What makes you give up on a book?

[SoSaidTheSwan]

If you DNF books, what type of things make you give up on them?

I'm reading, or was reading, The Dumb House by John Burnside. I've waited years to get a copy but I just can't finish it. I knew that it was going to be dark and disturbing but it's even more so than I anticipated. I think as I'm getting older, I'm becoming more sensitive and struggling to read details of graphic cruelty, especially to women and children, in fiction. Animal cruelty is a definite no.

I'm also starting to give myself permission to give up on a book when I'm not enjoying it though I used to try to force myself to finish.

What things make you stop reading a book?

Spelling mistakes.

I recently gave up on a book as it kept describing a 5yo child as a toddler, with toddler behaviour and mannerisms. (No SN, it was just badly written and one if many continuity errors in a series) It just bugged me too much...

I have given up on 2 books recently;
1) The Survivors by Jane Harper. About a group of youngish Australians, who apparently survived a storm some years ago, and are back in the vicinity for various reasons.
2) Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain. Bath in 1812, a tall woman who always wears white meets another woman in a teashop, and I presume they become 'an item'.
I have read and enjoyed other books by these authors, and will give both another go sometime.

There's a much worse scene than that in the book.

@Dablikeacrap Exactly so.

I don’t mind a long description or paragraph if it’s done well. Ie Trollop, Dickens etc.

But when it’s full of clichés - nooooo.

Eek. Don't think that'll be going on my bedside table, then 😱

I don't have time to read for pleasure sadly but I have let my DD give up on books recently. Mainly when the characters are overly sexualised for a 7yo content or are bad stereotypes.

This is an entry to the annual Bad Sex Award. 2019. The Guardian prints all the short list ones. They are hilarious. You can find more online

River Capture by Mary Costello

He clung to her, crying, and then made love to her and went far inside her and she begged him to go deeper and, no longer afraid of injuring her, he went deep in mind and body, among crowded organ cavities, past the contours of her lungs and liver, and, shimmying past her heart, he felt her perfection.

I'm tempted to google those scenes now

the Bad Sex one must have been written for a bet!

Agree with too much description

Using 20 words when 2 will suffice

Also, when nothing happens

Also, political views shoved in with no relevance to story.

Bad writing. Plot holes. People behaving in unlikely ways, eg. keeping a big secret when they don’t need to. Things that suddenly jar. Nearly all new books. I rarely enjoy anything written since the 60s, apart from Shardlake and that’s boring now.

I couldn't find anything to listen to so thought I'd go for a guaranteed good listen ( lots of praise in the papers) - French Braid by Ann Tyler - omgoodness what boring people living boring lives - didn't finish it.

Malibu Rising, Girl A, The Three body Problem, The Master COlmT, A Little Life, why has no one told me this before Dr J Smith.
Left them all. At my age, 68, I need to be caught by the story or my memory loses interest and loses track. Why has no one told me this before, well at my age someomne had so it was quite boring.

This made me lol
i saw that advertised and thought it was self help!

The award in was founded by Auberon Waugh whose opinion was that too many authors put gratuitous sex scenes in their novels and were too ghastly for words.The Literary Review runs the judging every year. And there are some wondrous extracts. These are serious writers (Martin. Amis won the award one year) but Waugh was right - sex scenes are written badly.
One character in a novel compared one lady wet vagina to another's concluding that the new lady had 'more of a glaze than a sauce'.
I think passages like these would put me off a book.

@SammyScrounge good lord. I have been having sex entirely the wrong way if that’s what it’s like!!!!!

I've stopped reading books because of casual descriptions of abuse just chucked in with no warning.

Unbelievable characters annoy me, when they act in ways no real human acts.

Spelling and grammar errors if prolific. Use an editor.

Just boring books that don't grip me immediately.

Jumping back and forth in time annoys me. Also multiple characters with incomprehensible names.

I've been stung before by Kindle samples that are ok and then as soon as you get past that bit the rest of the book is dire.

I wish I could remember the North Pole Expedition one. I can only recall 'due south' being the inevitably
Sex scenes put me off a book because the scenes are usually so badly written, so ridiculously over the top, so faultlessly
cringworthy that I'd not risk another line of it.

Bertie yes
i like to find out in advance if a book is just going to be misery porn.

Too many characters - if there are lists of names and relationships I'll probably give up straight away
Poor grammar, or just bad writing
Implausible characters particularly women who work 18 hours a day, only ever eat left over food from the fridge (but never go shopping) drink like a fish, but are still super skinny and go for 10 mile runs just to clear their heads.

I stop reading if I'm just not into it

No one seems to mention this but constant name calling
If two people are having a conversation, why must they always mention the names
"Alice, I don't see why we should go"
Oh Christina please. It will be fun"
"I said no Alice"
"But Christina wait. It's going to be so epic"
"Ok ok Alice you twisted my arm"

It's so annoying. I don't know anyone who has conversations like this.

Also too much description - a page and a half of what the front room looked like is unnecessary 🙄

A Mr Darcy trope, who’s always a doctor, often a consultant. Mr Darcy worked because a) Elizabeth wasn’t expecting a man to give a shit about her b) the other male characters were attractive so he jarred c) there was no way for Elizabeth to tell him to fuck off and remain in polite society so it was a big surprise when he expressed his love through his tight exterior. if a modern book has a man who looks away in apparent disgust at the pr executive and she doesn’t roll her eyes and call him a prick my head starts screaming “mr Darcy trope” and I can’t concentrate on anything else.
And consultants never have that much free time and are always knackered after a shift not knocking up Italian pic nics.

too many ands but I made my point.

A book where nothing happens. But not beautifully written. Or endless stopping and starting. Instance of the Fingerpost I'm looking at you.

Glaring anachronisms in books set in previous time. Usual characters. See above book.

Or can be 100 pages in but it just goes wrong, usual sudden change of plot or style or something.

But the last book I gave up on was A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake aka Cecil Day- Lewis. Should have been my sort of book; bit like an old b&w movie set in a boarding school. But the (first) victim was a disliked 11 year old pupil. It was just after the invasion of Ukraine and I just thought "no, I can't do this right now"

*Usually characters

I am in my 60's now, and I haven't given up on many books in my lifetime, particularly not lately, because I now have my favourite authors who rarely disappoint me.

The book I most regret not finishing was one I was reading in my late teens - I didn't give it up, it was a library book, and I had only got half way through it when we had to move hundreds of miles away - unfortunately I didn't immediately get it from my new library, and then my babies started arriving (maybe if I had read some of those "sexy" novels I would have learnt what was causing the babies, and slowed it down a bit!)

Anyway, by the time I felt I had enough time to finish the book that I had got half way through - it was War and Peace by the way - I realised that I would have to start at the beginning again, as I had forgotten too much of it. So as much as I was fascinated by the way people lived their very different lives in those days - including their politics, I found that with several young children of my own, I couldn't face starting it all over again.