Do you always finish every book you start? How do you decide it is not worth reading?

I rarely finish a book but I know people that will finish every book they begin.

yep every one.

I have finished every book I've started in the last 15 years.

I generally don't decide a book's not worth reading, I just put it down "temporarily" and sometimes fail to pick it up again.

I'm a finisher, :)

It's very rare that I won't finish a book. It has to be really, really bad or extremely difficult to read for me to do so. If it's a difficulty thing, or a "I'm not in the mood for that" thing, I will do as Zoe said previously: I'll put it down and hope to finish it later.

I try to finish the bad books too; but I figured that life is very short, and there are so many books to read that I'd better spend my time on the good ones! Sadly, I feel guilty when I don't finish a book.

I will finish most books; since I am so picky about what I read, I rarely pick up a true dud to begin with. I don't feel bad about quitting on a book though. Crap is crap, and I have too many other books waiting to be read.

If I don't finish a book it's usually non-fiction. Whether or not I've read the whole the or just a few chapters I've learnt something, I generally know what the conclusion is, and there's no plot to wrap up (except in biographies, which I don't read).
Otherwise, I'll stop if I'm bored, which usually means I'm just not in the mood for a particular book, so it's likely I'll pick it up again later.

Well, I really have a hard time paying attention, and there are so many books I want to read that if a book cannot keep my interest I generally move on to something else. I hate thinking of reading as a chore, or an assignment. I have always read voraciously but I almost never read books that were assigned to me. (Often I would read them years later).
There are also times I will not finish reading a book I love because I hate to have it end so I will leave two or three pages for 'the future', but I know I will not read the last pages.

leaving lots of books with the last few pages unread = brain explosion.

How about skipping the middle and just reading the end? Does that count? k4k

I read a lot of classics and I usually research a book beforehand. If I still find it difficult or boring, I look for a plot summary (and still finish the book) or just bull through it. I have been known to put one or two in my TBF tag. That is, "to be finished".

The ones that get me are the real.....long..... ones. The Bible was a tough read, harder than War and Peace. Right now after a year and a half, I'm still only half done with ol' Herodotus.

i've finished every book except a tree grows in Brooklyn *Ducks* and some trashy romance novels that were just beyond bad.

And I have read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn many times. :)
I give up on a book rarely ...very rarely. I have to hate it to give up on it.
Edgar is one I gave up on...

Typically I finish every book I start although there have been a few exceptions. There are a few romances I can think of that I quit and Love in the Time of Cholera which I really tried to finish and just couldn't.

I'm pretty good at up-front screening, so I finish most of the books I start. Occasionally, though, I'll get a clunker, like a recent Early Reviewer book. I don't feel obligated to finish just because I start.

>15 Jenson_AKA_DL: Jenson, I don't think too many people can stay focused (or stoned) long enough for Garcia Marquez. I've tried One Hundred Years of Solitude about 438 times.

I'm generally pretty good about finishing books but agree with the person who said that life was too short to waste when there are so many books that you could be reading. Therefore I would like to apologise to Ellen Macarthur I tried to read your autobiography as I was very impressed with achievements but I couldn't read your book at all. Also apologies to Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children I never got beyond about the third page...

Anyway~

Every book has worth to someone..
We each read a different book, even if the title is the same...

These days, I make a point of getting to know the author before I make the purchase in the interest of frugality, but prior to that, there were many books that never got finished.

Particularly if I felt I was being sold something.

Last year I made a rule that I had to finish every book I started and it was a disaster. Read lots of stinkers. This year I'm back to my lifetime-except-last-year rule of reading a book until it stops being interesting to me. I don't feel guilty putting books down at all. Sometimes I pick them up again, but not usually.

I've finally started weeding my library of books that I know I won't ever read or started and won't ever finish. Amazingly, I'm even getting rid of books I've read but just don't want to waste the shelf space on any more.

They're all still tagged "bookmooch", but I'm going to take them out of my library soon. At least they're all on one shelf now and I can add them to BookMooch gradually.

I have only once not finished a book, it happened last year with Beloved by Toni Morrison. 3/4 of the way through I just lost interest and stared reading something else. I still feel that something wrong has happened there and keep meaning to go back to it but the interest is gone. Give it a couple of months and I will try again. It just doesn't feel right to me not to finish a book.

I hate not finishing a book, but if it really is boring or terribly written, I use my wife's rule: "Life is too short to waste on a bad book. Put it aside and read a good one."
I am also finding that there are a lot more bad books, then truly good ones. But that's what trade ins at used book stores are for.

I have to add, I really research my books too before I buy them. I think that plays a part in my finishing all my books. Even though that doesn't always guarantee a good read.

I almost always finish a book...but review carefully before I start one.

I had a lot of trouble with Beloved, so don't feel bad, Quembel. I did plow through it, since my children and I decided to start a Nobel lit group (we call it the Nobel Three), and this was one of our picks.

Almost gave up on The Road, but decided to push through. Not sure now what I gained by doing that.

For most of my life I have been of the frame of mind to finish anything I started but I've changed my mind over the past couple years. There are just too many good books out there to waste my precious reading time on one I don't like. I don't give up too easily and always get through at least one third of the book before I decide to put it down. After the first few times, it got much easier.

If I'm reading one of the classics, I will make the effort to finish it. With books like Middlemarch or our mutual friend, I find I have to get a quarter or a third of the way through before the book really takes a hold.

If I'm reading fluff, then I'll give up if the writing is so clunky that I find myself editing it, or if I stop caring what happens to the characters.

I don't hesitate to give up on books. There's no set number of pages I'll plow through before I give up-- I just go by ear. Some books I'm not in the mood for, so I'll put them away for later re-reading, but other books I just chuck (or put up on BookMooch). Recent rejects are Foucault's Pendulum, The Road, and Cloud Atlas. I've set aside Beloved because I think I might re-read it again, but the first few pages was just not that interesting. We'll see. I have a lot of books on my TBR list at any given time, and even more good ones that I haven't heard of, so I figure it's not worth it making myself miserable just for the satisfaction of finishing a bad book. I don't feel guilty at all!

As a side note, I am the same way with personal relationships.

I can only remember one book which I have started but not finished. It was The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I tried to read it when I was about 7, I think, and found the first few pages so dry that I could not bear to go any further. I have not been back to it since, but will do when I have a shorter list of books to read than I do at present, and a bit more free time on my hands. I generally do a bit of research on a book before buying it, for two reasons, I don't want to buy a book if I won't like it, and I don't want to be in the uncomfortable position of having to force myself to see a book through to completion if I am not enjoying it. Seeing as Foucalt's Pendulum has been mentioned, I may as well add to its formidable reputation. I had a friend living next door last year who is mainly into lightish genre fiction, and I used to nearly always be reading when he came round, so I think he considered me to be a good source of literary recommendations. He asked me if I had any suggestions for a more serious type of book that he could get his teeth into, and I gave him a few suggestions, including the mentioned title. I warned him that it was heavy, but he was attracted by the Templar and conspiracy themes, and he had enjoyed The Davinci Code, to which FP is considered the rough equivalent for the intellectually superior. To his credit he did get about halfway through, and told me that he thought it was fantastic when he was about 200 pages in, but in the end he gave up due to it being two confusing for him, and he'd lost track of the plot. I think it's a great book, but I do like having this over him, even though it was a shame he didn't see it through. To be fair it is a very information dense book, and probably only surpassed in difficulty by Ulysses, of the fiction books that I have read.

I usually make the effort to read the first 100 pages of every book I begin even if it doesn't initially seem to be drawing me in. By doing this I feel less guilty if I do give up as I've given it a fair chance, the same as every other book. I don't give up very often though because I read lots of reviews and therefore have a fairly good idea of what the book's about before I buy/begin it. Exceptions to this rule are book club reads, which I feel obliged to stick with even if they're really awful and not my usual type of thing. Indeed this is one of the purposes of being in a book club: it obliges you to read widely - genres and books you would normally avoid at all costs. Some have turned out to be unexpectedly good reads.

litlove, there are probably a lot of readers like you. Otherwise no one in history would have ever finished Nostromo.

I finish books...even if they suck beyond belief! Except for certain non-fiction that I start to learn a specific thing. Like a fix-it-yourself plumbing book or something. As far as fiction or biographies or histories go, however, I finish them. Even the really crappy ones were thought (by at least one person) to be good enough to publish, so I insist on trying to find the good part that warranted the book in the first place. I also feel like the author of a terrible book has wasted my time even more if I get 2/3 of the way through a book only to never finish it! Sounds strange, huh? It seems like I should cut my losses and stop when I find that it's terrible, but I feel more justified in saying something sucks if I actually know the whole story. What if the ending makes the crappy parts completely worth it? Now if the ending sucks as bad as the rest of it, I feel that I have the authority to tell people that it's bad. I would feel unable to say how bad something is if I don't know the ending :)

I no longer hesitate to stop reading a book I don't like but I usually go by the Pearl rule of 50 pages. There are just too many good books out there waiting to be read. If a "failed" book was one I really thought I should like, I will try it again. And many times I won't connect with a book until the second or third try - sometimes the time isn't right for a particular book.

I always finish my books. Of course a few hundred of them have remained half finished for 20 or 40 years, but I absolutely plan to finish them all someday.

#35 omboy - I've got 60 books tagged as 'started' in my library that I absolutely plan on finishing some day too!

I just don't have the time to read as much as I'd like. So I don't waste any of it on books I'm not enjoying. If it is just dull I'll read the first, middle and last chapters and call it read. But if it's bad I shut the book and put it in the donate pile. I have so many books I want to read, that I can't justify the time lost on reading a bad book.

I'm off and on. If I have enough time and the plot is thickening, I will finish a book. However, if the plot is slow going or I can't stand the way the author writes (I'm looking at you, "Bright Lights, Big City"), then I will eventually give up and read something else.

I very rarely fail to finish a book. I will sometimes stop reading one for awhile and pick it back up later. There have not been very many books that I stopped reading with no intent to ever finish them.

Wow, I sure admire you "finishers".

I do that too Fuzzy. I pick them up later but most often I get bored with them so I either skim through it or throw it.

#33 DanoStone - I totally agree! I'm a finisher too.

There are two books I have hated enough to stop. The New Life by Orhan Pamuk (squiffy touchstone), and What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George. The former was sooooo... NOTHING! I gave it up and then had the idea of never having finished it bug me like a flea in my brain for 10 years. The latter was so awful with it's endlessly depressing plot, vile characters, and interminable slang dialect, 'innit!'. UGH! And yet I know I'll still go back and try to finish them someday. :)

For me life is too short to waste on (in my opinion) a bad book when there is a whole world full of great books screaming at me "READ ME" :)

I think the more you read, the more it's possible to make snap judgments that stick..meaning you were right to stay or go. For some books, I can decide by the first 1-2 pages. If I am unsure, it seems to take about 50 pages.

I agree, bookinmybag. I put a book down after 1 1/2 paragraphs two years ago - Ahab's Wife. Bleh. I don't regret not reading it. Too many books that hold my interest from the first sentence.

Sometimes I continue to read a book just to find out what happens - I never, never just read the last chapter or two. I may not like the style, the characters may irritate me, but sometimes I just HAVE to know how it ends.

I had a category called Started but Never Finished for the 888 Challenge but got rid of it in September because I realized that there were no books I'd started that I wanted to finish. My first impression held for every book I tried to re-start.

There is one book I could not finish and its the only one I have never finished (not counting school books). I cannot remember its name, but I remember it was so poorly written that even the gratuitous sex and violence couldn't hold a 13 yo boy's attention.

I finish about 2/3s of the books I start.

My problem is that I am constantly reading, no matter where I am. I'll usually end up picking up something else because the other book is around and the one I was reading isn't. I don't normally read more than one book at a time, so unless the book I was reading before is extremely engrossing, I don't often go back to it. I'll eventually read the original book, but that could be months or years later than I had intended.

There are a couple books I've put down intentionally, but they are few and far between.

I have always maintained a hard and fast rule that I would always finish a book, no matter what. Even if it was really bad, and really difficult for me to get through. Regardless of the reason. I really don't know why I felt compelled to finish a book I was not enjoying. Some examples come to mind The Bell Curve by Richard Hernstein and Infinite Jest by DF Wallace (sorry!!!) I had nobody (no teacher, or boss) demanding or requiring me to read a particular book. It was just a weird phobia I guess. Many times I would start a second, and or third book along with the one I disliked, but I would always finish it. I no longer adhere to this rule. Maybe it's becasue I'm getting older and realize that life is too short. Who knows. I will still give it a good try, but if I'm just not getting pleasure from it, I'll put it aside, in my ToBeContinued pile. I do still feel a twinge of guilt even though I still may one day in the future pick it up again. LOL
On a humorous note-Ever since I have given up suffering through a "bad" read, I have trouble getting my hands on an one of my "official" book marks. I seem to leave them in the book that I decide not to complete. I have to go through the 5 to 10 books on various shelfs to find the bookmarks poking out of them at around the half-way point, or I just resort to using the errant piece of paper scattered about.

I used to always finish books once I started them. However, I generally choose very carefully in the first place.

In the last few years, I've realised that I quit reading much more often, even with books I feel I really should finish.

A few examples of books I couldn't finish:

* A true history of the Kelly gang: Peter Carey
* A confederacy of dunces: John Kennedy Toole
* Ludmila's broken english: DBC Pierre

These are highly acclaimed books, prizewinners, some, but I couldn't bring myself to invest the time. I read at least a third of each one - probably 2/3 of the Carey book, but it they weren't working for me.

As others say ... 'life's too short'...

I used to always finish books once I started them. However, I generally choose very carefully in the first place.

In the last few years, I've realised that I quit reading much more often, even with books I feel I really should finish.

A few examples of books I couldn't finish:

* A true history of the Kelly gang: Peter Carey
* A confederacy of dunces: John Kennedy Toole
* Ludmila's broken english: DBC Pierre

These are highly acclaimed books, prizewinners, some, but I couldn't bring myself to invest the time. I read at least a third of each one - probably 2/3 of the Carey book, but it they weren't working for me.

As others say ... 'life's too short'...

I finish all of them. I have only stopped 2 books. The Witches of Eastwick and I can't think of the other right now. I have read many books that started slow but I grew to love by the end and I think that is in my mind when I think about stopping. I will go to the extreme of reading 10 pages a day until finished with a book that I hate just to finish it.

> 50

That's freaky I've just given up on the Widows of Eastwick. I managed to get a couple of chapters in before i lost the will to live :(

Wow, all you people who finish every book amaze me. I've put down 3 books just in 2009. I'm in the camp of "life is too short." There are just too many other books that I want to read. I might return to a book at another time, when I'm in a different mood, but if I'm not enjoying it after somewhere between 50-100 pages, most of the time I'll put it down.

I usually finish the books that I start. Occasionally I will decide a book is not good enough to take the effort to finish it. Recently I was reading the Mental Floss History of the World. The errors in the history piled up to the point that I put it down never to be opened again. Also some books just wear me out and I do not finish them. If they are good I will try again and usually finish them eventually. There are books that I have started as many as four times before I got them finished. I have The Landmark Thucydides. I have started it at least three times and haven't finished it yet. I plan to try again until I get it finished.

I try really hard to select books that there is a very real chance I will like but unfortunately, it is not a fool-proof system. Last year I started but didn't finish 8 books. My general rule is to give an author 50 pages to hook me but i've dropped books, that I'm pretty sure will never capture my attention, after as little as 10 pages. The old adage really hits home for me:So many books, so little time.

I am a finisher, also. In my experience if a book does not start off immediately enthralling then it will get to that point soon. I tend to read the same books as my best friend, Taylor, so I can just ask her if I will like it or not before I decide to read it.

The books I, personally, buy get read. Books given to me are granted exactly fifty pages to corner my interest; if they don't, I give them away. I've already got a lifetime of reading mapped out so an unscheduled book has to be truly magnificent to interrupt my list.

I thought the Pulitzer winning A Confederacy of Dunces was excellent, but it was a bit "draggy" and I understand how people feel the joke got a bit old.

My nemesis is Herodotus. I have been trying off- and-on for a couple years, to finish it.

i finish every book i've read i've read the harry potter seires like seven times and so much more

I just put down Paris to the Moon. I tried to get past page 10 and couldn't. I feel worse about putting books down than I used to, but still will not force myself to read something that doesn't hold my interest at any level.

I read the book, no matter what. If its sexually graphic, I read the good part. If it will make me cry, I omit that part, if its boring...well so is my job.

I never did finish The Vicomte de Bragelonne. I wonder if Dumas meant to trim it down later. The first four or five chapters...ugh. If I hadn't read The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Count of Monte Cristo, I would never have gotten as far as I did.

I usually finish each book I start, except for a couple that I could not "get into". When that happens, I just find someone who maybe interested. I have only had 3-4 that I could not finish - out of more than 300 books.

I have a 100-page rule. If I'm really not enjoying a book by page 100, I allow myself to give up on it; if I continue past 100, I'll finish it. An exception: I gave up on Don Quixote at page 500, when I realized our heroes were really having the same adventure over and over.

64,

That is unfortunate Joshberg.
Perhaps you can try part 2 at least? It's an interesting twist on the story because it was written as a means to "compete" with the unauthorized writing of the second part by another author. The entire time the other "oeuvre" is mocked and belittled in the second part. Plus the adventures are different because it is a means of getting Don Quixote home. Plus his assistant gets his own adventure.

I thought it was marvelous.

65,

Well, that's good inspiration to return to it someday. I did really enjoy the first 300 pages or so . . . Thanks.

I finish every book I start. Even if I hate it.
However, I read pretty much ALL fiction, and I am careful with my selections.
Generally, I can find a few redeeming qualities in a book that I don't like, so it's not a complete waste.

My English teacher told us to read one third of any novel before giving up, and that was the rule I used when I started reading classics. Now I'm older and more well read I know what authors are worth reading and which are not (from my point of view).
If I'm struggling to read a highly regarded book that I want to finish, I read about the author and about his/her works on the net. If you don't understand the social/historical context of the plot then much of the text can have no meaning for you.

#68 I wish the internet had been available and that someone had given me that advice 25 years ago when I was struggling with Cinna. Trying to engage with subtle and restrained French classical drama in the 1980's... not a decade noted for 'subtle and restrained' in general.

I do not finish every book I start. Most times I'm just not in the mood, and will mark my place and go finish it later. I usually read a bit of the book prior to buying it, to make sure it's something I can get interested in. So, usually if I CAN'T finish the book, it's because I either got it as a gift, or everything about it looked and sounded cool enough and so I just bought it. But if it's really a lame read, I will not waste my time trying to finish it. Earlier on, like post #6 I think, said that life was too short to waste time on a lame book. I'm totally there. However, life is NOT too short to read a great book more than once. But sometimes that's hard to do as well. =o) Sometimes I feel like Burgess Meridith in that Twilight Zone episode!

#64 -- I have the same rule, but I've been known to bail sooner if the book is bad enough. The last book I stopped reading was Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong. I quit on that one around page 30 because I couldn't buy into the premise, and also one of the main characters had an irritating dialogue style.

I couldn't finish Don Quixote either. It seemed really boring, but I think my translation might have been clunky, I don't know.

I finish maybe 99%.

The reasons I don't vary - it didn't hook me (Kazuo Ishiguro: "The Remains of the Day"), I lost interest halfway through and forgot to pick it up again (Oates: "The Tattooed Girl"), the prose suddenly took a turn from "mediocre" to "bizarrely bad" (I'm sorry, Stephenie Meyer), OR it's a longer work by Haruki Murakami and I'm plain afraid the ending won't do the rest of the book justice.

It's actually rarely to do with quality of the writer. If I go in expecting a breezy thriller, I'm OK with sticking it out. With writers I've come to expect miracles from, it's almost like I'm scared of things starting to go south.

# 69, "I wish the internet were available...25 years ago..."

I've found LT, it's automatic recommendations, and chats (about the good and the bad) have been invaluable in guiding me and keeping me away from all the literary crap-ola.

LT is so entertaining, I probably spend more time over here than actually sitting down and reading!

LT is so entertaining, I probably spend more time over here than actually sitting down and reading!

I agree with you. Here I am, checking out my starred and my posts.

However, I just brewed a pot of coffee. The family is still asleep. I have 1 1/2 hours to read and drink coffee. The Pillars of the Earth awaits. My daughter will be up at 5:30 and I'll take her to school early for Jazz Band practice, then go to work.

Off I go!

I used to finish every book I read no matter how bad/boring/unentertaining.

But now I've gotten in the habit of getting distracted when I see a new book I want to read. Currently I'm in the middle of 3 books and I just bought a new one that's calling my name!

The best part of reading a book though is getting the whole story.

I read about 75 percent of the books I start, but put down something if I find myself reading the same page/para over and over again searching for meaning.

My problem is I get excited about new titles and get distracted. I may love the book I'm reading but if a shiny new one crosses my path I can put down the one I love to fall in love with a new one! Does anyone else have this bad habit?!

I too am guilty :/

Ooooo. Shiny object!

This makes me feel much better.

I Know! Right?!

right now i want 2 new books and i'm in the middle of 2 books :/

VetaTorres, I checked out your profile. You got it goin' on. Keep it up.

why thank you Mysterybuff :)

There is only one book I have yet to finish. uSARUM/u. Purchased in 1988 or was it 93 in Canterbury UK, and struggled through the picts and laid it aside. It's going to be read if it can be located.

Right now I'm happily insanguinated with the Southern Vampire Series by Charlene Harris.

Then I have the Hamish MacBeth half dozen or so then I might get back to something that you polysyllabic bibliophiles would refer to as a real book.

Ever since I quit smoking I've had a lot of trouble sitting still. For a long time (more than a couple of years) I couldn't read ANY books and I thought my life was over. I also stopped writing.

Now I can read, but I lose interest quickly. I always give books a chance - I'll go to the middle and if I'm interested I'll go back to where I left off. If that doesn't work I'll go to the end and if I'm surprised at it and interested, I'll go back.

But basically, if I start playing Spider Solitaire and listening to a lot of CBC Radio or surfing TV instead of picking up my book, that's the signal. There are just too many books that are repeats of other books. Maybe I'm just too old.

But I still buy books and get them from the library, so I have quite a backlog!

I'm always reading three books at a time--some for review, some for pleasure, so if I am not grabbed for the whole book (unless I'm reviewing it), I put it down.

Caroline Leavitt

I just gave up on Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann. I read half of it and it was modestly ok, but I decided that I couldn't spend any more time with it as there were other books I wanted to read. I gave it 3 stars, which for me means mediocre, the mean rating was something like 3.84. About 2 % of the novels I pick, I will read 35-50% of, and then drop.

With some non-fiction, my initial intention was only to read part of the book, and I never feel bad about what I haven't read.

There are way too many good books out there to waste my time on a bad book!

So no I dont always finish every book I start.

I read the first 100 pages before I decide to stay with it or abandon it!

It's quite rare for me to give up on a book...I usually try to go through with it, or, as #4 _Zoe_ said, I put them away temporarily and try to get back to it later...

I'm very sorry for the fans in advance...but I did gave up on Twilight some time ago. I bought the box with the four books thinking "it's about vampires and werewolfs, what could go wrong?" but I was mistaken. I just thought it was extremely boring and I was able to struggle through the first half of the first book but then I really, really needed something to keep me on the edge of my seat again so instead, I continued reading Stephen King ...I still have the box but I don't think I'll ever start it again. There are way to many other books on my TBR pile which I am very eager to start and the Twilight Saga is not one of them. I'm thinking of re-selling the box again to a bookshop since most of my friends who do like Twilight already got the books :D

I was reading Shanghai Baby only intermittently over the past couple weeks and I thought I might not finish..... But it turned out I was simply distracted. I began reading the final chapters in between revising my own book manuscript over the weekend, and it provided a delightful diversion taking me through Shanghai's hot night spots, decrepit architecture, and the journey of the author's coming-of-age angst. My full review can be read at www.the-reading-list.com