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Original poster

How long do you persevere with a book?

29 replies

posey · 08/02/2012 20:40

If you are struggling to get into it, are bored with it, just don't like it....do you keep on going in the hope it will improve, or do you think life is too short?

I have always been a bit of the persevering type. I only remember not finishing one book. That was until I joined a book group. I couldn't finish Wolf Hall, and am also struggling with the current one, but think I will keep going.

So which camp are you in, generally speaking?

OP posts:
SaintsFever · 08/02/2012 20:55

To the end of the first chapter if I don't care about the plot or the characters by then I'm not going to after ten, and I always have something new to move onto

FaverOliverTwist · 08/02/2012 20:55

After reading the whole of Sophies World, I am firmly in the give up camp. Life is too short to read tosh.

orienteerer · 08/02/2012 20:56

A few pages, possibly not even a whole Chapter.

freelancescientist · 08/02/2012 21:03

I was told to take my age away from 100, and give a book that many pages to decide if it was worth carrying on.

Original poster
posey · 08/02/2012 21:08

I like that idea Smile

OP posts:
anonymosity · 09/02/2012 05:15

50-100 pages. I will have read the first few pages / chapter already before buying, but a promising start can go rapidly down hill sometimes.

DuchessofMalfi · 09/02/2012 10:25

I usually try to give it 100-150 pages just in case it is a slow burner. I struggled with the start of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I was glad I persevered as it did get very good, eventually.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 09/02/2012 10:27

Usually download a sample of a the book on the kindle and then if its truely awful I don't bother to buy the book.

Which one are you reading now?

Original poster
posey · 09/02/2012 14:30

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge
Wouldn't have chosen it (that's why I like my book club!) but have so many other books I want to read. It isn't awful, just a bit too much in the way of card games descriptions Confused

OP posts:
R2PeePoo · 09/02/2012 14:38

100-200 pages just to make sure its not a slowburner.

Then I skim it to see if there is anything in the rest of it that might appeal.

Then I read the end Grin

I ploughed through so many books I wasn't enjoying and felt I had to finish that this feels much more liberating. I don't think I would give up after less than that as I would have missed out on some very good books that had a very slow start.

Dotty0 · 09/02/2012 14:41

I usually keep going for a chapter or two to see if it picks up but normally if I do give up I try it again a few months later & I get into it. I can't think of a book I haven't finished eventually.

Floggingmolly · 09/02/2012 14:41

First chapter only. Life is indeed too short!

NameGotLostInCyberspace · 10/02/2012 12:36

Have read rave reviews about "Room". Have read a couple of pages and and am not feeling it. I will return to it and give it up to 20-30 pages. I like to get into a book from the off.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 10/02/2012 14:29

if its for the book club I do tend to perserver a bit more.

Think my last post made me sound like I'm downloading samples and not buying books all the time, I've only not bothered to read the book twice since getting the kindle nearly a year ago and onnce was last night. Think this thread made me do it! Life is indeed too short Smile.

Salteena · 10/02/2012 15:49

I don't give it much time any more - there's too much else I want to read! So if I haven't got into it after a chapter or so, that's it.

However, I have found, on going back to some books a year or even more later, that I suddenly 'get' them, even if they'd seemed impenetrable first time round. Pity, because it encourages me to hang on to books just in case, when I ought to be charity-shopping!

IndieNile · 10/02/2012 17:32

About 100 pages if its well-written but dull, one chapter if its both dull and badly-written.

I tried reading The Autograph Man twice, and each time gave up just after page 100. Some things just aren`t worth the effort.

IloveJudgeJudy · 11/02/2012 17:34

Before I got my Kindle (for Christmas, yay) the only book that I really remember not finishing was Great Expectations (for O level).

Since I got my Kindle and I've been downloading loads of free books, I have just deleted the ones I couldn't get into. Usually they're junky, free, romance/chick lit ones that were misrepresented on the freebie website.

If I were reading for a book club, then I probably would finish, but it might also be interesting to state that you couldn't finish it, and why. Might get a good discussion going.

BsshBossh · 11/02/2012 19:38

About 100 pages generally, but I generally get a good inkling after three or four chapters. Kindle's ability to download samples have saved me from quite a few duds but I've also noticed that I'm not in the mood at a particular time for a certain book but if I return to it much later I really enjoy it. So I do hold on to partial reads.

BsshBossh · 11/02/2012 19:45

R2PeePoo in the past few months I've been skimming to the end of a book I'm not enjoying just to get the gist of the story but without having to read all the boring words!

I never used to skim, I just used to ditch.

R2PeePoo · 11/02/2012 20:56

BsshBossh - I find it much more satisfying to do the skimming and ending reading because then I feel like I have actually read and finished the book. Even though I obviously haven't Grin

I hold onto partial reads too, especially non-fiction as I find I really have to be in the right mood for that. I have also found that books I disliked in my early twenties are now beloved favourites years on, so I am reluctant to ditch without good reason.

I think I have just worked out why my house is crammed full of books Grin

BsshBossh · 11/02/2012 21:24

That's why I bought a Kindle. Too many books in the house - most of them ones we don't want to part with (first editions, sentimental reasons, partial reads). It's been liberating as I can read several books a month, as can DH.

R2PeePoo · 12/02/2012 11:12

I'll buy a kindle in ten years when I've exhausted both the library and the few probably close to 500 books I have in the house that are unread!

I bought them, I really ought to read them. The others are non-negotiable keepers.

Mandy2003 · 14/02/2012 21:08

I was always told if you hadn't got into it by page 87 then you'd better give up cos it's not going to happen.

EmmaCate · 15/02/2012 22:03

My Dad has a weird measure - something like page 32. He uses LOTR as a good example; I don't have the book next to me but as I recall he said 'the beginning is dull - parties and stuff, but around page 30 it suddenly takes off and gets exciting.'

Took me a while to even cope with the 'exciting' bit... I finally got the LOTR bug at age 17 and have read it shit loads since then. Totally agree with the poster who said you should return to books! Age makes a weird difference.

seriouslytwisted · 17/03/2012 09:28

I'm much more likely to abandon books now than I ever was when I was younger - and it seems to be around about page 60 that's the decision is made - if I'm not really gripped by a book by page 60, I never will be. (I seem to give it twice as long as your dad, Emma Cate )