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Do you always at least try to finish every book you start? Or do you give up when you feel like it? Let’s here the pros and cons of sticking it out.
I am a non-finisher by the way. I only read to the end of a book if I find it worthwhile in some way (moving, edifying, gripping, etc.) Currently, I am between one half and two thirds of the way through Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (pg 418 out of 680). I’’m not sure I care what Becky does any more. The Osbournes are getting boring. Etc., It feels like the time to bail is approaching ...
Nope. If it's overly descriptive, dull, hard to get into, I just can't finish it. If it's a well hyped book and I had my name on the online library
waiting list, I usually make an effort to finish it. I did this with some audio books - I binge listened because the time
was starting to run out and it wasn't an easy book to get!
A true sign of a gripping book??? I remember my sister telling me when she read Stephen King's, The Stand,
she missed a few of her stops on the subway because she was so caught up in the story.....
Even if it seems like I don't like it I try to give it 60 pages of reading or so (about an hour). By that time I usually know if I want to keep reading, and if I don't it's only an hour wasted.
Almost all books I start I do finish though, to answer the question.
I used to make myself finish books, but no more. If it's not bringing me joy, I stop. Sometimes, though, I might not just be in the mood for a particular book, So I usually won't totally give up on one. I've yet to finish Moby Dick, for example, but maybe one day! ha ha
I tend to read multiple books at once. I suspect it was started that way during all of my deployments which had a lot of down-time. I would say that I tend to read the completely 95% of the time, but there are those few that simply can't keep me interested enough to finish. To be honest, I hate starting one without completing it, but I don't feel that I have the time to *waste* on something that isn't interesting enough to keep me going.
Do you always at least try to finish every book you start? Or do you give up when you feel like it? Let’s here the pros and cons of sticking it out.
I am a non-finisher by the way. I only read to the end of a book if I find it worthwhile in some way (moving, edifying, gripping, etc.) Currently, I am between one half and two thirds of the way through Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (pg 418 out of 680). I’’m not sure I care what Becky does any more. The Osbournes are getting boring. Etc., It feels like the time to bail is approaching ...
You?
Vanity Fair, btw, is one of my favorite books. It is the most perfectly-plotted book in the English language. The character arcs are incredible.
I have given up on tons more books than I have ever finished. I just don't like wasting my time doing something that isn't thoroughly enjoyable. Once in a while I hit on a great read and want it to never end. But that's seldom these days. Some of these newby writers need to brush up on their skills in my opinion.
I used to make myself finish books, but no more. If it's not bringing me joy, I stop. Sometimes, though, I might not just be in the mood for a particular book, So I usually won't totally give up on one. I've yet to finish Moby Dick, for example, but maybe one day! ha ha
So true about the mood. Or maybe the stage in one’s life. The first time I read Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, I just couldn’t get into it. A few years later, I tried again and thought it was one of the best novels I had ever read. The same thing has happened to me in reverse too: I have come back to favorite books years later and wonder what I ever saw in them.
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