From Booking Through Thursday, here’s the question of the week:
If you’re not enjoying a book, will you stop mid-way? Or do you push through to the end? What makes you decide to stop?
First, I’d like to suggest that we reframe the topic. Rather than calling it “Giving Up,” I think we should call it “Moving On.”
Because for me, a habitual non-finisher of books, often my motivation is that there’s something better waiting right. over. there. And I want to read it instead. So why should I waste precious and irreplaceable minutes of my one and only life reading a book I don’t like a whole lot?
(This probably is one of the reasons I rate books so highly on Goodreads. Of course my average rating is right up there. If I don’t like a book, I only finish it if it’s an assignment of some sort!)
Other than the “So many books, so little time” conundrum, the other thing that can make me decide to bail on a book midway is this: If the book has become a world where I no longer want to hang out, I’m outta there.
For example, I stopped reading a thriller recently, even though I was halfway through, because I just didn’t care what happened to the main character. The doggone book had gotten a good review somewhere, and I was trying to expand my repertoire, but I just couldn’t power through it.
Other times, I keep thinking the book is going to take off… it’s gaining speed… there’s some air under those wings… and then it just keeps barreling along the ground. No take-off. It’s just a car with wings. I just can’t abide it.
So… even though my Goodreads average rating is way up there at 3.7, making me look like nothing but a pushover… I ain’t.
First, I’d like to suggest that we reframe the topic. Rather than calling it “Giving Up,” I think we should call it “Moving On.”
Because for me, a habitual non-finisher of books, often my motivation is that there’s something better waiting right. over. there. And I want to read it instead. So why should I waste precious and irreplaceable minutes of my one and only life reading a book I don’t like a whole lot?
(This probably is one of the reasons I rate books so highly on Goodreads. Of course my average rating is right up there. If I don’t like a book, I only finish it if it’s an assignment of some sort!)
Other than the “So many books, so little time” conundrum, the other thing that can make me decide to bail on a book midway is this: If the book has become a world where I no longer want to hang out, I’m outta there.
For example, I stopped reading a thriller recently, even though I was halfway through, because I just didn’t care what happened to the main character. The doggone book had gotten a good review somewhere, and I was trying to expand my repertoire, but I just couldn’t power through it.
Other times, I keep thinking the book is going to take off… it’s gaining speed… there’s some air under those wings… and then it just keeps barreling along the ground. No take-off. It’s just a car with wings. I just can’t abide it.
So… even though my Goodreads average rating is way up there at 3.7, making me look like nothing but a pushover… I ain’t.
4 thoughts on “Booking Through Thursday: Giving Up”