A Good Thriller discussion

When a book isn't interesting,do you slog through it anyway or are you prepared to abandon it quickly ?

I will generally give it until about half way. If I am not thrilled by that point then I have to add it to DNF. There are those rare times where I get to page 10 and I am over it, but it has to be REALLY bad. I hate not finishing a book, but there are just too many out there I want to read.

My rule is 10% most books tend to pass that rule and if I feel like I want to DNF after that I will generally persevere and leave a rant review!

The deepest I ever went into a book before giving up on it was around 150 pages. It was right on the edge of being good or terrible and I kept hoping it would move firmly into the good. But it went bad, so I gave up on it.

The shortest give up was under 20 pages after I encountered 51 grammar and usage errors in those pages - errors that were so bad they made the book unreadable.

I usually just finish it anyway. Especially if it's a book club book. I usually have audio so it helps to get through it faster.

I'm too old to waste my time on a bad book. I'll give it 50 pages to hook me.

Scout wrote: "I'm too old to waste my time on a bad book. I'll give it 50 pages to hook me."

I'm with you, Scout!

Jess wrote: "My rule is 10% most books tend to pass that rule and if I feel like I want to DNF after that I will generally persevere and leave a rant review!"

This is my rule as well.

I rely on Goodreads a lot for book ideas. So if I start a book the odds are pretty good I will like it.
On the few occasions where the book doesn't do it for me, I'll usually bail after 30 pages, depending on how awful it is.

I don't have a fixed rule, but I try (and abandon) a lot of books as soon as I realize that I am not enjoying them. Sometimes I will first look at the spoilers in GR reviews to see whether things are going to get as bad as I suspect. I never force myself to finish a book.

I will give up after 2-3 chapters

I give the book several pages. I discard if it does not draw me into the story or is poor writing.

Ugh...I usually slog through it! I really need to get on the 50-100 pages cutoff train, because I agree, there are too many good books out there waiting to be read! (I only have to look at my TBR list!)

All the arguments that life is too short and I am too old to read something I am not enjoying are true. Unfortunately, my ears are too old to hear these wise thoughts, and I haven't quite got to the point that I give up on a book. I may set it down for a while, sometimes months, once a year, but I always finish it.

Kat wrote: "All the arguments that life is too short and I am too old to read something I am not enjoying are true. Unfortunately, my ears are too old to hear these wise thoughts, and I haven't quite got to th..."

Oh Kat...I'm so glad I'm not the only one!!

At least halfway. I was caught out once on a book called Tattletale. I was about to give up when I carried on, it turned out being one of the best books I’d read that year.

I’ve never not finished a book.

I try to get through a book if it is slowing down or doing nothing for me, but if it isn't doing nothing for me about 1/2 way it will go on a dnf shelf. I am not going to waste my time on a book that I am not enjoying when I could be reading something that I do enjoy.

Curious you ask--I just abandoned a mega-bestseller, wondering what all the fuss was about. Perhaps it has a spectacular ending, but there are too many good books out in the world to spend time hoping for an ending that would redeem the tedium involved with arriving there. (The Woman in the Window--Finn).

Tell me I should have stuck with it...

Life is too short,and there are just too many good books available.What to talk of bad books,I have so many on my currently reading shelf,that sometimes I don't even finish good ones.

Yes I will give up if the book is really bad.

But have finished books and thought was a waste of my time !

But now I usually know the authors I am picking are okay

Also,with the onslaught of digital media,I don't have the attention span I used to have.The internet,with its multiple distractions,takes up more and more time.In the pre internet days,I could concentrate more fully on books.

Depends on the book. Most times 2-3 chapters but if it seems likely to get better, I might try a little longer. Or maybe an author that I usually like. But, less patience than I use to have, so won't try getting to the halfway point anymore.

I do not recall ever abandoning a book.

Gave up on my first book in a long time, especially when I knew it was 740 pages, and I was bored after 5 chapters.

I never used to give up on books. I felt guilty that someone put so much work into writing it. In the last few years I have been more likely to abandon a book if I'm not liking it by about the 1/3 point. I may revisit it later, because often, I find, it's my mood, not the book.

If I'm not hooked by chapter 3 I give up. There are far too many really great books out there for me to waste time on one I'm not enjoying. Best advice a teacher ever gave me.

I give it 100 pages or so.

I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to abandoning books....when the characters are oh so wonderful and everybody is so sexy and hot and oh so intelligent and have this whole nauseating attitude because they know they're the cat's testicles (ugh!), I drop it right there. I despise books like that. Other than that I'd stick out to chapter 4 or 5 just to see if things pick up or not.

I suppose it depends on the book. I am fairly loath to give up on a book. I think I can count on one hand the number of books I DNF'ed

I just finished a book like that. I was determined since I have enjoyed all the books he has written but for some reason the latest just wasn't for me. However, I won't do that again. I will try again with the next new one but I won't read the whole thing if it just isn't going well for me. Sometimes it happens that an author you normally really like just has one that you just can't get interested in.

i am like that just now i am 37% through a book and just not getting into it although it has great reviews from other people

Unless it is really badly written, I usually persevere until I am at least 1/3 through it. Although, like Sonja, I despise books where everyone is ever so sexy, intelligent, hot, and I am going to add nauseatingly rich to the list, and tend not to pick these up to read in the first place. BUT, sometimes they are cleverly disguised, and as soon as I realise what I am reading, abandon it.

I get to about 100 pages in and then if it still not good I DNF it. One time I did that with Let Me Go and then had to finish it for a buddy read and so glad I went on. It was an excellent thriller but it took awhile to get good. If a book doesn't interest me and I am 100 pages in, in general I put it down. My opinion is life is to short to read a bad book!!

In our book club our rule is give it 100 pages before passing on it. I’m finding this works well with most of my personal reading but some can be offensive right out the gate, so after a couple of chapters I’ll DNF it.

Is it a mystery I give it up to two or three charters.. A novel or non-fiction book 40-60 pages.

I give up on a book around 50 pages, or when its an audiobook about an hour. I don't DNF a book a lot but when its bad I do stop. Recently it was the Austen Society. It put me to sleep. I didn't care about the characters so my opinion is life is to short for a bad book!!

I give a book about 2-3 chapters, depending on the genre. I'm usually more patient with thrillers, but if I don't like the authors style of writing I will give up even faster.

Kerstin wrote: "Is it a mystery I give it up to two or three charters.. A novel or non-fiction book 40-60 pages."

I'm with you on that.

I can usually tell within the first two or three paragraphs whether an author knows how to craft a sentence well enough to keep my attention for a whole book.
I can also usually tell when an author's not bothered to call upon the services of a decent editor or proofer.
In each case, I'll drop the book like the steaming hot pile of do-do it is. Teehee.
Life is too short to waste reading do-do. :)

I agree. I will give a book about 2 chapters to hook me. But if I donate over 4 or 5 chapters of my time then I will finish it out of sheer spite or else the first 4 will feel like a waste.

Pretty quickly. I like to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but I recently started reading a thriller that just left me cold. Cliched, hackneyed, and with some silly language. I left after three chapters, which is probably about as quickly as I would abandon anything.

For me 2-3 chapters, then my time is too important. I need a good book to enjoy

30 pages or one hour, whichever comes first.

I'm with Luci; 30 pages or one hour. I recently commented that I had in the last few months started a book which received a lot or praise by a successful author that was supposed to be a "Thriller" set during WWII. The second setting was in a burlesque club with the owner talking about sleeping with the dancers and the third setting had a woman sitting across the table from a Gestapo agent and wondering about his sexuality and not whether she was going to sent to a concentration camp or not. When 2 of the first 3 settings are about sex and not espionage then that's what the rest of the book is going to include and not what I want or was seeking.

Jeffrey wrote: "Pretty quickly. I like to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but I recently started reading a thriller that just left me cold. Cliched, hackneyed, and with some silly language. I left after thr..."

I was complaining in another group about Goodread authors not getting read and this post fits nicely. There, I said it is so easy to 'taste' a book on Amazon. You should be able to tell how bad or good it will be by reading the first two chapters. Ok, maybe the ending won't be what you hoped but at least you will know if the subject, characters and, especially, the writing is satisfactory. And it doesn't cost a penny.

I give it usually three chapters before I stop reading.

Arghh i am so annoying with this, but it is SOO difficult for me to abandon a book. I am hating it, it's too long, too bad or too frustrating but i just NEED to finish it. I could've saved myself a lot of time if i just put it down when it's on time. Noo..I just have to torture myself till the very last page.

Jo wrote: "Arghh i am so annoying with this, but it is SOO difficult for me to abandon a book. I am hating it, it's too long, too bad or too frustrating but i just NEED to finish it. I could've saved myself a..."

I used to be like this but I forced myself to stop! One book took me a full year to read!

I just thought life is too short and I've got so much on my TBR pile that it's not like I can't find anything else to read. So now I'm much more strict!

I always try to finish a book, as a fellow author I know the hard work that goes into it.

If I’m two chapters in and bored, I’m gone. Life is filled with wonderful books that I’ll never have time to read; why waste hours on one that doesn’t interest me?