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How long before you give up on a book??

cabrasopa

cabrasopa

New Member
I use to finish reading everything i started no matter how bad it was.
Recently i've started to give up on anything that doesn't grab and hold my attention within 100/200 pages.
I know some books take a while to get going but i've read enough books now to get a feel for it and know that it's not going to get any better.
Surely the whole idea of reading is to ENJOY.
Theres a lot of good books out there without having to waste your time on something your not enjoying.
 
I don't last long, if a book doesn't grab my attention. I don't know if I'd last even 100 pages. I think I can tell pretty quickly if I'd be into something or not.

I figure there's too many good books out there waiting to be read, to waste time persevering with something that you don't enjoy. ;)

However, I'll often pick up that book (if it's one I bought) a few months later, to give it another go. :cool:
 
I'm the same way. Life is far too short to waste my time on reading books that I don't enjoy!

Don't really have a set limit to decide. I guess 100 - 200 pages is about average :)
 
I gave up "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" after about two chapters since I wasn't very fond of the style at all. Two chapters should generally be enough to tell if you want to complete the book or not. But I gave it another try since I have this agenda to read all the books that the movies I own are based on and ended up quite liking it. I'm still not loving the style but I liked the story.

There are probably a lot of books that aren’t sensible to drop just after two chapters but you don't want to force yourself through half a book to see if it gets better if you've hated it from the start.

If I've read almost 200 pages in a book I'd probably want to finish it just to know how it ends even if I wasn't very fond of it.
 
I've got a horrible habit of trying to finish any book, regardless of how awful the start is. This is because of those couple of books that have started out dull, but ended up picking up towards the end.

I think there have only been a handful that I really couldn't face all the way to the end.
 
For me, it does not depend on the number of pages, but time!
I start a book, if I find it boring, I push myself to read it for another 15 minutes or so. If the book gets really boring, then I stop reading and get back to it again after sometime. If the second attempt fails, then I try again one last time before I call it quits!
 
I geneally finish everything, even if it takes awhile.

Hell, I've been reading Clive Barker's Imajica for over 8 years now. The plot and characters are so bizarre that it's easy to get back into. Maybe I'll pick it up and finish this week. Good idea!
 
How can you give up on a book before starting it? :confused:

Surely you either read it or you don't read it. It's not possible to give up on something you haven't attempted! IF that were so then I could claim to have given up mountain climbing ( since I have never mountain climbed ) :)
 
Someone may have been so put off a book they had and were going to read, so didn't bother.

I take your point though! :rolleyes:
 
i think i finished everything i started except two books!! and this two books i will never pick up again!! i try to finish my books in a special time period.
 
I judge a book slightly differently. If I put it down and don't feel pulled back to it, makes no difference how many pages I've read, I don't finish it. Usually, another book has caught my attention in the interim, and the first book didn't hold me enough to put down the new book, if that makes sense.

I agree, life IS too short and there are SO many books on the To Read list to waste on something that doesn't make me want to continue :)
 
Jbug - I've done the "do i want to get back into this book?" thing too, several times. I'm not sure if that's due to the books not being much cop, or my occasionally gnat-like attention span. Possibly both. But usually:

50ish if it's pretty bad, by which point I usually know I'm not going to get on with it.

100ish is my usual benchmark if it's an "undecided".

Or in the case of TDVC, about a page and a half. :D

Sometimes I go a little longer but that's rare - I got to within about 50 pages of the end of Generation X, for example, which fitted in with my 100 page benchmark since it's a pretty short read. I really considered whether I should have finished it for the hell of it, it would have taken me about an hour at the most, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

"Life's too short" has probably been used a few times on this thread, so instead: Two hours spent on a book I don't enjoy for the sake of saying I've read it is two hours of my life I can't get back. Time is precious - waste less.
 
cabrasopa said:
Anyone given up on a book before starting it?
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I have. I checked it out from the library. It had been on my TBR list for ages and I finally found it. I got home and read the back of the book and realized it is a mystery and I'm just not into mysteries right now, and it just wasn't going to be an enjoyable read. Good thing I didn't buy it, huh?

Of books I have started, I try to give them a fair shake, although really, it can very from book to book. Some I have put down half-way through, others, after only one chapter.
 
Hmm...I usually can't stand to give up on a book, (though I've given up on a few :rolleyes: ) but when I buy the book I feel compelled to read it no matter how much I hate it. However, if it's bad and from the library, it's fair game to throw it out the window! :D
 
Gerbil Chan said:
Hmm...I usually can't stand to give up on a book, (though I've given up on a few :rolleyes: ) but when I buy the book I feel compelled to read it no matter how much I hate it. However, if it's bad and from the library, it's fair game to throw it out the window! :D
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Throw the library book out the window :eek:
Its a library book, Gerbil, better be more careful with it ;) :D
 
Geenh said:
I geneally finish everything, even if it takes awhile.
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Same here.
I can't leave a book unfinished. If it's boring, I'll leave it, but after a few years I'll try it again and then again and again.. till I've finished it. I can't start a book and just leave it, without finishing it. In my little world that's a crime.

Catherine Cookson's book Kate Hannigan, is one I've only read thirty pages of, and I really really really don't want to read any more of it, EVER. I'll see if I can manage that.:)
 
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