Books...bad stories?

JerSchmare
JerSchmare Posts: 1,214 Member
edited November 2024 in Chit-Chat
If you start a book, and it seems like it's going nowhere, or it is boring to you, do you
1) plow through it anyway because maybe it will get good
2) stop reading it at some point and move on

I tend to do 2. But, I'm cautious because I have plowed through a couple snoozers only to find out that in the last few chapters it's really comes together.

Having said that, I also feel like life's too short to force yourself to read crappy books.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • Creativityfailure
    Creativityfailure Posts: 96 Member
    Usually I force myself to finish it just to know for sure that the entire book sucked. Unfortunately, that usually makes reading feel like a chore. So now I'm just REALLY picky about what books I'll even start reading. There have been a few over the years that I couldn't get through though.
  • captainfantastic94
    captainfantastic94 Posts: 1,745 Member
    I always stop if im not like super into it. Unless its like American gods or one flew over the cuckoo's nest that have weird offshoots from the story which end up trying in so i just push through. Never continue books if i don't like them though
  • sw33tp3a1
    sw33tp3a1 Posts: 5,065 Member
    I don't remember when was the last time I read a really crappy book. I usually go to Goodreads and see the reviews. I also download a preview of the ebook I'm interested in and if it catches my attention, I'll read it.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    I have a put aside tentatively shelf on goodreads (maybe I'm not in the right mood) and an actual DNF shelf
  • stvmrtn
    stvmrtn Posts: 32 Member
    I generally have a rule of getting at least through half of the book before giving up on it, unless it is just absolutely terrible, which has only happened once.
  • caco_ethes
    caco_ethes Posts: 11,962 Member
    I can get through some really dry material if I think it's temporary, but if the plot shifts to suddenly being a nonsensical romance in disguise, I'm usually too annoyed to finish. The last ebook i was reading was incredibly interesting. It was about a mathematical breakthrough with lots of national defense implications and the mathematician who made the discovery was (of course) murdered for his work. His fiancée comes home, discovers the murder, loses her *kitten*, then hires a private eye. At this point I'm losing interest. Then yep.. ten pages later they're attracted to each other. Sigh.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
    I normally put it down and stop reading. But I typically pick it back up some time in the future and wind up enjoying it. I have tons of books on my kindle that ive started and stopped. I plan on reading them all eventually.
  • Hamsibian
    Hamsibian Posts: 1,388 Member
    I read the whole story/series because I pray that something good will happen. I am ashamed to admit I read Twilight.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    i think i finish most things, though that's not saying much. i'm like those people in the study whose consumption levels had nothing to do with the quality of the ice cream. it was ice cream, and that's all that mattered to them. and 'boring' is rarely the reason why i might drop a book. my condemnations are far more excitable than merely 'boring' :D

    i can actually stay with a book that's 'boring' on one level so long as it's meeting criteria on other ones. i've never been able to finish anything written before 1910. now that i'm not being formally 'educated' by anybody, i don't even try anymore. i dragged myself backwards through a couple of jane austen's books a few years ago, just for kind of the pointless endurance 'challenge' of it and in case i'd been missing something, but no.
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