Should I finish this book

[PrincessFabian]

I have been reading Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks for the last week, it is quite a short book, 294 pages in total and I am currently on pg 226.
I was reading it earlier today with the aim of trying to get it finished today so I can move on to something else when I realised that I am not invested in the characters at all and completely don't care about what happens next or how the book ends so I have decided not to finish it. I have even abandoned it mid chapter.
I don't hate the book, I just don't care enough to spend any more time on it.

It feels completely wrong to not finish a book when there are only 70 pages left to go. I do understand the sunk costs fallacy and that finishing the book won't get me back the time I have already spent on it but I still find it difficult.

I just wondered if other people would find this hard too. Do you always have to finish every book you start or are you quite happy to stop at any point in the book if you are not enjoying it?

I did finish it but didn’t find as remotely satisfying as his other work. My mind wandered a few times and I read it in fits and starts, which isn’t my usual way at all.

I think the lack of connection I am feeling is due to the way it is written, I like Tariq but his chapters are quite short so I don't feel very close to him and Hannah's chapters are far more about the stories of the women she is researching. The research is now taking less prominence and it has moved on to be more about Hannah herself and I just don't care about her.
It sounds like I made the right decision based on your comments.

Generally if I don't finish a book it is nearer the beginning as usually I enjoy books more the further I get into them.

No, Sebastian Faulks is the literary equivalent of inoffensive wallpaper.

If it was me, I would put the book down and give up. But tell myself I could pick it up again and continue another day. Time would then decide if I bothered to pick it up again!

It's ridiculous, but I often feel like I should finish a book despite not enjoying myself . I think it's something to do with reading being such a personal activity, and you put in a lot of time to read it, and feel guilty not finishing it for some reason.

I decided recently to finish books I start just for this year. I'm not sure it was a good decision!

"I don't care about these people" means ditch the book. There is no upside to you spending another hour or two of your life on it when you could be reading something fun, or sleeping or idly gazing out the window or whatever.

Well there it is on my book shelf. Just waiting to get to it. Wish I hadn’t bothered now as I know Sebastian Faulks can be brilliant but I have been let down by him before.

No, don't finish it. I think if you normally finish books and you realise that what you're reading is just a no go, you should stop. Books I've abandoned are: Moby Dick (too upsetting, all those dead whales); Blindness (Jose Saramago - read just after DS1 was born and found its description of the human condition too depressing. It didn't help that this was around the time of 9/11); The old man who jumped off a cliff or what ever it's called (because it was crap). That's about it. But I have no guilt about not finishing any of those. I read Ben Elton's Time and time again or whatever to the end even though I spent the whole book fuming and will never, ever read anything of his again. What a waste of time.