Reading Glasses - Fan Group discussion

Hi everyone


When I was a teenager, I was proud that I would always finish a book. I'd hold out regardless, with the idea that however bad it was it might turn around or I might get something from it. I actually remember the book that changed my mind on that (view spoiler)[ Interview with the Vampire; I made it less than a hundred pages in before I just couldn't take the prose any more (hide spoiler)], and it was such a relief to realise I could do that.


However, that probably means that I've subsequently chucked books that I may just not have been in the right headspace for, so I try to recognise if that's the case.


A couple of years ago I picked up As I Lay Dying - the only early 20th century US writers I'd read were Steinbeck and Fitzgerald - and it was such hard work. I got about a quarter of the way in and just wasn't getting it. It languished on a shelf by my bed for maybe three months before I decided to brace myself and have another try. I started at the beginning again - and I suddenly clicked with the alternating voices of the characters, and what Faulkner was doing. I don't know if I would have gone back to the book if it hadn't been something considered a Great Work, though. Maybe I'd have either blamed the author or decided it wasn't for me.


However, it's made me consider more. It's recently happened with A Closed and Common Orbit which I began a few weeks ago but just wasn't connecting with. I left it to read something else, came back and I'm really enjoying it. That said, it has lead to a couple of books that I haven't technically abandoned, but have been in limbo for so long it's probably the same thing.



I wondered what other people thoughts of the abandonment/perseverance continuum are, and any stories you might have either way.

I really try to finish books, even if I don't like them. It's rare that I'll actually give up, but I just did with a book called Talent Storm. I think the characters were too young and I couldn't get myself to relate or get into the story.

I used to persevere and finish books with which I didn't connect. But then I realized that was causing me to stop reading. I'm a read one book at a time reader, so if I was sticking with a book I didn't enjoy I would end up not reading as much. Now I abandon after giving it a good shot.

Given I just gave up on reading Hopscotch (as I mentioned in another thread), I definitely fall on the "abandon it if I'm not feeling it" side, especially for long books. Books just take such a long time to read, that I feel like I'm wasting a ton of time and effort for no reason if I'm not enjoying it, and it tends to grind my reading as a whole to a halt.

The only book I've actively stopped reading in the last couple years was The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. It was just super boring and didn't grab me.

I have no problem abandoning a book. I just quit a book of which I had read over two hundred pages! My reading is for escape and pleasure. If it feels too arduous, then I don't need to finish it.

I agree with Elizabeth; I used to force myself to finish books, but now, if I've given it a solid try and I just don't like it, then I put it down and move on. I have such a huge to-read list that I can't be bothered to slog through something I'm just not in to.

I have no problem abandoning books that don't click for me, but I'm pretty flexible, so it's uncommon. I'm more likely to stop reading a book because I get too swamped to stick with it. Short story collections are great. I don't have to start over a year later when I come back and can skip individual stories if I want to.

I've had to persevere through books for a book club that I couldn't believe had been published. If it's a book for pleasure, I say put it down if you're not actually deriving any pleasure from it.
If it's for more of an obligation where it's better to finish it, I'd say try and grab some lessons from it. I've learned more about what I want to avoid in my own writing, styles or tropes I absolutely hate, and how I would do it differently. It also makes me really appreciate (what I think) is good writing.

There are only 2 books i can remember ever abandoning, The da-vinci code in highschool, i just watched the movie instead and wrote the report based on that...

And more recently, Fifty shades of Grey, got about 70% in when i couldn't take it any more.. The writing is horrendous. If anyone here likes it feel free to pm me to explain why.. i can't for the life of me understand how it became popular :|

Other than that i persevere through them since most books i choose to read aren't that bad.

I'm one to abandon books that I haven't warmed up to. Usually, if I find a book I'm not liking I'll try to read something completely different. If I still don't feel like reading it after stepping away from the book for awhile I'll give up on it.

I am a completionist, so it's very hard for me to give up on anything. It's a trait that helps and also hinders me, as you can imagine! (For example, I get very overwhelmed when I see that a podcast I've just subscribed to has a large backlog, because I automatically feel that I have to listen to all of them. The fact that RG is so new is one of the reasons why I took to it so quickly!)

I think you have the right idea, Paul, in that sometimes you are just not ready for a book, and you have to be in the right space for it. I think this is especially true if it's a very popular and well-loved book that has stood the test of time and generations of readers. However, I've also allowed myself, as I've grown older, to put down a book I'm just not enjoying--I used to have multiple books going when I was a kid, but now I'm more of a one-book-at-a-time reader like Julie, so I have the same rule as her in that if I'm just really miserable reading a book, it's not worth finishing. I would also say that there are always exceptions to my popular-and-well-loved rule: sometimes you just don't get what all the fuss is about because it's not your taste, and that's okay! For example, I just read The Stepford Wives the other day per Mallory's and Nick White's recommendation, and I thought it was just okay. I kept waiting for it to chill me and it just didn't, I think because it was written so long ago that its ideas on feminism were very of it's time--I agree with them, but they are givens to me at this point.

I usually have good instincts when it comes to media I'll enjoy, so I can usually tell if something is worth it but I'm not in the right space for it, or if it's just not my thing. And I'm glad of that!

I have found that with more age, it's become easier to leave a book unfinished. If I don't care enough to remember to read it, it will at some point go to the lemmed bookshelf on goodreads. I might take the book up again at some point, if I find myself being in a better place or mood for that book, but usually it will be left unread. There are so many books in this world that I will never have time to read anyway, so an uninteresting book stay half finished, I don't feel bad about abandoning it. I have some good examples, like Ready Player One. Could not finish that one, it got boring, so I donated my copy to someone that I knew would enjoy it more.

I abandon books all the time. if I don't like it, why keep reading it? if it's a thriller or something I might skim the end to find out what happens, but I have no trouble putting a book down if it bores me or I outright hate it.

Elianara wrote: "There are so many books in this world that I will never have time to read anyway"

You have the right idea! I think about this too. Life is too short to consume bad media.

Elianara wrote: "I have found that with more age, it's become easier to leave a book unfinished."

Me, too. It might also have to do with more responsibility that has come with age. Between work and family, I just don't have as much time as I used to for reading. I'd rather spend that time with books I enjoy, rather than slogging through for the sake of finishing.

That said, I still don't abandon books as early as I should. And I recently pushed through a book that kept raising my hackles simply because I had planned it into a challenge in another group and didn't want to flail around searching for a replacement title.

I used to finish all my books, but a few years ago I got into the habit of ditching them.

I rationalize it this way: we only have so much time, and there's so much other stuff trying to take up that time, so why would I spend time on a book I realize I probably won't enjoy?

Ulysses, by the way. That's the book that broke me and created the policy. Latest ditch was Blood Meridian.

As a kid, I always thought you had to finish a book. In college, as an English lit major (with lots of books to read- I once made the mistake of taking 3 English classes in one semester), I actually developed a ritual of throwing books that I didn't like at the wall as soon as I finished (poor books!) and then trading them in at the bookstore at the end of the semester ASAP.

Now, I tend to put a book back on the shelf with a bookmark in it or leave them on my Kindle if they don't really grab me, but it takes a lot for me to consider a book to be fully abandoned if it's one that I own or have everlasting access to. Library books are a different story. I'm bracing myself to cull my collection a bit and ditch the ones that really have no business being part of my personal library. We have a nice little give a book/take a book neighborhood library up the street- hopefully read to bring a box up there soon!

I just had to look up "how to mark a book as abandoned on Goodreads" today and set up my abandoned shelf. Hopefully there won't be too many books on it, but seriously, so many books, so little time... (view spoiler)[Good riddance to the book by David Miscavige's dad that I just ditched- when he got to the part about punching his wife, I decided I'd had enough. (hide spoiler)]

Elianara wrote: "...it will at some point go to the lemmed bookshelf on goodreads..."

Just had to look up "lemmed" on the Urban Dictionary. Any insight as to where this comes from? I'd never heard it before!

Paul wrote: "...it has lead to a couple of books that I haven't technically abandoned, but have been in limbo for so long it's probably the same thing.

I'm right there with you on the technical abandonment! Sometimes the best part of eventually pulling one of these books off the shelf after months (or years) is discovering a beloved bookmark that was also abandoned!

Allison wrote: "Just had to look up "lemmed" on the Urban Dictionary. Any insight as to where this comes from? I'd never heard it before!."


I believe it was coined on this 'ere website. The Sword & Laser group is for a podcast of the same name and they were reading Memoirs Found in a Bathtub a few years back. One of the hosts, Veronica, chucked the book as she couldn't stand it and so the verb "to Lem" entered the language. I didn't realise that it had escaped into the wider world.

Growing I always had this feeling that if I didn't complete a book I didn't have a right to share an opinion on it- like what if something happened that turned everything around, right after I gave up? I've always had the urge to know everything before speaking.
Nowadays I realize I'm just wasting time that could be spent on books that I enjoy. It's very freeing! And I can still have an opinion on what I did manage to read.

I read many books at a time. Some of them don't catch enough of my attention to stay in the current rotation and most of those never come back around. A nominal to be continued, but not likely.