A few weeks back my Dad (a voracious reader) passed along a Washington Times article that discusses economics professor Tyler Cowen’s argument that there’s an economic case to be made for quitting a book as soon as you stop getting anything out of it. Cowen finishes one book for every five to ten he starts. “We should treat books a little more like we treat TV channels,” says Cowen.
That’s probably an extreme case, but I’m sure we’ve all had moments when we wanted to fling the old Kindle against the old wall, whether because of a character who was driving us batty, an implausible plot line, or maybe even because your copy of THE SHINING just happened to be missing pages right when it was getting to the good part (yup, still mad, Colusa County Library. Seventeen years has not dulled the pain).
So do you stop reading books or are you a compulsive finisher? And for those that stop midway, what causes you to stop? How do you decide to ditch a book and start something new?
ted says
Am currently about 120 pgs into EDGAR SAWTELLE after struggling mightily with the first 80 or so, during which every last "scorpioned snowflake" on the floor and "seething branch" outside the window was painstakingly rendered while I waited for the story to start. Only the reviews have kept me going so far, though now I'm almost hooked.
Given the comments above, I'm wondering if anyone else here started it and wanted to drop it. Also wondering how to reconcile its success with all the debut-novel rules it seems to have broken.
Linda says
It does depend on the book. I've stopped two pages in (author had multiple instances of the f-word), but I've also stopped halfway (author used a misspelled dialect for the main character; by the time I stopped, I was begging for mercy).
And I do skip pages. If a subplot feels wrong for the book or like filler, I skip right past it to get to the story. Sadly, I'm finding a lot of books like this.
S. Paul Bryan says
Compulsive finisher. Only two books I put down mid-read: War and Peace and Noble House.
Both because I lost track of who was who and what was what.
Haste yee back ;-) says
I quit reading when I start drawing on the pages!
Haste yee back 😉
Gina says
Finish them I will, but the less I like them the faster I´ll read. My record, unbroken two decades later, is The Physician in one day.
If I love them I want to savour them.
So, with all due respect to Mr Cowen, a book in a day EVERY day?
I wouldn´t call that reading.
b_writer says
I usually finish books if I like them enough to get past the first ten pages or so. There have been instances when I get to the middle and no longer like them. Then it becomes a question of whether or not there's something else I need to do. I'm reading one like that now, the beginning was great, the middle is so-so, I'll read a few pages, put it down for a day or so, and then maybe read a few more. I may even finish it before the end of this year, but that sagging middle reduces the feeling of urgency, and I’ll probably never go for another book by that author.
I have one by an author that was one of my favorites, and I hope she redeems herself with her next book or she may drop off my favorite list. The beginning was right there in her usual standards. But the middle was – let's just say muddled. I went through to the end because it was her, but the ending did not justify that middle. Like I said, I'll give her next book a chance, hoping this was just an aberration.
Jen P says
Gina – you've reminded me of another I almost gave up on, but didn't. And prompted me to consider the key reason I give up on books: I get bored because it is too 'samey' with previous works I've read by the same author. Book in case was SHAMAN, after reading Gordon's THE PHYSICIAN. It was almost an identical story in a different setting. I had to shelve it for ages, so that I'd had a longer break since reading the first novel.
@Carly – perhaps it was a US/Euro language translation thing – many Europeans probably say 'sanctimonious' quite often. Perhaps that says something about us….;-)
Anonymous says
I used to compulsively finish everything but life's too short for that. Now I'll give it about 50pages.
For one book I gave up near the end because of poor editing.
Jil says
If I start a book it's usually because I like the idea on the jacket, have a current interest in the subject or something else has already attracted me to it. Some, read out of curiosity disappoint,like Salmon Rushdie. (Can't remember which one)
Wimpy characters, and lack of knowledge about something I do know about turns me off immediately. I want to be drawn into another life, feel their emotions and see through their eyes.
A lot of popular science fiction and mysteries bore me because the characters seem cold and I soon put them down.
Mechelle Avey says
I'm a finisher. There have been very few books that I have not gotten through, though some have been excruciating to finish.
Calliopenjo says
I stop finishing a book when there's little left to the imagination. What do I mean by that? It goes back to the show vs. tell argument. I can only take so much. I try hard to show as much as possible leaving little to be told.
The other stories I avoid are PWP stories or, plot-what-plot stories. These are the stories that focus on sex. Bedroom, kitchen table, backseat, etc. The scene doesn't matter but the story is always the same. I refuse to spend my time reading those.
The other stories I try to avoid are stories with pages long narrative with a sentence or two of dialogue. I yawn after the first page.
Those are my avoidance issues.
Julie says
Absolutely agree with the commercial interruption of thought. I've noticed that books that I enjoy are short-chaptered, to the point and very enjoyable. If I'm in the mood for a slog, I'll read the more detailed ones as the writing is usually superb and it enriches my own descriptions when writing–like watching an opera and wanting to sing…
Precision Grace says
I've given up on first page or couple of chapters in – it depends.
If I am struggling to enjoy myself or get anything at all out of the book then it'll get put down. Sometimes it just takes time and I get back to it eventually but some are lost causes.
I've tried to read The Life of Pi several times and most of those times I've ended up throwing the blasted thing against the wall.
I've also given up on the Book of Dave and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – this last one is the most annoying because I'd heard such good things about it and I Bought the book just to end up giving up on it several pages in. I just can't read it. So far I'm also at the giving up stage of McCarthy's The Road. Tried it twice, not got past the page 3. I'll give that some more time as it's been lauded all the way from Hell to Pearly Gates but I'm not hopeful.
Gina says
Jen P – excellent point! Read most of the comments and didn´t see it mentioned before. And hadn´t realized it´s a serious factor in my lack of enjoyment of certain books.
´Samey´-ness to previous works by same author is a major put-off.
First Marian Keyes I read was Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, and I thought I´d hit the mother lode of funny.
By the time I´d retraced her back to Watermelon I was losing the will to live.
Anonymous says
For fiction for me, I'll drop it if the characters are annoying/boring. If it's just descriptions or technical jargon in the fiction that is bothering me, I'll stick with it a bit longer to see if maybe it was just a rough patch.
Non-fiction I'm much pickier with. Especially if you claim to be "sticking with facts" and then jump right into fiction (hello, Beautiful Jim author, I'm looking at you, telling me in exact detail what a *horse* was thinking and feeling and deciding and saying and admiring!).
robin says
I stop the moment I'm no longer enthralled (fiction). Then I'll usually skim to see what happened, unless I truly don't care (this rarely happens) at all and just want to get the book as far away from me as possible.
Karyn Lewis says
I almost always finish a book once I start it. However, I will skim the boring/annoying parts until the story picks back up again.
Trée says
I finish less than 10% of the books I start so for me, the more interesting question is, why does one finish. Outside of those who finish books just to finish them. If we know why people finish books, that helps. To know why people stop is nice, but it doesn't educate a writer as to what to do, only what not to do.
Shennandoah Diaz says
I commit myself to at least 100 pages. The last book I read was really good the first 100 then suddenly took a left turn into crazy land.The plot became ridiculously cheesy and unbelievable. I gave up 200 pages into the 400 page book. I'm normally not such a quitter, but after a 100 pages with no sign of hope, I decided that there were too many other stories worthy of my attention.
April Hollands says
I used to be a serial finisher until I read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I don't care how great he's meant to be: I found that book boring for the first fifty pages before I gave up.
Kate says
Some people are questioning the reasoning of the compulsive finishers. I do finish every book I start, but oddly find that the only books I don't enjoy are the classics. Often I find the narration tedious. Modern writers have been forced to move stories along faster than was required a hundred years ago. Still I think it is important to have an understanding of literary history, so if I start reading a classic I always try to finish it. Even if it isn't as engaging as a current best seller.
sex scenes at starbucks says
Life is too short to read bad books.
Cheryl Barker says
I usually finish the books I start. Not long ago, though, I gave up half-way through Dickens' David Copperfield. I just wasn't enjoying it and didn't want to face another 400 pages. Too many other enjoyable things out there to read…
Nathan Bransford says
jend (deletion explanation)-
Not sure if your reference to politics was satire or honest, but either way I don't see that ending well.
Lucy says
It's the point where I want to drag a character off the page and slap some sense into her, and about the fifth or sixth time I get that impulse, I'm done.
I'm not sure that "shallow" is even an adequate word for it: I've seen rather shallow characters who were sort of engaging. This is more along the lines of Too Stupid to Live.
Mara Wolfe says
I try to finish novels, but sometimes I just can't. I generally stop reading when I'm making excuses not to read it, or when a novel starts saying things that I find really offending.
Amy Cochran says
Depends on the book. I've dropped the in the beginning, and the middle and a few close to the end. I just need a book that holds my attention which is not the easiest thing to do.
Lea McKee says
I am known to occasionally put down a book, usually because I sometimes read more than one at a time and when one requires undivided attention, i usually stop reading the others. And unfortunately sometimes i don;t pick them back up again.
But I have only ever put down a few and its usually because the quiet before the storm. Most novels have a steady rising pace to the climax, others start rising only to dip way down before the climax. If a book dips too low I usually stop reading, im a little impatient. 🙂
Curtastrophe says
Thanks to a stint of unemployment, I had the time and (and for lack of better options) motivation to start "Gravity's Rainbow."
Up until the first 200 pages, I nearly quit it everday out of frustration. The only thing that kept me reading was the promise that "It will get better! Just hang in there and trust the author!" It turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read.
Bottom Line: If it's a classic, I'll stick with it. Otherwise, I stop reading when I cease being interested in the characters.
pat says
Oh my God! All these posts…
Its a wonder I actually scrolled through them all. Just like reading a book I have to be grabbed on the first few posts!!!
I have discarde many books after the first couple of chapters but occasionally I will go back to one another time.
Richard Lewis says
I grew up in the sixties on Bali. My life was hardly deprived, except for one thing: there were no books. I didn't care there was no TV, I wanted books. I read my father's small library from cover to cover many times, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible to Fox's Book of Martyrs (what a gruesomely delightful book for a boy). I begged from others, scoured hotels' reading rooms, cherished any stray book that came my way, and once stole a paperback out of a hippie's backpack (a story I've told elsewhere on the Net).
Because books were such a treasure, for a long time until my forties I never met a book I wouldn't read. Then sadly I grew to realize a truth of aging: So little time, so many tomes. This was when, with regret and fondness and appreciation for the joys she'd given me, I decided I could no longer read Danielle Steel.
Newbee says
For me, it could be as soon as the first page. As soon as I loose interest in the book I'm all done. I high school I started many assigned books but never finished them. I don't like to read anything that doesn't peek my interest.
Cheryl says
I wrote about this very issue on my blog yesterday. I just stopped reading "Pillars of the Earth" because there were some morally sinister/violent/reprehensible images in it that I wish I hadn't exposed myself to. I've gotten applause from my readers on my decision. Sorry Follett (and Oprah), but rape, child abandonment, pig stealing, and kid clubbing are not my idea of a good read.
Horserider says
The only time I don't finish a book is when I set it down for awhile and forget to pick it back up and start reading again. Or if it's overdue at the library and I don't feel it's worth the effort of checking it back out.
The last book I didn't finish was Misery by Steven King. I stopped halfway through because it was getting fairly disturbing…
Tracy says
The only reasons for my shelving a book would be if they ended up being offensive. I'm pretty careful about what I pick up in the first place though, so it doesn't happen very often.
I think I'm always optimistic that a book will get better, and because I'm a fast reader, I'm halfway through before I realize I'm bored or whatever. Then I figure I may as well find out what happens. And hey, maybe there's a plot twist that makes the boring stuff more relevant. It seldom works out that way, but I can't bring myself to be anything less than hopeful 🙂
Besides, I always thought ditching a book equalled giving up. I'm too stubborn to let a book get the best of me! Last summer I slogged through War & Peace to see what all the fuss was about, and no matter how bored I was (and how!) I'll be darned if I wasn't going to find out exactly what happened to everyone…just don't ask me to remember who was who and who did what…
Jan says
I am a compulsive finisher. I finish it even if I can't stand it. There is something about returning a book that I haven't read that is just wrong…. I think that somewhere in the book I will find something interesting or worthwhile.
Haley says
I'm a finisher – I give the book the benefit of the doubt(just like I do movies) hoping it will get better. If there is a character I really care for, I'll stick with them even during bad plot moments or events I don't feel make sense. I also love strong themes and symbolism, so it the book has it, I stay for the beauty. Books are a chance to experience another life -even if you don't like it.
I'm not saying I never stop reading a book, but when I have it was for the following reasons: time – ran out of it and never got back to the book – not saying I won't, though. The other that I can think of (and don't shoot me literary world) was Love in the Time of Cholera. I kept wishing for it to pull me in, but it just didn't. I was sad, but finally stopped after about 50 pages.
Genevieve says
Oh, I try. I really do. Especially now that I'm writing. I figure they've probably put years into this thing in my hands. I'd better find what had them so consumed. But …
There comes a point. A point where you can't concentrate, you start skipping paragraphs, you really could care less what happens to that character. That slug creeping across the patio has more momentum than that chapter. Then the book has to be put away. I did that recently, and now I just don't know what to do with the book. Do I give it away? Can I recommend it? Nope. But it cost a lot … hmmm Maybe I"ll donate it somewhere.
Anonymous says
When I sense I've gotten "bogged down" I'm apt to put a book down, and there's a 50/50 chance I'll ever pick it up again.
What tends to make me feel bogged down: 1) characters introduced early on in a non-compelling way, then reintroduced later and I can't remember for the life of me who they are/how they fit, 2) long-winded descriptions of things like fishing, climbing, repairing something, sex, etc., 3) dialogue I have to struggle to decipher.
Kate Higgins says
When I was little I was told to sit and finish every thing on my plate…even if it tasted bad. I never did. And I will not finish any book that tastes bad. Bad writing, boring plot, plodding arc.
I especially get turned off when I know the writer didn’t research his details. Once I stopped reading a book when it described the beautiful sights while flying to Sun Valley, Idaho from Boise, Idaho in a small plane. No problem there, the sights are very beautiful,I know I grew up there, but it was written that the plane would be flying at 3,000 feet.
However Boise is at 2,500 feet above sea level and Sun Valley is 5,750 feet and there are some substantial mountains between them. Unless there is a tunnel I don’t know about they were flying underground. I couldn’t finish the book.
Too many good books out there to dine on the bad ones.
R. Garrett Wilson says
I can only think of a half dozen books that I haven't finished. Normally, if I get past page 35, I am finishing the book. I have tried at least two more times to go through three of those six books.
Heather Rose Chase says
I read quickly and finish just about everything I start. I read constantly, generally have two or three books stashed all over the house/car in every type of genre. I'm not at all picky – give me a book and I'll read it – and I've only tossed aside a few books unfinished, most notably a non-fiction account of child abuse in the foster care system. I was too horrified to finish it. But never because a book was boring or too hard to read.
Bee Hylinski says
I usually finish the books I read or listen to, but I am about to give up listening to First Team by Larry Bonds. Let me first say that I get most of my books from the library so I do not have an economic investment in those books. But I usually finish hard copy books and I almost always finish books on CD as they entertain me while driving. This book leaves me completely cold. Much too much edgy dialog, much too much happens without giving much of a setting of scene and I am not engaged by the characters at all. They are all dispsreputable people as far a I can see. I like to be engaged by the characters and I love a good story well told.
quillfeather says
On very rare occasions I have slipped the 'unfinished' book back on the bookshelf. However, I normally persevere to reach the end for two simple reasons: The author has obviously gone to great lengths to write it with the addition of navigating the stormy seas of publication, of which I am endeavoring to do myself.
Sandy & Pamela says
Assuming that a book didn't annoy me in the first 20-30 pages (too cute, too slow, too great an urge to edit), I give up on a book when I find myself reading other books instead of picking it up again.
TonyB says
The true story of my really unbelievable life story is like, well you know ……………..
A really bad first line has me dropping a book on my toe before I sit down. That may be why I keep looking for that magical opening line for my manuscript 🙂
Steph Damore says
I dunno I'm optimistic. Even if a book is awful, I keep reading it. You know, waiting for it to "get good." There has to be some reason it was a best seller, right?
mikandra says
I usually read to the end. But in the few times I've given up, it's because I fail to see an engaging story. I read fantasy and don't mind the big trilogies, but if after a while I can't see the big 'overall' story, then sorry, but I have better things to do
Jan Markley says
I'm a compulsive finisher only because a grade five teacher gave us all heck once and said that we couldn't possibly judge a book unless we finished it. So, even though I don't believe that, I still have that stuck in my mind. Two books I couldn't finish: War and Peace by Tolstoy because life is just too short, and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, because I couldn't relate to the main character. I did finish Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, but at about page 700 I found myself yelling "jump on the tracks already!"
thoughtful1 says
I think I deleted my post, so if this is a repetition, sorry.
I've always found that Poe's rule that the first line of a work pretty much sets up what is to follow is true. So that's how I choose which to buy or borrow, I look at the first line. Think about Pride and Prejudice and you know after the first line you are in for a treat. Anyway it may not be fool proof but it works pretty well for me. I do end up forcing myself to try to read books given to me in order not to disappoint the givers. There I find too much description just fogs my brain, but then, I think this is a personal taste, not a criticism of a truth about writing. I like pointed active writing. I like to be surprised and have my eyes opened. I liked PD James, The Lighthouse; Ender's Game, The Giver, The Hobbit. Well this is a rehash of favorite books, but I wonder if I were to look at all of the first lines of these books if what I said holds true.