Abandoning books - life's too short

[Kayemm]

Last year I started an 'Abandoned ' shelf on my Goodreads account and it's about to get it's first 2026 addition.
It's The Fraud by Zadie Smith, it's my book club book. It's the first I've Abandoned in this incarnation of the group. I'm feeling slightly guilty as I know a couple of others have Abandoned it too.

Do you abandon or plough on?

Abandon. No matter what it is - book, article, film, TV programme, etc - if it's not engaging me I'll find something that does.

I didn't finish it either, btw.

I abandon about 20% of the books I start. Whether I don't like the writing style, the intro hasn't grabbed me, I realise I've read it before 😳. I used to have a 30 page rule, but that was too prescriptive so I abandon anywhere I fancy now.
Same with podcasts.

I abandon with abandon nowadays. The first book I ever abandoned was Captain Corelli. It was so bloody tedious but I persisted for ages until I finally had a 💡 moment and put it aside. That was about 30 years ago and I've still got it just in case...

Definitely abandon. I started reading a biography of Guy Burgess, and it was well written, but almost too detailed.

I don’t care who he played cards with when he was at Cambridge!

I also couldn’t finish a biography about Jane Austen, written by Lucy Worsley (who i adore!).

I've just abandoned All the Colours of the Dark. I read all sorts - fiction, non fiction, historical texts, classics, translated texts - but i was really struggling with this one, the sentence structure is weird and I don't need half a page to describe what something looks like. I'll go back to it one day, but its not what I want or need right now!

In the last year I've abandoned Money by Martin Amis and Wise Children by Angela Carter.

I've battled through with some shortish books, skim reading in places, but was that worth It?

Ha, I abandon more than I finish.

I abandon non-fiction quite a lot. Often there's a great idea, but just stretched out and spread too thin for a whole book.
Non- book wise I recently abandoned S2 of The Night Manager after one and a bit episodes.

Same thing happened to me with that one. I kept plodding onwards with it, thinking well I really should read it, and it must be good because they made it into a film. Nope. Try as I might, it bored me stiff and I abandoned it about a third of the way through.

Definitely abandon. I had a shelf of unfinished books I was hanging on to thinking I might go back to them one day.

Now decided they are going to the charity shop. There are so many good books out there and new ones being published all the time so I’m not wasting my life reading books I’m not enjoying.

I audition books.

They come before me, I give them about an hour to impress me-60/70pp- and if they don't make the grade, I shout , "Next"!

I'm like an old school Casting Director!

Incidentally, I loved, The Fraud but totally agree with you, life is too short not to abandon books.

I also abandoned Captain Corelli many years ago.
I didn't finish The Power recently as it wasn't what I expected

I did once abandon a book after 800 pages. It was an Anne Rice, I had about 200 pages to go and I realised that I did not care one but what was going to happen.

Abandon.

Recently on a podcast the interviewee was talking about the amount of books you might be able to read in your lifetime.

I'm 45. Assuming 50 books a year (it was 85 last year but let's make it a reasonable easier number!), if I live to 95 being able to do the same amount, that's 2500 books I have left.

Then compare that to the roughly 2 million books published each YEAR.

It would be impossible to read all the books. If you only have 2500 books left, why waste them?!

(Obviously many of you will read more, but unless you're on 2000 a year you're probably never going to read everything you want to are you?!)

That was the last book I finished and tbh I was very tempted when it started dragging in the middle.

Yep...me too.
I abandon much more often now.
My local school library does very well 😊

I need to get better at actually ditching a book once Ive abandoned it.
Several scenarios:
1 - I start reading a book, cant get into it even beyond the first few pages = Ill decide I will be able to another day when Im in the mood/less tired etc. So it ends up back on the tbr shelf.
2 - Ill read about half of a book, maybe even three quarters, Im enjoying it but it gets put to one side as Ive been distracted by another book. Or its a dense in content so I need a break. Either way it ends up in a pile by my bed. a) sometimes I return to them and finish them b) they end up in the tbf (to be finished!) pile c) rarely..... they go in a bag to be taken to a charity shop.
3 - I start reading a book, its not for me. Straight in the charity shop bag.

Far far too often with me scenario 1 or 2b happens. I need to get better at option 2c and 3!!

It would be impossible to read all the books. If you only have 2500 books left, why waste them?!
I like your analysis, CocoPlum. I think that I have come to a similar conclusion from a different angle. If you read enough good books then you get more discerning; you recognise dross when you see it and are more inclined to give yourself permission to jettison it.

Agreed. I hardly ever used to abandon a book but now I do. Not as often as I should though - very much wish I had abandoned The Fraud, which I found so dull. Shame as NW is one of my all time favourites and have enjoyed most other Zadie Smith books. But life is definitely too short and there are too many good books out there.

i also abandoned Captain Corelli many years ago and also Life of Pi, We Need to talk about Kevin. All books highly recommended by critics and friends alike. Different strokes for different folks!

If you’re abandoning books often, you’re probably not being picky enough about what you choose to read 😁

These days, I usually have a good sense of what will appeal to me. And even when I get it wrong and a book doesn’t grab me straight away, I’ve found that if I push on, it almost always finds its footing—and I end up glad I stuck with it.

I don't think I've ever abandoned a book. I do inhale books though, get through 2 to 3 a week, so they rarely last long enough to get bored by them.

As everyone's said, life's too short and a bad book of any length is too long. I just ditched Lear Wife halfway through and wish I'd done it sooner.

As for The Fraud, I have finished it but I didn't enjoy it and now, less than two years later, I couldn't begin to tell you what it was about. Might as well have flung it into the distance a quarter of the way through.

I’ve just abandoned Shadowplay by Joseph O,Connor. I was like 85% there but it just wasn’t very interesting. I love him so I felt bad. I’ve also abandoned Cahokia Jazz recently, couldn’t make head nor tail of it.

I abandon at least half of the books I start. It can be really disappointing to abandon them, especially when I’ve been really looking forward to reading something that I think I’ll enjoy.

I quite enjoyed The Fraud although it seemed a fairly cookie cutter histfic to me, wouldn’t have “known” it was ZS. Also loved CCM!!