I find that I’ll stick with it longer the older the book is, mainly because it often takes a little while to get into the language of the author. But I also find that the older I get, the less patience I have, and the more readily I’ll abandon a book if it’s not gripping me. I have abandoned books anywhere between a few pages in and halfway through. There’s too much great stuff to read to waste my time with something I’m not enjoying, even if the book is a classic that I think I ought to read. (Wasn’t it Descartes that complained there was now so much being published that nobody could read it all? And that was centuries ago.)
As to Pigfender’s question of whether you would abandon a book with only, say, 100 pages left, I have been sorely tempted with the book I’m reading now (a new novel by a hugely popular young Irish author with a dislike of speech marks). But it’s a strange one. I want to give all of the characters a good shake - I don’t need my characters to be likeable, but I do need them to be interesting - and much of the writing leaves me cold, and yet it’s so intelligently written and such a unique voice that it keeps me reading - once I’ve got over my initial reluctance to pick it up each night.
All of which reminds me - I really ought to read the third volume of 1Q84 one day, after slogging through the first two.
Since I don’t read fiction then usually the reason I am reading a book is for the information.
Before deciding if I will read it I look at reviews, does it have the info I want, then I size it up looking at the TOC, then briefly scan the chapters that caught my attention in the TOC, then take a look at the index, as well as diagrams and images. By doing this I can usually determine if the book is worth reading. I have seldom regretted my choices.
I have abandoned books after the first few paragraphs and I’ve abandoned books after the first few chapters. I don’t think I’ve ever abandoned a book past that point, primarily because I would have ditched it within those first few chapters if it wasn’t any good. While I don’t throw books across the room if they aren’t any good, I will put them in the trash where they belong.
A book would have to be truly evil for me to even consider trashing it, and even then I don’t know if I could do it. Though, I grew up reading only library books, so I’ve always just passed books along to someone else when I was done with them. We didn’t have money for buying books, or much in the way of fun stuff, so I checked out books from the library at school to entertain myself.
My mom used to take me and my brothers (had no sisters) to the library multiple times during the summer and we would checkout books and read them. I used to love going to the library and I always read during the school year by checking out stuff from our school library.
These days, I usually go to the bargain book places nearby where you can often get books for 50 cents or less that are usually from the local libraries that ditch them when they get too old. It’s pretty cool to me because you can get a whole box of random books for super cheap and just see what’s good and what isn’t and you aren’t really out any money. For this reason, I really don’t have as much of an issue throwing them away. Even then, I don’t throw away books if they aren’t my taste but I will not hesitate to chunk them if they are just poorly written and I don’t want anyone else to waste their time either. If any of these older books are good, I usually buy a copy on Amazon to add to my collection and the really good ones, I purchase a digital and physical copy.
I just now remembered a book that was so bad I burned it. I was living in a cabin on the side of a mountain heated by a stove, so I put it to good use.
But these days all my books are digital, so if I didn’t like it I would just delete it.
the moment you realize you really aren’t enjoying it, in my opinion, it is perfectly acceptable to cast it aside. even if you were tremendously excited to read it. i once got within a chapter of the end of a book and then the gay character died because he was gay and i was just like–i can’t do it. i can’t keep reading this. it’s not worth it.
my friend took the book later and read it and told me it was, indeed, not worth it. there are dozens of better books out there and honestly, a really bad book can make it hard to read other, better books. even if someone spent a decade writing it. if it’s not for you, it’s not for you, and that’s okay.
