Quote:
Originally Posted by odiakkoh
Too many books and too little time for me to force myself to finish books I'm disliking.
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The turning point book for me was
Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson. That's the last book that I forced myself to read. Prior to this book, I would persist with a book even when I wasn't enjoying it. No more!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ripplinger
Luckily I haven't picked out that many duds (duds in my opinion only, I'm sure) where I've been really tempted to just toss it. When I do though, I quickly skim over the boring parts and then take my time to enjoy the better parts. That way I don't spend months on one book that I'm not enjoying, and I do manage to get through it.
While those books aren't as enjoyable as the ones you can't seem to put down and finish in a few days, I feel better for some odd reason having finished it and not given up on it.
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For me, it's not the "boring parts" issue. It's a plot or character that I detest. When I abandon a book, I note my position in the book and the reason why I set it aside. That way, if I choose to resume the book later, I can choose to re-read from the beginning or pick up near where I left off. I recently set aside
God's Spy by Juan Gomez-Jurado, which had been a wish-list book. I simply found that it was too violent/gory for me right now. This is a book that I should have read the preview before purchasing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
... I tend to be rather stubborn with books anyway, ... and I kept hoping it would come to something more.
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With
Lord Foul's Bane, I kept thinking "surely this will get better" and it didn't. For me, I mostly read for entertainment. I'm rarely reading for information or education. So, the book has to entertain. When the story is simply moving slowly, I do give myself 100 pages or so to get engaged. But if I run into objectionable content, I've given myself permission to bail out right away.