[Alisa]

I've certainly been pulled in by a first chapter and ended up not finishing but it's often enough to tell me if I'm willing to risk it. I still may end up deciding a couple hundred pages into it that it's not worth my time but, heck, I didn't used to read 200 pages in the bookstore before I bought a paper copy either. I read a little and decided to risk the money or not. I've ended up paying money for some books I didn't enjoy enough to finish but the only way to avoid all risk is to only buy books I've already read. Since I don't re-read very often that wouldn't make much sense for me. I'd just go to the library or raid my friends' bookshelves and be done with it.

As it is, I've read the sample before buying all the Kindle books so far and I've happily finished every one. Generally, if I don't get drawn into a book fairly quickly I probably won't continue unless I have enough reason to take it on faith that I'll probably end up enjoying the book. Maybe it's an author I really like or a friend with similar tastes highly recommended it. Otherwise, I'm pretty busy and I have a long to-read list. I'm not giving anyone 1000 pages of my time just hoping the book will be good but if I read 1000 pages of their work, I think I should pay them.