I keep seeing the thread about ‘best book read’ but I’m reading a book that I would not recommend and wish someone had told me not to read it.
I was in a book club some years agos and ‘Oscar and Lucinda’ by Peter Carey was suggested and I said - no please all I remember is it was a hard slog. But they didn’t listen and second time around it was just a bad - even worse because I was thinking why am I reading this a second time! The book club review also had it as ‘wish we hadn’t read it’.
So we had a crossword clue that came out as Dostoyevsky and H said he had read ‘The Idiot’ and enjoyed it but wasn’t too impressed. I’ve never read him but did enjoy Anna Karenina by Tolstoy so thought I’d have a bash. The only one we had on the shelf was ‘Crime and Punishment’. Aagghh. Wanted to put it down for the first 70 pages thinking I can’t bear this. Then the main even happened and things started moving but still I’m not too impressed. There are more characters now so I don’t have to suffer the main protagonist on his own but still thinking ‘is this worth it?’
Just over half way through and now I feel I have to finish just to say I have - but I really wish someone had said to me ‘don’t bother’,
The number of books I have started and not finished – or skimmed through after realizing they weren’t worth the trouble of a complete read – greatly exceeds the number of books I have read from start to finish.
I don’t feel guilty about this at all.
If you need someone to say “Don’t bother,” I’ll say it. Don’t bother.
If I can’t get into something, be it a book, TV show, movie, etc, I just stop. It says nothing about the merits of the work except that it was not for me. Others may enjoy it, and that’s fine.
What I would say is that I try to give a book a fair chance. It’s a rare book I’m going to dump after the first chapter. But if I’m 25% in and not attached at all to the story line, it might be time to dump it. The “too many books to read one you don’t like” motto in place.
I also sometimes will be reading something that will help me make a next choice. For instance the book I’m reading now that was recommended to me is fine, but a little fluff. I don’t like heavy books, but this is more fluff and predictable than I want. I’ll finish it because again it’s “fine” but this book will probably drive my next choice to be a little more in-depth in terms of story line.
I saw the movie “Hawaii” when I was young and decided to read the book by James Michener. I knew the story was good but the beginning was torture. So I skipped the first 100 pages or so to get to the action.
I have no problem putting down books I find boring.
I am too old to keep reading books that don’t “grab” me. As @VeryHappy said, life is too short (and my local library is too large!) to read boring books.
Friends frequently give me books to read so we can discuss them. One friend always gives books I’d never choose on my own. I’ve started reading the first couple of chapters and then the last chapter. Sometimes the last chapter is interesting enough I’ll read more, usually not.
Yes, I suppose if I had read the thread starter I too would have said ‘don’t bother, life is too short’, but now that I am into the book I do want to know what happens and I most probably will finish it but I will never recommend it.
Another book I would not recommend is Germinal, but Zola. Had to do it for my English Literature degree and it was bleak, bleak, bleak. I kept reading it thinking there will be redemption at the end and (spoiler alert) there isn’t. So that is another I’d say ‘don’t bother’ to.
Skipping to the ending is a way to find out what happens. Or just look up the plot online. I do this all the time with books and film. Works for me.
Sometimes I even do it with a book I’m enjoying, instead of staying up all night finishing it. Last book to get this treatment was The Wife. I still read every word, but not in a rush at 2am.
Same as others, I’ve put down many books, movies, and TV shows with a “life’s too short” sigh. If I have any interest in just understanding how the story turned out, a quick Google generally satisfies that.
I never, ever stopped reading books once I started them in the past. But I’m older now, and yeah. The problem is, when you are not enjoying a book, reading it takes way longer,and you might have read more than one book you enjoyed in the meanwhile. I just get less reading done when I don’t like a book enough.
Sometimes if I’ve gotten invested in what happens, I’ll skip to the end. Or find a synopsis online.
A few days ago, a book came out by a writer I like, but I just wasn’t getting invested in it. I WANTED to like it, but nope. So I stopped because at the same time I got off the waitlist for Educated, which I am now devouring.
Omg, I love Germinal, and Zola in general. I’ve read 3 of his in English and 2 others in French-English parallel texts. I have another set on my kindle, but have not had time to get to it yet.
Unfortunately, I’m a rather slow reader and don’t have a lot of reading leisure time (especially during the semester), so I’m cautious about starting anything really long. I’m also willing to give up on anything that doesn’t catch my interest by page 50. I used to slog through huge tombs, which is how I came to read Anna Karenina in high school, but I really can’t do that now.
Only once did I re-pick up a book that I had a hard time getting into. That book was Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. My bff and her mom had enthusiastically recommended it said – yeah the first 50 are tough but try again. Now I count it as one of my favorites and have read 3 or 4 times.
oh @sylvan8798 don’t say you love Germinal. Now people will go and read it and I’ll have to say ‘don’t bother’ :))
That is why I love books :x
Though the book I started and then never finished was ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary Mantel. Loved the TV series but the book was hard going. Anyone getting through it earns my respect. A Booker Prize winner - always a recipe for hard going.
Bought Seven Killings for H - another Booker Prize winner - and he never finished so I never started!!
I’ve tried a couple of times to read “Ulysses,” first before, then after my older daughter read it for a class and found it a life changing experience. Maybe when I’m old(er). And I’m still working on “The Power Broker,” the biography of Robert Moses. The only person I know personally who tried it (one of my brothers) told me to give up but maybe 2019 will be my year of completion. I started it in 2017.