"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow

Thursday, September 15, 2011

How bad?



The other day, Beverly Diehl brought up a good discussion point and I thought it would be fun to ask. Exactly how bad does a book have to be for you to stop reading it? Also if it is bad or you just aren't feeling it - would you stop reading or do you finish it to see if it gets any better?



Personally, I have an extremely hard time just stopping in the middle. I would rather be disappointed with the story than not know how it ends! haha. I will definately say I'm a bit nurotic in that sense.




So what about you? Do toss it across the room or do you muddle through?

11 comments:

Nicole said...

Oh definitely stop! I just can't make myself read a bad book.

C.M. Villani said...

haha. one way or the other my morbid curiosity always gets the better of me. :)

Kelly Hashway said...

A book has to be completely awful for me not to finish. But I will skim to get through it quicker.

C.M. Villani said...

I'm just like you, Kelly! The compulsion to find out how it ends is just too strong. :) I will get to a point though that I accept the crappiness of it and then the morbid curiosity kicks in and I just need to find out how far down the rabit hole it goes.

I do have my limits though. :D

theoncominghope said...

I can usually tell in two pages if it's REALLY bad. I usually give it 30 pages before abandoning it for other reasons, ie boredom or uninteresting characters.

Only once have I abandoned a book past the halfway point!

Brenda said...

I won't make it halfway. If I find myself lost or continue to read the same lines over, to don't connect with the character straight away the book and I part company. I was reading 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was dying by page 30 and wanted to dump it, but my sister insisted I give it another 40 or so pages."It will get better." It did and finished it in record time, but not have. It's a time thing. I have so little and reading is about pleasure.

C.M. Villani said...

theoncominghope - Then you are a lot better than me! haha. it usually takes me a few chapters befre I decide I don't like a book.

Just out of curiosity what was the one book?

C.M. Villani said...

Brenda - I couldn't agree more! Spare time is so precious why waste it on something that you're not enjoying?

Nancy Hinchliff said...

Some books are slow to hook me, but if I'm not into it by the third chapter, I usually stop reading. It doesn't bother me at all to stop. I'm the same way with movies and TV. It's gotta hold my attention or I start to feel it's a waste of time, of which I have very little extra. My time is just too valuable to waste on something that doesn't grab me and hold on. Good question.

OEBooks said...

I always wondered how readers keep reading books they find painful. I'm like the reader who gets the bad vibe within the first couple of pages, and like most will move on to something else. But then I must admit too, like Brenda said, I have come across some that picked up later. Very interesting however, for those who feel compelled to plow to the end.

Elizabeth Young said...

There are probably half a dozen books I didn't finish, because they were just too complicated and I couldn't keep track of what was happening. I kept going back to try and pick up the threads of the story again, but after a certain point I abandoned the book. If it's that hard the writer hasn't done their job properly.

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