I feel silly even asking

[doxamully]

What do you do when you're reading a book and you just plain don't enjoy it? Do you stop reading?

This really is a silly thing to get stressed about, and yet I am all atuffle about whether I should stop reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I was enjoying the book at first since it's about dogs, but it soon became quite apparent that the book is

Comments

[suitablyemoname]

I've noticed that, the more you do it, the easier it becomes to do it. This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what your goals are.

I mean, eh.

I read a lot of Harlequin-style gay fiction. A lot of this stuff is crap, and it becomes amply apparent that it's crap within the first few pages. I was initially very reluctant to cast aside a book I had already begun reading, but recently I'm probably leaving up to 50% of these books unfinished--although always within the first few pages.

Yes, I'm becoming picker and more fickle in my tastes--but I'm also developing tastes, and that's not such a bad thing. If giving up books you aren't enjoying frees you up to enjoy books you are, you're doing it right.

[doxamully]

Good points all around. I used (okay, still occasionally do) read fanfiction and I would leave a LOT of it unfinished because most of it is straight up crap. I have no problem with this either. I guess actual novels are a lot harder for me, especially with this one in particular because I've already read so much of it.

I'm gonna ask my mom if she'd be upset if I didn't finish it. I mean, I could certainly slog through it, but there are SO many other books I want to read and forcing myself to read a book that I already know has a miserable ending is...a waste of my time more than likely.

[merlyn4401]

I have a hard time not finishing books.

[doxamully]

I'm glad it's not just me. I used to not finish books all of the time, but it was because I hardly ever read and I'd forget to ever finish them. This might be why I'm so dedicated to finishing books now, as a way to prove I've changed or something silly like that. I'm gonna see if my mom would be upset if I don't finish and go from there...while not finishing bothers me, I shouldn't torture myself.

[erichmatt]

You could just tell yourself you will finish it later and put it aside. In a few months you will forget all about it :)

[doxamully]

Oh how I love you and how you know me oh so well.

[wildbill]

I find it really hard, but I also never regret it. It's fairly rare that I discard a book halfway through -- less than one in fifty -- but my selection comes from recommendations and authors I like, so that makes sense.

I'll often put a book aside after the first chapter if I just don't feel like reading it right then. I'll do this even with excellent books that I'm just not in the mood for, because I almost always have an alternative. :)

[doxamully]

Sounds very reasonable and makes sense. I think I'd like to keep my own book discarding to a minimum, but I've also been sticking to books I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy so that ups the chances of me finishing them and this not happening again.

I also can totally see myself someday doing the same thing with not being in the mood for a certain book. Right now I'm kind of getting into the swing of reading so I don't really get moods, but I forsee this happening sometime soon.

[doxamully]

BTW, do you have any book recommendations? ;)

[wildbill]

Probably quite a few; poke me on AIM sometime. :)

[heimdalljess]

2 things that I might do. 1-drop it, there are too many books to read and it's a shame to waste time on something you don't enjoy. 2-if i feel it's one of those books I should read I'd just spend less time reading it, while reading other books.

[doxamully]

Sounds like a good plan to me. I'll probably end up doing the same thing in the future if I ever get to a book where I really feel like I should finish it, but I'm not enjoying it a lot. Fortunately my mom told me I should just drop the one I borrowed from her.