College Students! discussion

This year I gave myself permission to not finish any books that I am not enjoying after the first 50 pages or so. There are so many books on my to-read list and it just seems pointless to waste valuable reading time on something I don't like. But I still feel guilty sometimes. Like maybe I'm missing something or not giving the book a fair chance. How about you guys? Do you complete a book even if you don't like it? How long will you give a book before you give up? And what sort of things make you not want to complete a book?

Nope, not a sin. I've left plenty of unfinished books under my bed. Sometimes I just cant get into a book, but someone else might love it.

I'm a writer and I don't think not finishing a book is a bad thing. Sure, I want everyone to love my books, but the fact is there are always going to be people who don't enjoy them.

I read for fun, so if what I'm reading feels more like a chore, then why continue to read it?

I usually plow through the book because, like you said, I like to give it a fair chance. I definitely think a lot of books take some time getting into the characters - they aren't movies after all, there is some dedication. For some reason, even if I don't like a book, I don't care about my "time wasted" in the same way that, when I walk away from a terrible movie, I feel like I just wasted two hours of my life.

That being said, sometimes you just know. I got about two pages into Moby Dick and I'm never picking it up again. Do I feel back about it? Not even a little bit.

I feel like there needs to be a certain threshold of quality that a book needs to attain for me to even finish it, so the worst book I ever read would still have something about it that made me finish it. I don't feel bad at all about putting a book down, it'll just go into the category of books I tried to read, tried really hard, but just couldn't. Often books that I know are considered classics fall into this category for me because I don't feel obligated to enjoy something a majority of people enjoyed, Catch-22 is a perfect example of a book like this.

I have to finish. Probably was reinforced by one of my favorite books, The Gargoyle. I had to force myself to stick with it past the first few chapters, but once Marianne comes into the story, it is wonderful!
I would always be thinking, what if I just stuck it out, would it turn out great?

I used to start tons of books and never finish them so now I've made it habit to finish the books I start!

But now that I've done that successfully for about 2 years, I'm starting to be more of the opinion that some books just aren't worth our precious time!

I'm the same exact way! I give the book 50 pages before I abandon. I feel EXTREMELY GUILTY and sometimes abandoning a book turns me off to reading altogether - not because I don't have hope for other books, but because I just feel so guilty and unworthy of reading other books... it's obnoxious. But I'm glad that someone else feels the same! I came here to make a thread about exactly this but I'm glad to see that someone has beat me to it! I am actually starting an 'abandoned' shelf, just to keep track of those books (although I wish it wouldn't count toward my 'read').

I don't need to finish. I try to give a book a fair shake, which varies in length, but, basically, when I'm not feeling it, I just let it go--be that halfway through, after a chapter, or after a few paragraphs. If I'm not feeling it and I force myself to push through, I feel like I'm not being fair to myself and I notice that I just don't read. I rarely get rid of books, so it's not like I can't give it another chance later on. The only time I start to feel guilty about abandoning a book is when I see myself flitting from book to book and not settling down with anything. I do want to be engaged in a book and actually finish them.

I used to try very hard to finish all the books I started. Only recently am I realizing that I should probably stop working on books that don't capture me. There are so many better things to be spending my time reading that it's almost a sin NOT to stop reading a book you don't like.

Books are supposed to be fun, so I stop if I'm not enjoying it. It's that easy... is what I'd like to say. Really what ends up happening is I keep trying to read it until it's due back at the library, and then never check it out again. Or I get distracted by something better. That happens a lot too.

It's nice to know I'm not the only person out there who feels like its so awful to abandon a book part way through. It really pains me to sometimes but some books I just cannot bare to keep reading. For me it is so rare to come across a book so horrible that I cannot bring myself to finish it. However when it does happen it puts me in a funk for weeks about reading anything else.

I try to finish, but if I'm thinking of quitting I usually opt to read to about page 100 first. That way I invested enough time to get the feel for the book but not so much that it seemed like a total waste. Sometimes I also skim sections but read the ending. If it looks more promising than I originally thought, I go back and give it a proper read.

I always feel guilty when I abandon one of those books that's supposed to be "SO GOOD," but I know that if I keep reading it, I'll be passing up the time to read books that I'll actually enjoy. My problem is when I'm reading a book that I do enjoy, but I just can't really get into it, or I'm getting through it so slowly that eventually I don't even look forward to reading it...then I can't decide whether to give up on it or not!