, 2009)

DavidRM said:


> I used to proudly state that I finished every book I started reading. (I can be proud of the oddest things.)
> 
> Now, though, I proclaim, *"Life is too short to waste it on a bad book."*
> 
> ...


I never thought I'd be one of those to abandon a bad book, and I haven't yet, but as I'm getting older, I too am feeling less patient. Still, I'm a writer and I know what it took to even finish a book let alone put it out there and subject myself to others' comments. I review books, and whether I like a book or not, I feel I owe it to myself as a reviewer to finish it before I publish my comments.

Debra


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

Selcien said:


> Have you ever tried re-reading a little bit to see if you can remember what was going on? Every time I leave a book for a while I just go back a little bit, a paragraph, or a couple of pages, depending on how long it's been, and by the time I finish re-reading the section I find that I remember what was going on.


Yes, I do. Once or twice and it's no problem. It's when that happens several times (kids can keep you sooo crazy-busy) it sort of interrupts the flow.


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## Violet (Jun 17, 2010)

No - I don't finish every one I start.  If I just can't get interested in the story, if I hate the author's writing style, if the author ticks me off by doing annoying things with the plot, then I stop reading it. In some cases that is actually to the point of getting of the book, but generally I just stop reading it.  With the Kindle I plan to set up an Eh category and put those books in there.


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## Madeline (Jun 5, 2010)

Yes, unfortunately, I have to finish every book I start.  I'm OCD that way.  But I'll suffer through it even if I don't like it.  

Fortunately, I like alot of stuff and I can stomache a book that lots of people can't stand.  I look at it as a learning experience for me as a writer; I'll think about why I don't like it..or what the author is doing that makes the book be so miserable to read.


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## MissStar (May 4, 2010)

I generally have to finish each book I start.  Even if I don't particularly like a book there's usually at least one character or plot line where I HAVE to know what happens.  As far as I can remember, there have only been 2 books that I started and did not finish.  Even if I've already read the book...I still have to finish before I can move on to the next.


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