On the verge of abandoning a book... for the first time in my life

[Katsunami]

Hi,

Have you ever abandoned a book? Sometimes I get the urge to try and read some early science-fiction or fantasy. Therefore I read "War of the Worlds" some time ago... and nearly abandoned it. The reasons were because of the large amount of name drops with regard to locations, the copious use of "____" instead of names and/or locations, and stretches where not much is was happening. I did finish the book, though.

Now I'm reading "The coming race" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It started out OK. It actually started out fairly modern... but now, at around 30% of the book, I've been reading a VERY meticulous description of the Vril race: politics, differences between men and women, philosophical points of view, and differences of the race to humans. The story is basically at a stand-still with an enormous info-dump going on.

I said the book started out fairly modern: with that, I mean use of words and sentence construction. It has, however, slowly been reverting back to the Victorian style of writing. I don't mind that too much, but at the beginning of Chapter 11, the author dropped this gem of a sentence:

Nothing had more perplexed me in seeking to reconcile my sense to the existence of regions extending below the surface of the earth, and habitable by beings, if dissimilar from, still, in all material points of organism, akin to those in the upper world, than the contradiction thus presented to the doctrine in which, I believe, most geologists and philosophers concur—viz., that though with us the sun is the great source of heat, yet the deeper we go beneath the crust of the earth, the greater is the increasing heat, being, it is said, found in the ratio of a degree for every foot, commencing from fifty feet below the surface.

That's ridiculous. It takes about 25-30% of the screen on my e-reader which is a 7.8 inch KA1 with the font set to a normal paperback-sized font. I want to read a story... not spend two minutes reading, re-reading and analyzing a sentence to understand what has just been said.

I basically forced myself to finish War of the Worlds because I never abandoned a book in my life. However, to some extent, I feel I'm getting too old for slogging through a book as if I'm in high school.

About 80% of English required reading was from the Victorian age when I was in high school in the Netherlands in the 90's. The objective of reading was not "reading", or "having fun", but "analyzing literature and afterwards writing reports and essays on it, with regard to the impact they would have had on society as a whole in the time in which they were written." There was stuff such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, some stuff from just before 1800, most from 1800-1920, and everything after 1920 was basically out. Maybe up to the 1960's for books in Dutch.

(A similar curriculum was true for reading books in Dutch. At the time both Dutch and English were obligatory subjects in high school and you had to pass both to be able to graduate. Depending on your school level, you had to read 10, 15, or 20 books per language. In my case, that would have been 40 books per year. Now you know why so many people around my age detest reading.)

Reading this book, and coming across a sentence such as the one I quoted above, makes me feel as if I'm doing required reading from my high-school days again and it makes me want to abandon the book.

Should I?

It is said in the blurb that the almost perfect society discovered by the protaginst has a "dark secret"... but if I abandon the book I'll never know, unless I look it up.

Did you ever abandon a book and if so, do you do so quickly, or keep reading in the hopes that it gets better?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Reading this book, and coming across a sentence such as the one I quoted above, makes me feel as if I'm doing required reading from my high-school days again and it makes me want to abandon the book.

Should I?

Well, you're clearly not enjoying reading this.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Should I?

Is there a test on Monday? If not, then of course. Reading time is precious.

Did you ever abandon a book and if so, do you do so quickly, or keep reading in the hopes that it gets better?

I abandon books all the time and should abandon more. Quickly is best, but even later is better than plowing through until the end of something you don’t like. That said, I can reach a point of no return but even at that I can deliberately spoil myself so as to flee.

There’s a reason the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest has his name, by the way.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by issybird

Is there a test on Monday? If not, then of course. Reading time is precious.

True enough... I have many hobbies, reading being just one of them. My normal reading time is in public transport, but due to Covid-19 I've been working from home for nearly two years.... so I read less, I've noticed.

I abandon books all the time and should abandon more. Quickly is best, but even later is better than plowing through until the end of something you don’t like. That said, I can reach a point of no return but even at that I can deliberately spoil myself so as to flee.

Maybe I should just read a summary to see what this "dark secret" is, and indeed abandon the book. I've been watching The Wheel of Time with my GF on Amazon Prime. I like (most of) the series and the world up to this point. I'm watching it as "just a fantasy series" without comparing the adaptation to the books. I have them, but haven't read them yet.

The series is good, but I feel it is missing "something"; background information, subplots, etc. (Which isn't strange: the books are 12.500 pages in total. You can't adapt everything.) In short, at the moment, I feel like starting this series instead of finishing "The Coming Race."

There’s a reason the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest has his name, by the way.

I know. He seems to have been very popular in his day, but nowadays he's seen as one of the worst writers of the Victorian era.

Pity. I liked the start of the book, actually. It felt relatively modern. Stuff happened. But now at 30% through, it's just become 1875-style long-winded socio-whatever writing.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

True enough... I have many hobbies, reading being just one of them. My normal reading time is in public transport, but due to Covid-19 I've been working from home for nearly two years.... so I read less, I've noticed.

I've found the same thing. Mind you, I have started to pick up the pace a bit now - there was a 6-month period last year when I only read work-related stuff and news articles, and spent most of my time doing a reconciliation between Calibre and Librarything, especially public domain works where I'd just stuck an ebook tag on the print copy record. Not a good idea, especially for translated works, where the translator wasn't the same.

I've found in general I don't read Victorian authors. Quite apart from the wordiness, I find the mawkish sentimentality cloying, and don't care much for sententiousness.

I do try and finish books, but sometimes it takes months. I very rarely abandon books willingly - I don't think I'm going to finish a particular review book before it expires unless I do nothing else tonight. Nothing wrong with it, just not much happening and a bit on the YA side for my tastes.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Hi,

Have you ever abandoned a book?

Dropping more has been one of my easier reading goals to accomplish. My stats at the StoryGraph show me with 225 finished books so far this year, 28 DNFs, so 1 out of every 9 I started. I'll probably make raising that ratio one of my 2022 goals. Life really IS too short for any of my leisure/recreation time to be wasted wading through content that does not provide an ROI

[4691mls]

I used to push through to the finish but in recent years I have given up on a number of books. If you don't like the plot or the writing style why punish yourself? Maybe you can find a Goodreads review containing spoilers. Or skip to a couple of chapters before the end and see how things are turning out.

[j.p.s]

The story is basically at a stand-still with an enormous info-dump going on.

I like a good story, but don't require a story be present at all. I also love info dumps.

But turgid prose is turgid prose.

[jhowell]

When I read printed books I would sometimes slog though a book I wasn't enjoying because switching books meant a trip to the library or bookstore.

Now changing to a new book is quick and easy. These days I will give up on a book if I find myself bored or annoyed for any significant length of time while reading it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I've been watching The Wheel of Time with my GF on Amazon Prime. I like (most of) the series and the world up to this point. I'm watching it as "just a fantasy series" without comparing the adaptation to the books. I have them, but haven't read them yet.

The series is good, but I feel it is missing "something"; background information, subplots, etc. (Which isn't strange: the books are 12.500 pages in total. You can't adapt everything.) In short, at the moment, I feel like starting this series instead of finishing "The Coming Race."

Same here. I read the first book about 20 years ago and it didn't make a huge impression on me (frankly, felt like just another LOTR clone). When I learned that the TV series was coming, I started on the rest of the books. Liking them so far (the subsequent books are no longer LOTR clones, not even close). I also like the TV series so far, but yeah, they have condensed and changed a lot (and of course, it's not like they had any choice with such a huge series). Still, in general it has stayed more or less true to the books, unlike the Foundation series, which had practically nothing to do with Asimov's books. I actually quit the Foundation halfway through (the TV series, not the book series, that is).

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I like a good story, but don't require a story be present at all. I also love info dumps.

But turgid prose is turgid prose.

Oh, nothing wrong with an info-dump now and then. I like background information on characters, locations, customs, whatever... but not in the writing style as shown above, in a stretch of something like 15-20 pages.

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Dropping more has been one of my easier reading goals to accomplish. My stats at the StoryGraph show me with 225 finished books so far this year, 28 DNFs, so 1 out of every 9 I started. I'll probably make raising that ratio one of my 2022 goals. Life really IS too short for any of my leisure/recreation time to be wasted wading through content that does not provide an ROI

Indeed. I when running across that sentence above in chapter 11, I actually deleted the book from my e-reader and started something else. I'm not going to add it again. Instead, I'll add an "Abandoned" column to calibre, and this book has the honor of being the first in it... in my entire life.

I have a massive library of classics thanks to Delphi sales. (Bought in the vein of: "They can't ALL be that bad / dense as I remember from school.") I'll try to read one of those books once in a while, but if I don't like it, it will be abandoned.

Maybe it's a good goal of 2022 and later: if I don't like it, abandon it. There's no test tomorrow, to answer Issybird's question, so there's not a real need to finish a book if I don't want to.

[Renate]

I've gotten better at dumping books; I never used to. I was reading Smollet's translation of Gil Blas and I just got tired of the serial tricksterism and infidelity and I dumped it. There have been books that I would have accepted $5 not to read the last 30 pages.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

...


Maybe I should just read a summary to see what this "dark secret" is, and indeed abandon the book. I've been watching The Wheel of Time with my GF on Amazon Prime. I like (most of) the series and the world up to this point. I'm watching it as "just a fantasy series" without comparing the adaptation to the books. I have them, but haven't read them yet.

The series is good, but I feel it is missing "something"; background information, subplots, etc. (Which isn't strange: the books are 12.500 pages in total. You can't adapt everything.) In short, at the moment, I feel like starting this series instead of finishing "The Coming Race."


...

Aren't there 14 or 15 books in the series? Are you missing a zero?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

Aren't there 14 or 15 books in the series? Are you missing a zero?

14, and the page count plugin in Calibre is telling me there are 17,000 pages in my omnibus version.

Edit: 15, if you count the prequel New Spring.

[Deskisamess]

Life is too short for bad books.