I come from the school if for some reason you lose interest in a book you move on. Maybe you will pick up that book later in your life when it is relevant. Maybe you put that book down because the writing is terrible or maybe you can't concentrate or the subject matter became a fingerpainting sprawling everywhere losing the reader--you.
I do not believe you have to finish a book or finish your plate for that matter.

The KiteRunner: Please I got to the last 10 pages and said, " Take that! This book is so predictable!"

The Virgin Suicides: Is there a point in there somewhere?

Jodi Picoult's books great beginnings, I am lured in but somewhere it becomes slow and I yawn and have to force myself insisting just get around this corner...

Presently, Outlander, Parts of it I love and can't put down but other times oh hum... I mean I try and read light stuff sometimes...

Your thoughts?

Message edited by its author, Jun 20, 2009, 11:06am.

I'm very selective about the books I get, so I seldom end up putting something down because the writing is terrible. When I can't finish a book I usually tell myself I'm not in the right mood for it and I should return to it later. In most cases I'm right, and end up enjoying the book

There are two books I keep starting and never finish though: Consider Phlebus but Iain M. Banks and Neuromancer by William Gibson. In end up getting bored and giving up. But one day...

Re The Virgin Suicides: This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, and I enjoy it each time I re-read it. A few people complain about getting to 'the point' as you say, but it's not a mystery novel. The point is not to find the secret to why the girls all killed themselves, and in fact you don't (except that their parents were strict and they were unhappy). The book is more about the obsession that the neighbourhood boys have with them. The girls remain a mystery, for the reader and the narrators, despite all the information collected in the hope of understanding them.

Usually not learning 'the truth' would bother me, but not in this case. I enjoyed every word of that novel, I became as obsessed with the Lisbons as their neighbours, and I think that if the reader knew exactly why they killed themselves the book would lose its magic and become a well-written but flat mystery novel.

I agree with you, irisrose. I hated the characters in The Emperor's Children and finally put it down. But as loathsome as I found the main characters of Loving Frank, I finished it because I knew roughly how it ended and I wanted to see how the author handled it.

I had to force myself to read 1/2 of Tempting the Beast by Lora Leigh just to see if it was going to get better & of course it didn't. I had no problem putting that book down. The entire book was just sex with some words between. The author was more focused on how to put more sex scenes that the storyline or characters.

#1- irisrose> Try to give Outlander another shot. I know she gets very detailed on history, dates and events - but the overall story is so good (you can skim some of the history lesson) although it is pretty interesting. I loved that book & the third book in the series is one of my favorites.

I agree with LaurenSeraph, I love that the boys in The Virgin Suicides spend their whole time trying to understand the girls but never even scratch the surface.

I tried reading Valis because I like a lot of Philip K. Dick's work and I've often heard it described as a work of genius, but I can't get more than 30 pages in.
I've also never finished Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve, I got bored and every other descriptive word seemed to be a shade of pink. I feel I probably have a good shot at guessing the ending though.

Catch-22 - But I will get back to it again.

Eragon - Impossible to read, worst book I've ever tried to read. Not that it was badly written, but it was so unbelievably boring!

>2
inkspot, I've read Neuromancer and advise not bothering with it. The coolest thing about it is the title.

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 10:09am.

I just cast aside An Almost Perfect Moment, by Binnie Kirshenbaum, because it was so mean-spirited and unpleasant. Feh.

Per my numerous LT comments over the months, I just can't seem to get through The Histories.

I don't know what's holding me back. I've done War and Peace. I've bulled through Don Quixote. I got through Ulysses. Hell, I've even read The Bible.

It's a fascinating subject, it is just a slog. I'll get it done some day...

I'm having a real hard time finishing Breaking Dawn. It has become such a chore. I have never finished Lolita (and never plan to).

Some books, though, are worth going back to. I think I tried reading Sophie's Choice about three times before it finally "clicked".

Message edited by its author, Jul 4, 2009, 9:10pm.

I actively disliked The Virgin Suicides from about page 25 or so but finished it. I should never have started it because that's the one year I forced myself to finish everything I started. Bad timing.

I didn't finish One More Year, a series of short stories by Sana Krasikov. Depressing stories about people I didn't care about. It was well written, but I just hated the people in it.

Two weeks ago I finally gave up on The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins. I loved her first book but this book just left me cold. It was so poorly written.

Message edited by its author, Jul 6, 2009, 10:56am.

The Lord by Romano Guardini is a book I've been living with the past couple of years.

I'm quoting from it extensively on my site as a kind of biblical exegesis.

Example here:

http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/...

More here:

http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/...

You'll see why it is such a slow and blessed read

DJ

I haven't been able to finish Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier simply because I got so depressed midway! I'll read it one day, though...
I also haven't been able to finish Sophie's World and a bunch more are on 'hiatus' right now.
#1- Outlander also got a little sluggish for me, too. I eventually got through it, though it's not a huge deal if you don't. Meh. Although the newest one in the series An Echo in the Bone is coming out in September at a whopping 992 pages (thanks, Amazon) so maybe I'll skim through the last one.

Rebecca is worth finishing, SNS101, and is not depressing. The twists are great, and change everything.

I could never finish The Great Gatsby. No matter how hard I tried.

-Allison, http://readintothis.blogspot.com/

#14- That's good to know, thanks. (Is it too plebian to wish for a happy ending? ;)) I'll move it up on the TBR list!

--> TBR?

--> TBR?
To Be Read

Mistress of the Art of Death. I didn't like it, then I liked it, then I didn't like it, then I liked it, now I finally don't like it.

I stopped at the part where Rowley is talking about his experiences as a crusader. Blech.

that was fast.

>4 scrpo1027 - I had the same problem with The Lords of Were as you did with Tempting the Beast. I stopped halfway through because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Another book I couldn't finish was Love in the Time of Cholera. I know tons of people love the book, but I just couldn't get past my dislike of the characters and gave up 2/3rds of the way through.

Message edited by its author, Jul 24, 2009, 11:25am.

A Hundred Years of Solitude and Bleak House, both through no fault of their own. I just keep trying to read them at the wrong time and life gets in the way. I also find it really hard to pick them back up because I'm so far through but I can't really remember what just happened...

The idea of perfection it's not plot driven and, at the time, I need to read something where a bit more was happening. Also, one of the characters really started to get on my nerves. Although, Grenville is a great author I really enjoyed her Secret River.

To read Marquez I need to drown out everything else in the background, I listened to Mozart while reading A Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Marquez and Mozart go together like coffee and chocolate :-)

I'll list another eternal read, The Divine Comedy, for all the reasons listed here:

http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2009/...

regards

jayd