Do I ever stop reading a book and walk away?
Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.
John Witherspoon (1723 - 1794)
When you come across something (a book, movie, album, etc.) where it becomes clear that you aren't enjoying it and that feeling is not likely to change, what do you do??
If the feeling is ambiguous, I will probably continue to the end. But sometimes I come across a book and partway through I realize that I am not enjoying it at all. And if I am not enjoying reading I might as well not do it. So on rare occasions I will put a book down in the middle and say "That's it. Time to move on to something more enjoyable."
The most recent example of this occurred while I was reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. You may well have enjoyed that book, or would enjoy it. It is not poorly written. But is a very long, boring vampire novel with no action. There is low grade suspense that builds throughout the book, but I didn't enjoy it at all. Part of the problem is this: I don't like horror novels or vampire novels. Note the list below - the only Stephen King book is the Stand and I read one or two vampire books by Anne Rice but didn't love them.
I am wracking my brain to come up with more books that I have stopped and put down, but I am having a hard time coming up with any right now. When I remember some I will add them to this post.
Is there a book that you have stopped reading in the middle?
John Witherspoon (1723 - 1794)
When you come across something (a book, movie, album, etc.) where it becomes clear that you aren't enjoying it and that feeling is not likely to change, what do you do??
If the feeling is ambiguous, I will probably continue to the end. But sometimes I come across a book and partway through I realize that I am not enjoying it at all. And if I am not enjoying reading I might as well not do it. So on rare occasions I will put a book down in the middle and say "That's it. Time to move on to something more enjoyable."
The most recent example of this occurred while I was reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. You may well have enjoyed that book, or would enjoy it. It is not poorly written. But is a very long, boring vampire novel with no action. There is low grade suspense that builds throughout the book, but I didn't enjoy it at all. Part of the problem is this: I don't like horror novels or vampire novels. Note the list below - the only Stephen King book is the Stand and I read one or two vampire books by Anne Rice but didn't love them.
I am wracking my brain to come up with more books that I have stopped and put down, but I am having a hard time coming up with any right now. When I remember some I will add them to this post.
Is there a book that you have stopped reading in the middle?
posted by John Ringer at
11:01 AM
2 Comments:
I do this every now and then-- probably more often than you do, it sounds like. I usually will be reading four or five books at once, and will let one or two of them slide for up to a year or two before picking them up again, replacing them with new ones as I go.
I started "Master & Commander" back in the fall of 2003, loved it, then suddenly hit a wall with it, halfway through, and put it down until early in 2005, when I picked it up again. I have barely slowed down on the whole series since then (I'm on book 8, "The Ionian Mission," now).
Before that, it was probably one of the Gaunt's Ghosts books that made me stop halfway through. They have great endings but usually bog down in the middle...
By
Van Allen Plexico, at 12:36 PM
Oh, and Whitney read and loved "The Historian." But she loves vampire stories in general.
Whitney's Blog
By
Van Allen Plexico, at 12:37 PM
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