Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr
An author who can't impress you with his/her story, characters or style in a first chapter doesn't deserve your attention for a second chapter. Reading time's too precious to waste. It's the author's job to interest you, not your chore to complete what an author wants to put your way. I'd rather throw away or delete a book after a few disappointing pages than see it as some kind of marathon challenge that takes up valuable time that could be better spent on a more deserving work. Good authors with worthwhile offerings will grab you within five hundred words and hold you spellbound right the way to an unwelcome *The End*. Neil
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Agreed. I'll generally give it 2-3 chapters in a novel but if at that point I'm not interested or annoyed at the style or writing then, that's it -- like the recent "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy -- the hokey and contrived character interactions and dialog totally turned me off to the point where if it had been a paperback I would have thrown it across the room.