Do you give yourself permission to not finish a book? (best, ebook)
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Books cost too much, and many of them are rubbish. Therefore, I get majority of my books from the library, and if I don't like it, I will stop reading.
Goodness, yes, all the time. I have so much less patience these days with badly-written books or ones that just don't hold my attention. At least with a movie you only lose a couple of hours of your day, but struggling thro a book you're just not enjoying can take days or even weeks and I'm not getting any younger here!
This perfectly describes my attitude.
I take care about how I obtain the book.
In my former book club, I usually liked the book, but with my current one, quite often I will dislike it, and if I see a selection coming up that I have misgivings about, I just wait and borrow the book from another member.
I do try to give a book 100 pages, or at least 50.
I used to be one of those people who thought, "Hey! I dropped money for this book -- I better finish it, even if I'm hating it."
Then I started "giving myself permission" to say, "Hey! Life's too short to spend time reading a book that's not enjoyable. Forget the money. Pick up a book that you really DO like."
When I started allowing myself to give up on a book, I would suffer a bit of guilt. Not any more. I just move on to a book that I'll (hopefully) enjoy more.
Do you read every book until the end, even if you're hating it?
Do you feel guilty for not reading a book to the end?
I'm a "life is too short" person. But sometimes, I will finish a book even if I'm not enjoying it, not out of guilt but because I want to be able to say "I finished this book and it was terrible" so there is no wiggle room for anyone to say "well you didn't finish it, you didn't give it a real chance so how can you say it was that bad?" But sometimes it's bad enough that I can justify not finishing it.
I used to be one of those people who thought, "Hey! I dropped money for this book -- I better finish it, even if I'm hating it."
Then I started "giving myself permission" to say, "Hey! Life's too short to spend time reading a book that's not enjoyable. Forget the money. Pick up a book that you really DO like."
When I started allowing myself to give up on a book, I would suffer a bit of guilt. Not any more. I just move on to a book that I'll (hopefully) enjoy more.
Do you read every book until the end, even if you're hating it?
Do you feel guilty for not reading a book to the end?
Life is too short, and there are too many good books out there to waste time on a bad one.
I try to give every book at least 100 pages, because I have read books where the first 100 pages or so were bit slow, but then I ended up really liking the rest. But if an author can't interest me in 100 pages, the author isn't doing his or her job.
But really, the truly great writers ought to have you hooked on page 1.
Yes!!!!! The most recent was Confessions of an Economic Hit Man(something like that....it went into the garbage, rather than the donations box, when we moved...didn't want that trash disinforming someone else), which promised to be insider knowledge, but turned out to be the usual warmed-over Marxist tripe/one-worlder crap every school teacher in America seems to have been infected with.
But for the last few years, the whole family has been tossing, partially-read, the works of people who had been billed as 'rebels', 'free-thinkers' (blah blah blah), who turned out to be nothing more than cookie cutter Marxist/Socialist hacks.
Frankly, neither DH nor myself have bought a book since we left Mississippi last year (nor do we subscribe to newspapers or magazines anymore...and we didn't bother with converter boxes for the televisions, or get Cable). What little truth is to be found is on the Internet. Soon, that window will be closed, too.
Apparently, one cannot publish non-fiction in America, unless one is a fully indoctrinated Marxist (except for writers of the 'Conservative Christian' Sarah Palin type pap which does more to advance Marxism than it does to advance 'Conservatism').
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Gloria,
Even if you cannot stand the book written by these "Marxist" authors you should read them to the end just so you can refute their ideas. Shortly before the 2008 Presidential election I read the books written by McCain and Obama. The audio books of Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope by Obama were narrated by Obama. When I read the books I thought "wow this is one angry dude". Listening to him read his own books confirmed that IMO.
I used to be one of those people who thought, "Hey! I dropped money for this book -- I better finish it, even if I'm hating it."
Then I started "giving myself permission" to say, "Hey! Life's too short to spend time reading a book that's not enjoyable. Forget the money. Pick up a book that you really DO like."
When I started allowing myself to give up on a book, I would suffer a bit of guilt. Not any more. I just move on to a book that I'll (hopefully) enjoy more.
Do you read every book until the end, even if you're hating it?
Do you feel guilty for not reading a book to the end?
Well, back to that old... "I don't read fiction" thing. Since most of the books I read are for reference rather than entertainment, I rarely "finish" any of them. I have about four or five of them going right now, but if I decide to put them aside and read something else, there is no harm done.
I definitely used to force myself to finish books but eventually just learned to let them go at a certain point. Now, I read the first chapter and if I don't like it, I read the first page of the last chapter. If I still don't like it, that book gets listed on Amazon Marketplace. But, I also look at reviews on books on sites like Amazon to get a better idea if I will enjoy a book or not. If most of the reviews are poor, chances are I will never try to read that book.
I know it is cheating in many ways but I figure if the first chapter can't catch your attention then the chances of the book getting any better is slim to none. The only exception are those books required for school or work. I just have to tough it out!
Is it different for anyone out there that reads electronic books? They are usually more expensive so I imagine that they may be more difficult to let go as you can't really resell those?
99% of the books I read are from the library. I abandon books easily - sometime just a couple or a few chapters (depending on how long the chapter is), some a bit later. Sometimes I am just not in the mood for that book.
I figure, I don't have enough time, and there are way too many books out there waiting for me. Why waste it on something I'm not enjoying?
I totally give myself persmission to stop reading a bad book! just like not watching a bad movie.
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But, I also look at reviews on books on sites like Amazon to get a better idea if I will enjoy a book or not. If most of the reviews are poor, chances are I will never try to read that book. 
