How far into a book do people read--by genre.

[eschwartz]

And you cannot either discount the percentage of people who buy many books and simply haven't gotten to all of them yet.

[BearMountainBooks]

Oh, I know that some of those books will be read a year from now, etc. But one thing I noticed about my own ebook buying habits--once a book is off the first couple of pages of my kindle or kindle management page, it has a slim chance of being read at all. It's not like my bookshelves where I browse on occasion. The bookshelves are easy to look through. I can see the spines--titles and covers. Ebooks? I browse a couple of pages on GR or on my kindle, but there is a large mass that I don't keep track of and will probably never even open again. Granted, many of them were free so they did not get looked at unless I had time. Many will be forgotten.

[eschwartz]

Well, I look back at them just as much as I look back on my shelves -- which is to say, not as much as I had hoped. Still, it does happen -- as long as I bought the book with the definite intent to read it, which happens whenever I spend actual money.

[BearMountainBooks]

All but a very few of the ones I spend money on get sampled, at least. I can think of one that, after I bought it, a friend wrote and mentioned the level of graphic violence. I haven't sampled or read it and probably won't. The first in the series was violent, and already pretty close to my comfort line. Apparently the next was worse, so I opted not to even start the book. But in general if I spend money on a book I've already sampled it or read the author or have intent to read it. Most of the time I only buy right when I'm about to read that particular book. Now and then a good sale comes up and I'll buy a couple of books ahead of my actual ability to read them.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Oh, I know that some of those books will be read a year from now, etc. But one thing I noticed about my own ebook buying habits--once a book is off the first couple of pages of my kindle or kindle management page, it has a slim chance of being read at all. It's not like my bookshelves where I browse on occasion. The bookshelves are easy to look through. I can see the spines--titles and covers. Ebooks? I browse a couple of pages on GR or on my kindle, but there is a large mass that I don't keep track of and will probably never even open again. Granted, many of them were free so they did not get looked at unless I had time. Many will be forgotten.

I don't keep my books on my kindle, not all of them, just a handful. Its what I call the reading collection. Its also books I am planning to read next, but I often dip into my other collections. When I had my K1 before collections, I had all books on the kindle and I had to do inventive sorting to find stuff.
So I would click on the ones I wanted to read next and that would move them to the top.

But now with collections, there is no reason to look at the books in one long blob, cloud or device. Maybe if one had only a handful ebooks total, but I have over 3000 kindle books now. Some of course been read and so reside in the read collection.

A book I got in 2008 and not read yet is just as likely to be picked as next read as a book I got last week. I have collections by genre and subgenre and I am a big mood reader so I pick that way. And if someone talks about something and I find I already have it. But I never look at all books in my account sorted by date purchases. Actually, that is not an option anyway. As soon as one clicks on a book for any reason, it gets moved to the top still.

For me collections are much better than book shelves. I have way more of them and they don't take up space. . And I don't get a knick in my neck having to hold my head sideways. Horrible for me to go browsing at the library for paper books. Does nobody else get all sideways with their neck doing that? Of course I have to get close enough with my bifocals to read the spines so that does't help.

Thank the lard for ebooks and my kindles.

I think we all have our system, but I would hate not enjoying reading anymore and having to dnf so much. I would adjust the system if that happened to me. In fact I did just that. Rarely do I just blindly pick something from the store anymore, I used to and so no new authors unless with a publisher and/or recommended by a reading friend I trust. No more new adult romances unless again recs from trusted readers, etc. I actually found some of the "older" stuff much more interesting than a lot of the new stuff. By older I mean even just going back 5-10 years in the genres I like to read gives me better reads. Or even further back. I just go all over the place and I guess that is normal being a voracious and mood based reader.

I have to add that so far my Voyage has the best book discovery of all the kindles. Besides the way collections are handled now, search is so much more efficient and useful now and I find a lot of stuff now I want to read and already own. Not that this is keeping me from obtaining new books.

[eschwartz]

Likewise, I often stick to authors I already know, although I have found a number of new authors to enjoy by browsing the boxes of old books from the late 1900s at library sales and suchlike. Apparently no one wants them -- I shouldn't complain though, since as a result I got them for 10¢ each.

[Geralt]

I never sample either, that would ruin the book for me. I realize some people find it useful, but not me.
I have around 550 books on my tbr list on GR, everything from fantasy of 19th century to yet to be released books. I don't need to sample, I know exactly what I want to read. My only problem is what to buy first from that list
I'm also surrounded by a big group of primarily fantasy readers so if I see them enjoying a book, chances are I'll try it too. I know which of them have similar taste to me.

[BearMountainBooks]

I never used to sample and I never used to have this problem. I started sampling BECAUSE I was having a problem enjoying the books I'd been buying. Granted, my tastes and mood vary greatly. I read mysteries, fantasy, tough guy books (sort of thrillers--Robert Crais type books where the guy is improbably tough, withstands volleys of bullets and nearly perfect in his execution of solving a mystery/problem such as his Joe Pike character). I read some non-fiction, I read cozies (but not the boring ones) some chick-lit (but not the silly ones) some romance urban fantasy (but not vampire or zombie romance angled ones) young adult, middle grade...some science fiction if it is character based...

Perhaps the problem is too many genres to sort!

[LadyKate]

I don't know if I should curse or bless the elementary school teacher who insisted on us reading 50 pages of a book before abandoning it.

That has expanded for me to more. I have a hard time abandoning a book I have started. Even when it is almost painful to read the book I tend to slog on through to try and finish it.

This has been good for the occasional first or second book of an author who later has matured into a series or linked set of books.

In most cases, I think I need to work on my "reject this book if not enjoying it" skills.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I don't know if I should curse or bless the elementary school teacher who insisted on us reading 50 pages of a book before abandoning it.

That has expanded for me to more. I have a hard time abandoning a book I have started. Even when it is almost painful to read the book I tend to slog on through to try and finish it.

This has been good for the occasional first or second book of an author who later has matured into a series or linked set of books.

In most cases, I think I need to work on my "reject this book if not enjoying it" skills.

I used to kind of feel that way if I spent money on the book. I'd be sitting there feeling like I had just wasted 8 dollars because I wasn't going to finish a book. Then I started going to the library more and I realized that a book bought was "spent." No need to add insult to injury by reading something I didn't like...

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Oh, I know that some of those books will be read a year from now, etc. But one thing I noticed about my own ebook buying habits--once a book is off the first couple of pages of my kindle or kindle management page, it has a slim chance of being read at all. It's not like my bookshelves where I browse on occasion. The bookshelves are easy to look through. I can see the spines--titles and covers. Ebooks? I browse a couple of pages on GR or on my kindle, but there is a large mass that I don't keep track of and will probably never even open again. Granted, many of them were free so they did not get looked at unless I had time. Many will be forgotten.

I have never understood the way ebook readers and programs display books / bookshelves. My personal way of displaying books on my tablets is on an sd card in a library directory by author / series etc.

I tend to go to my calibre to mark books as read or to-read. I save the books I want to read soon to an "sd card library" folder by author name including the series in the file name. This allows me to go to an author's folder and choose a book by browsing the titles (file names).

The hodge podge of how books "added" to a program or device is displayed confused me too much lol. I have been using computers since the 80s and ereader programs since 99 so I admit to finding my "resistance" to the bookshelves to be strange BUT I enjoy reading by author and series. In the case of a multi author series I will store the books in a separate folder for multi author collections listed by series name/position title.

How can anyone find what they want to read when it is a bunch of covers displayed in what appears to be a random manner?

I have never seen a good example of how to organize your ebook bookshelves the way YOU want to.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I have never understood the way ebook readers and programs display books / bookshelves. My personal way of displaying books on my tablets is on an sd card in a library directory by author / series etc.

I tend to go to my calibre to mark books as read or to-read. I save the books I want to read soon to an "sd card library" folder by author name including the series in the file name. This allows me to go to an author's folder and choose a book by browsing the titles (file names).

The hodge podge of how books "added" to a program or device is displayed confused me too much lol. I have been using computers since the 80s and ereader programs since 99 so I admit to finding my "resistance" to the bookshelves to be strange BUT I enjoy reading by author and series. In the case of a multi author series I will store the books in a separate folder for multi author collections listed by series name/position title.

How can anyone find what they want to read when it is a bunch of covers displayed in what appears to be a random manner?

I have never seen a good example of how to organize your ebook bookshelves the way YOU want to.

Hmmm...in my Kindle collections, I have author collections, genre collections, series collections, not to mention the ones I have indicating when the book was read. Most of these collections only exist in the cloud, and on my Kindle I keep the "finished" collection for the current year, and the collection for samples. Any one book can be in multiple collections, but I only have one actual copy of it. For instance, all of the Harry Potter books exist in multiple collections. They exist in the Fantasy collection, the Kids collection, the Harry Potter collection, and each book also exists in the collection for the year it was read (and since I re-read the whole series multiple times, each book exists in multiple years)

I can't imagine limiting myself to JUST sorting by author, or JUST sorting by genre. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read every book by a given author, and sometimes I'm in the mood to read a certain genre, and don't care who the author is. I also re-read a LOT, so just having a single "read" or "unread" folder wouldn't work for me.

For my Kobo, which doesn't allow me to keep my books in the cloud (easily), I do keep many more books on it, and I use their shelf system to organize it in much the same way that my books are organized in my Kindle Cloud, the only difference is that they are all stored on the device.

I understand that your system works for you, I just wanted to explain how my system works for ME.

Shari

[Victoria]

I'd question the validity of the number. The last thing i do with every kindlebook i finish is hit 'go to' , 'beginning'. So anyone gathering stats from my library would think i'd never finished a single book.

[Lima Bean]

If I pay money for a book, I almost always finish it, regardless of the genre Freebies are a different story. If I open a freebie at all, the completion rate is probably 20-30%. As a self-published author who occasionally gives away free books myself, it's kind of disheartening. But at least I know what I'm up against it. People are less likely to appreciate something they don't have to pay for! Makes me wonder if the study included free books.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Lima Bean

If I pay money for a book, I almost always finish it, regardless of the genre Freebies are a different story. If I open a freebie at all, the completion rate is probably 20-30%. As a self-published author who occasionally gives away free books myself, it's kind of disheartening. But at least I know what I'm up against it. People are less likely to appreciate something they don't have to pay for! Makes me wonder if the study included free books.

I doubt it--they put out another study a while back and said that less than 1 percent of the freebies are read. I need to find that study again because I can't remember all the stats.

I sample probably 80 percent of the freebies I download. I finish about 10 percent or less of those.