Giving Up On Books

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if you are reading a book and don't like it, how soon do you say "stuff it!" and give or chuck it away?

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Never. I just put it on the shelf with the bookmark still in and leave it there until it apologises.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

if i've bought it, i do what nick does. without the apology bit.

if it's a library book i stick it back in my bag and start reading something else and promise myself i'll come back to it until it's time to return all of them. then i can trick myself into not feeling as guilty about abandoning them.

― colette (a2lette), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Its very rare that I EVER do that. I think its bad form - it might perk up later, after all. The only time I've done this is with Sense and Sensibility, and even then I was well over two-thirds of the way in.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

When I see the title "Infinite Jest".

No seriously! I should get back to it but it's less of a book more of a glorifed book-end.

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 11:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I give up on most books i read even if i really like them. this is mostly due to never using a bookmark and then finding myself in situations where i do not have time to read for a week or two and not being able to find where i left off.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

has anyone got bored with a book, put it aside and later been cajoled into trying again?

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes. Kavalier & Clay, and I am SO glad I did.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

what sarah said, except with Gravity's Rainbow (which is also the answer to alang's question, although i haven't actually started re-reading it yet).

i think i've got a lot worse at not finishing books, i think it's probably because i have "less time" (in theory) so don't get so involved. those not finished recentlyish:
Glamorama (also because it's RUBBISH)
House of leaves (ditto)
Aesthetics of rock (melted brane)
i don't think i've properly finished Words and ~~Pictures~~ Music now i think about it...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"Infinite Jest" is such a good example, I've tried to read this about a dozen times. I'm not so much cajoled but shamed by its mocking presence on my bookshelf into trying to read it. Each time I think that life's a bit too short for such things. I mean, Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, wtf.

I almost gave up with Houellebecq's "Atomised" because the protagonist was so remorselessly unsympathetic, but I'm glad I finished it.

As a kid, I spent ages trying to read "Swallows and Amazons" but I could never finish it. I would be kind of relieved if it turned out that it was just a very dull book.

Too many of my books have bookmarks in them.

― Alfie (Alfie), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I gave up on Vernon God Little way too quickly. I will probably end up going back to that Philip Pullman book, despite it being a tremendous bore

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't really buy books, so I do quite often give up on them if they're not finished by the library due date and I can't be arsed to renew them.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I give up all the time. I'm a quitter. Quitters never win. Happy, Dad?

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I give up when I don't like it, usually. Unless it really gets under my skin and I read it all the way through and then throw it against the wall when I'm done in anger (as I did with a certain E.M. Forster novel).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I give up on lots of books, usually between 20 and 100 pages into them. I don't think it really matters, as you may gained some insight from what you did read, and then there is always the prospect of going back.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I usually don't so much give up on a book as move on. I'm the weasel they're talking about on that other thread. Who's *sort of* seeing someone else.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Like, I put down yet another book about knuckleheaded Texas criminals to read Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

go to some sort of graduate or professional school. i guarantee that, by the time you finish, you will never want to crack open any sort of book ever again.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess i have never "given up" on a book. does this make me a freak?

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

no, just persistent.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't do it often (I'm a pretty good judge of what I'll like), and it varies at what stage - I don't think I'd read past a third of the way and give up (don't think I've ever done this), and have mostly done it between page 20 and 50, I think.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

What's A Book You Started To Read Recently(Or Not So Recently)Where All Of A Sudden You Decided-Hmmm-That's Enough,Thanks!

related thread that you may have given up on cuz the title was too wordy.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

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