Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
I abandon books with wild abandon and have ever since the freebie and borrowing became widely available. I don't even download a ton of freebies, but the ones I do, I at least sample most of them. I've stopped at just about every percentage there is: First page, middle, 10 percent from the end, you name it. Some books start pretty well and degrade as I go and I've learned to dump them early and often. Some books are real gems and I finish them and am thrilled to have found such a bargain.
Because of freebies, I will now happily abandon books I've purchased if I don't like them. It could also be some of the trends in fiction these days. Have a great plot going that degrades into a morass of love triangles or various ridiculous sex scenes in the middle of danger and I've learned to dump and dump fast. Too much exposition? Gone.
Something better comes along? Gone. Cozy mysteries are hit or miss with me, but if TSTL shows up in the first part of a book and I'm not likely to finish. Too much time spent swooning over a jerk of a guy...gone. Let's get to the dead body!
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Maybe it's because my pleasure reading is mostly mysteries and thrillers, but I can't imagine abandoning one like this, since you really can't tell till the end if the various elements have come together in a satisfying whole. The seeming tangents may be important to plot or character, or they may be just so much filler. I guess I am always optimistic that it will be the former, and so I keep reading till the last page.