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

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps an indication that most people might prefer "It was a dark and stormy night." without logorrhea exhibited by the rest of the sentence. I admit that was a popular style in the 1800's but for me, it's cold pancakes and no honey.

Sure, I could understand that, But when bad lines are discussed, it is only ever quoted as "It was a dark and stormy night" as if that alone were a terrible start.

[John F]

I guess I have low standards. I think I could count the number of books I DNF one hand, and I can only recall the title of one of them.

As far as the quote of "It was a dark and stormy night, ...", I can't say as I mind it. Just the one sentence kind of sets a mood, for me. Plus you couldn't just shorten the sentence, because then you wouldn't know they were in London.

[BenG]

I rarely deliberately abandon a book. When it happens it's because the book is less than a page turner at the moment and something new and shiny catches my eye and I put the book aside intending to go back to it. If I wait too long, I realize I would have to start from the beginning which makes me even more likely to put it off. I still think someday I'll return to it.

E-books do make it easier to abandon a book, since you can instantly have another ready to replace it rather than having to go to the library or bookstore to replace it.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Hi,

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?

Knowing exactly what you mean by reading those books during high school, I'd do what I also did during high school (and still do at times)

Skip large parts and only read the interesting bits, or simply read the summary....

I loved to read, I still love to read (they never succeeded in destroying my love for reading during those highschool days!), but I haven't read every single book I said I had read. Only those that I really enjoyed (I read De Kleine Johannes I, II and III and naturally, only one counted!)

[bookaho!ic]

if a book hasnt gripped me by the first 30 or so pages (max 50) then DNF and move on. Life too short for a bad book

[spacepope]

Probably half of my books this year I abandoned. I don't mark them as read. I drop between 1% and 40% read. I did drop one book at 90% many years ago...

[John F]

What a coincidence... I'm currently reading a book that if I was a DNFer, I would have given up on; it starts out (50 pages) with descriptions of churches and inns.

[mrscoach]

Many many years ago I abandoned a book because it used lots of French phrases/sentences (or I assume they were French) with no context clues for what they meant and no explanation. This was before we even had a computer so I didn't have a way to translate. I also found the story lacking, but that might be because I was so distracted by the dialogue I couldn't understand. There was nothing I had seen in the blurb on the back to indicate there was any French involved. I still wonder what the climax would have been because the heroine was just bouncing around all willy-nilly.
I DNFed a book a few years ago because the author got all preachy about veganism. Like, every page of an alien romance said how the aliens were friendly and helped the human race by forcing us to be healthy by only eating plants. Then the female (she was no heroine) became a slave to one and hated them, but I think she got Stockholm syndrome and "fell in love". I never made it that far to see, but I've read reviews that day that's what happened.
Those are the two that stand out to me. I think there have been a few inadvertent ones, but I know one I'm trying to read now.

[gmw]

Out of 80 books started this year, there were six I did not finish - which is, I think, a record for me - as in, I normally have less DNF: last year there were just two, the year before three, then one. So I think I'm getting better.

All bar one of those six were traditionally published. Four were simply that I didn't care enough about the characters or story to bother; one was obviously a demonstration of the author's philosophy with little regard to story; and the last was ... incompatible with my tastes in writing, is the most polite assessment I can give (a more comprehensive filter - reading the preview - would have avoided the problem).

When I look at the next level up - six books I finished but was ambivalent about - I think four of these six could have been safely DNF without any pangs. So I still have room for improvement.

Of course, if I DNF I will never know whether the book might have been worth finishing. But I've spent long enough making myself finish books to be fairly confident that I am unlikely to be missing much, and I have to remember the opportunity cost: time spent forcing myself through a book I am not enjoying is time I don't have to spend on books that I might like better.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Sentences with info-dumps that take up a third of my screen and are so complicated that I mentally have to rebuild them into separate sentences so I can actually understand them, are not OK. It's certainly bad if half the book is written like that.

Seems to be an affliction that got around quite a lot in the days of the Victorian writers. Maybe they where trying to one-up one another in this regard. (It actually wouldn't surprise me.)

It's called hypotaxis. It started possibly with sir Thomas brown who was knighted for prose writing in 1671. Long complicated sentences. It was popular from 1650 to 1850. It's very civilized Fanny Hill is a 1748 porno written in it. See the chapter on hypotaxis and parataxis in The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth. It's pretty funny as well as informative.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by spacepope

Probably half of my books this year I abandoned. I don't mark them as read. I drop between 1% and 40% read. I did drop one book at 90% many years ago...

HALF? Doesn't that indicate your selection process is really poor?

I do not abandon books. However, if a book turns out to be a complete dud, I might well abandon the author for all time.

I would no more toss a book after a few pages than I would drop a new acquaintance who didn't make a sterling first impression.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Hi,

Have you ever abandoned a book?

Yes.

Not counting books I had to read for school (I only abandoned one of these, though) I distinctly recall abandoning Dracula and Key to Conflict.

In the case of Dracula, the "letters" style of reading rubbed me the wrong way really badly. It felt like I was reading poetry, which I never read because I hate it. I've enjoyed many other books written around the same period, such as Frankenstein, etc, so I don't think it was the "old English" that drove me away.

"Key to Conflict" was a terribly written (probably self-published) book I picked up at the library. It was just terrible, and after reading a certain scene I put it down. I was shocked that the author managed to sell one or two more books in the series.

I should have dropped some Dune prequel novels but forced myself to read them. It was so bad. (The Dune series by the original author is very good, IMO. The successors are another story.)

The author who coined the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night" (Edward Bulwer Lytton) wrote a book called "Harold, Last of the Saxons" which was filled with purple prose. I made myself read it though. Like many of the Wheel of Times books, it was two to three times longer than it needed to be, but was otherwise good literature, so I finished it anyway.

Mark Twain wrote Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses about an author whose books you definitely should not read. He wrote "Last of the Mohicans", which I wanted to read until I read the criticism. Ouch. Why don't we have a modern day Mark Twain?

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes. I do it all the time. Life is too short to read books you don't like. Why put yourself through that torture? If a book doesn't grab me after the first 5 chapters or so I'll move on to the next book unless it's an established series I've been reading. Then I'll stick it out for a while longer before I'll bail on the book.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

Yes.

Not counting books I had to read for school (I only abandoned one of these, though) I distinctly recall abandoning Dracula and Key to Conflict.

In the case of Dracula, the "letters" style of reading rubbed me the wrong way really badly. It felt like I was reading poetry, which I never read because I hate it.

In a way the letters style is kind of clever, it allows the author to write in a first person narrative but with multiple first persons. The problem with it for me is that every time there's a letter the letter is much much too detailed. It may give conversations (long ones even) word for word or describe things happening in detail, all of which works fine in the rest of the book but people don't write letters with that much detail.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Life is too short for bad books.

I couldn't agree more. Especially these days wheb we are so spoit for choice.