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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Well put. I find far more 'in-between' authors than I like, but sometimes I think that depends on what alternatives I have. If I have an unread book from an author I know & like then I'm more ready to drop a book whose author doesn't positively grab me within the first chapter or so. If my alternatives are other unknown books and the author doesn't bore me to tears in the first chapter then I'm probably more willing to give him/her a little longer. But I don't think I've read any book past maybe the 5th chapter unless it either absolutely got me hooked or I was on a trip where I had no other reading material. (That rarely happens any more. With eBooks I've usually got at least a few books I consider worth re-reading, just in case.)