Despite getting more patient with age, I still put down loads of books. It's hard to find a pattern.
A few weeks ago I put down
Isaacson's Kissinger at page 220. The early chapters, about Kissinger's life through World War II, were close to sympathetic, and fascinating. And then Kissinger grows up to treat subordinates so poorly that you can't sympathize with him having an SOB (Nixon) for his own boss. However, Isaacson's a great writer, and I may return to it.
About a month ago I put down
Richard Ford's Canada. I just didn't sense that the characters were real. Will not return.
On the other side, I just finished
Blackout/All Clear, a single sci-fi novel in two volumes. Major characters are unreal cutouts with indistinguishable personalities. The plot is both ridiculous and repetitive, commonly using the device of a journey where the traveler is in danger of being late. However, there were decent secondary characters, and the physical settings include places I have been in repeatedly and care about. So I finished.