Books People Can't Finish

[piperclassique]

If I don't enjoy a book I feel no guilt at all about abandoning it. But Catch-22 is a great book, one of very few that I have re-read. I have War and Peace as an audiobook. I find it an excellent cure for insommnia.

[tdonline]

I read about 2 2/3 of LOTR and finally said, "Basta!" I'll never be able to say I finished LOTR even though I was so close. On the other hand, yeah, if I'm not enjoying a book, there's no point grinding it out.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Karma to you for actually finishing it. You are a rare bird.

Thank You!
I enjoyed Catch 22, I really thought I would enjoy Something Happened. Oh so wrong.....
S

[Gazella]

What about those contemporary novels most people abandon (The Casual Vacancy; Wicked; Eat, Pray, Love; Fifty Shades of Grey; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Anyone read them? Personally, when these books came out, I didn't have the slightest interest in them. I read what they're about and they aren't the type of books I like reading so I didn't bother trying to read them. I adore the Harry Potter books, but I'm not the kind who would read everything written by a favourite author and in the case of Rowling, I refuse to read her other novels (excluding the three Harry Potter companion books), The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo's Calling.

[rkomar]

Do most people abandon "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"? I thought it was alright, and had no trouble finishing it. Like Rowling, Larsson is very good at pacing the action to make you want to keep reading. You don't get bored or overly fatigued from excitement.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Do most people abandon "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"? I thought it was alright, and had no trouble finishing it. Like Rowling, Larsson is very good at pacing the action to make you want to keep reading. You don't get bored or overly fatigued from excitement.

Yes, believe it or not not a lot of people didn't like the book. When I want to read negative reviews for a certain book, what I do is, I go to Amazon, I search for that book, and then I go down to where the rating are and I click on the 1 or 2 stars and I read the reviews of people who rated the book low. In the case of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I discovered that a lot of people weren't able to finish it stating it was boring, very violent, they didn't care for the characters, very offensive, etc.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Gazella

What about those contemporary novels most people abandon (The Casual Vacancy; Wicked; Eat, Pray, Love; Fifty Shades of Grey; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

My guess is that the average person picking those books up are doing so just because they're a best-seller, not because they have a particular wish to read that book, or because they love that genre. That's a recipe for a DNF.

[PadreZ]

I first read LOTR when I was maybe 12/13, and read it about once a year for the next couple of decades-- there were parts I could almost recite, and some of my adolescent fantasies involved elf maidens. [For some reason, hobbit maidens didn't do it for me.]. It took me years to be bothered by the dearth of female characters.

I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged but was so disgusted by the selfish and individual-over-community political bent that I never touched one of her books again.

Moby Dick I finished, albeit with difficulty... Nothing like having a course grade depending on my knowledge of more than just the first few chapters. I tried The Brothers Karamazov and felt I SHOULD like it, but couldn't, and have spent fifty-some years avoiding the Russians.

Essentially, I'm too lazy to work that hard. I read for pleasure and to escape the real world, and not to better myself. I'd become a better person by reading those serious tomes, I know, but since I haven't read them, I'm not a better person, and thus won't read them. Or something like that.

[PadreZ]

On a different note... Being poor (the joys of retirement!), I read a lot of indie authors from Amazon, and particularly the free offerings. I am amazed (and saddened) at how many "authors" flunked ninth grade English. I'll give practically anyone a try, but if they can't write complete sentences or make other egregious grammatical errors, they get moved to my "Crap" file.

I just wish someone would convince a lot of these indie authors (especially those who really might have something interesting to say) that running SpellCheck is not the same as proofreading. I'm tired of vial bad guys with viles of poison, etc. I hate being a grammar snob (no I don't!), but grammar and usage errors will keep me from finishing more than the first chapter, let alone a book. There are a lot of positives to the rise of indie publishing, but there is at least one serious disadvantage... publishing houses have copy editors, and indie authors don't. It shows.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by PadreZ

Moby Dick I finished, albeit with difficulty... Nothing like having a course grade depending on my knowledge of more than just the first few chapters. I tried The Brothers Karamazov and felt I SHOULD like it, but couldn't, and have spent fifty-some years avoiding the Russians.

I've been wanting to read Moby Dick ever since I first watched Matilda (11 years ago) when I was 10 years old but I'm scared

Like you, I tried reading The Brothers Karamazov but I had a hard time getting into it. But, I do enjoy reading Russian literature from time to time. I own a copy of The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky and the stories are really good.

[JeremyR]

As a kid, I somehow managed to read War & Peace (we got it from PBS for making a pledge), but I simply could not make it through Lord of the Rings. Kept falling asleep while reading. I think I gave up during the Two Towers.

[HarryT]

I'm really surprised that so many people abandon LOTR. It's one of my most read books. I re-read it every few years, and always get something new from the experience. Wonderful, wonderful book.

[MichelleLouring]

When I started reading "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", everyone kept telling me that I just had to get through the first 100 pages, then it got really good. I gave up at page 115.

[latepaul]

Never read LOTR. I've read the first 100 pages about a dozen times. I read The Hobbit when I was about the right age (11) and liked it so much that I went straight out and bought the LOTR books. Last time I tried to read them was before the movies came out. I will have another go one day - but there's so much out there to read.

I have read Dragon Tattoo. It was pretty good. I intended to read the other two but went on to something else first and never got around to going back. Same thing happened with Game of Thrones. I really enjoyed it but felt like I needed something different (and shorter) straight after. Plus I'd quite like to wait until the whole thing is complete. Although remaining spoiler free with the TV program out there is a challenge.

Actually the more I think of it the more this happens a lot. Read the first of a series, enjoy it, switch to something else for a change and never get back to the series.

But back on topic. Books I genuinely can't finish tend to be ones I felt like would be good or should be good because they're popular or classics but which I might not have chosen otherwise.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by latepaul

Never read LOTR. I've read the first 100 pages about a dozen times. I read The Hobbit when I was about the right age (11) and liked it so much that I went straight out and bought the LOTR books. Last time I tried to read them was before the movies came out. I will have another go one day - but there's so much out there to read.

I read The Hobbit last year for the first time and loved it. And like you, I would've bought the LOTR because I thought if I enjoyed The Hobbit I would definitely enjoy the LOTR as well. But then I started reading all those reviews from people who have read The Hobbit but were disappointed with the LOTR books as they found them very long and dull. So that's basically holding me back which I know isn't a good enough reason and I should try reading the book. Maybe one day.

Originally Posted by latepaul

Actually the more I think of it the more this happens a lot. Read the first of a series, enjoy it, switch to something else for a change and never get back to the series.

Yes, unfortunately the same with me.