Goodreads Singapore discussion

Hello everyone,

Just the other day, I was working my way through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and I thought, screw this, I'm not going to finish this book. The lack of punctuations really got to me, and I felt like I was wading through wet cement. Some books simply do not get along with the reader and I am definitely a quitter when it comes to books. I don't mind being challenged but, at the same time, I have a limit to my patience.

As such, I am curious about your reading habits. Do you give up on books halfway through? Or do you absolutely have to finish everything you start? If you do give up on books, how far (on average) do you go before you give up?

I've heard arguments from both sides, but I'd love to hear your take on the subject. Personally, I feel like there are way too many books out there, and I sometimes don't feel like I want to waste my time with something I despise. I tend to give up after 100 pages, although I've been known to last till around the halfway point. But I try my best to finish everything I read, and that's the case for the most part.

So what about you?

I'll be the first one to start then, normally i always read books till end and give positive reviews to them after i had read it.

The only exception is just 1 book that is What Your School Never Taught You About Money that keeps me feeling frustrated and angry the more i read it because it's literally copying the entire content from another best selling author's book and also criticizing the person's work in the process.

It drove me to the point that i just gave the person a negative review on goodreads and returning that book to the library. Thank goodness that i didn't spend any of my money on it to buy it and put it into my personal library

Max wrote: "I'll be the first one to start then, normally i always read books till end and give positive reviews to them after i had read it.

The only exception is just 1 book that is [book:What Your School ..."

Do you mean to say that you give positive reviews to everything that you've read, pretty much? You've never finished a book you hated in your life?

Rarely, unless it is very bad... the first 50 to 100 pages should be a good indication on whether the book is good or not.

I usually stick around for 100 pages before I give up. And if I ever gave up on a book, I am unlikely to give the author another chance for their other books. An example: The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I couldn't even go beyond 50 pages. And because of that bad experience, I've never even bothered to touch the Twilight series. Cruel, I know. But then there are so many books to read, I prefer to give my time to other promising authors.

Yup pretty much every book, Unless it's the book that i mentioned above and i just drop the book back to the library and never finish reading it as it's frustrating to the point of tears.

The first Cormac McCarthy book I read (The Borders Trilogy), I couldn't finish it. Gave up halfway through. But after watching The Road at the movies, I was tempted to give him another shot. Bought the book, read it on a flight and loved it to bits. So I thought, hey, I will give him another shot. Bought Blood Meridian and, NOPE! Gave up after 100 pages (exactly). The lack of punctuation really put me off!

I recently gave up on Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING because it became taxing in the middle. (Not the writing but how she reacted. Maybe I just couldn't empathise as much. Made me struggle with breathing.) I still gave the book a 3-star rating because I enjoyed the early chapters. Dropping a book halfway always makes me feel bad but really, reading shouldn't be so ... tedious.

only once I gave up after trying thrice. its a French translated book titled camera. there was no punctuation, no paragraphing. I read about three pages before giving up three times. the synopsis looks good but guess I just can't get into the story.

I've never actually finished Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I tried once every year for four years and never got further than page 48.

I'd say 100 pages is about the amount of time I need to judge if I like the style of writing or what's going on with the story. The interesting thing is that no matter how long the book is, whether it's 500 pages or 200 pages, the 100-page mark seems fairly accurate for the most part.

I automatically give a book two stars if I do not finish it. Sometimes, I give it a benefit of doubt and say, well, maybe I just don't get it yet. But there are times when I simply cannot finish the book out of boredom or frustration. I agree with one of the posters that reading shouldn't be that... tedious.

I usually persist till 65-60% of the book as I know that momentum should pick up by then. If it's still hard going, I flick to the last chapter and skim it. If the last chapter looks intriguing, I then move backwards, skimming chapter by chapter. By the time I get to the point where I had left off, I have a much better idea whether or not to give up totally on the book.

I hate leaving books unfinished. But I hate ploughing through the "bad" ones, even more. I was reading Pico Iyer's "Abandon" last year. It took me seven months to finish that book. I did abandon it more than once, but I didn't have it in me to leave that book unfinished. I love Pico Iyer's writing but I just couldn't take how incredibly boring and shallow his characters were.

Wei Lien wrote: "I automatically give a book two stars if I do not finish it."

As a data person - don't do that, Wei Lian! False ratings are far worse than no ratings at all.

As for your original question, I keep a short died-of-boredom list. Usually I get about 30% of the way through.

Well, for books that I have to trudge through, I usually go through about a fifth of the book before reading a little of the ending. Here it goes two ways.

1. If the ending is different from what I expect, I will continue till I have the plot figured out.
or,
2. If the ending is as predicted, I might (depending on how fun the book is) carry on reading (sporadic pages) to make sure it is what I think actually happens before returning it.
*sheepishly* I need to admit that I am one of those who like spoilers.

If the book really doesn't suit me, I would give it up after reading a few chapters (2 to 5 chapters maybe).

Initially, when I first started reading, I tried to read finish every book, even if I really didn't enjoyed it. But as I went along, I realised that there are just too many books out there for me, and I don't really have to force myself to finish a book (it is a torture for some books, really!).

However, if the plot is interesting but due to the language or just some idiotic characters or insane conversations, I would still continue reading it. It is a drag, but I really want to know the ending.

And no, I don't give ratings to books I didn't finish, unless that book is really (really!) horrible and I think it is to the good of others that I rate the book a 1 star to tell everyone how I feel about that book. But thank goodness, I haven't read such a book yet, hopefully not so too!

Basically I give up on reading only for two reasons:

1. Story doesn't interest me (by 3 chapters, I don't get hooked, story seems screwed)

2. The story is just too complex, that I might have to draw a mindmap out of it, just to make sense of it. Although I'd still do so if the story still interests me!

Seeing all these posts, I've come to realise that I'm very unusual to stick with a book for that long. I've been persisting with The Subtle Knife the last few weeks, and have seriously thought of giving it up, as everyone here give up pretty much within 30% of the book. Just reached the mid-point of the book, and it's picking up! I'm really intrigued now, so I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of the book!

I think the writing style is the hardest to get over. If you can't roll with the way the author strings his words together after 100 pages, you can forget about getting used to it in the next 400 -- it's not going to happen, folks.

Agree with Wei Lien above: writing style is what makes or breaks books for me. I'm a pretty die hard Finish Everything kind of reader... There is one I didn't finish because the writing style was convoluted and the story wasn't interesting. I think you can usually tell if something is worth it for you by about 60% through.

Justine wrote: "Seeing all these posts, I've come to realise that I'm very unusual to stick with a book for that long. I've been persisting with The Subtle Knife the last few weeks, and have seriously thought of g..."

Hang in there with His Dark Materials! Not a series I *loved*, but I was happy I'd read it and you really need the whole trilogy to get the picture.

Sngsweelian wrote: "I usually stick around for 100 pages before I give up. And if I ever gave up on a book, I am unlikely to give the author another chance for their other books. An example: The Host by Stephanie Meye..."

I agree with you; for all of Ms. Meyers' popularity and some originality of ideas, she really needs a few classes on writing, in my opinion.

Yes, I have done that ! I gave up reading Salman Rushdie's "midnight's children" twice. Both the time i had borrowed the book from the library and couldn't finish them before the due date. So i bought the book finally and haven't finished reading it yet.

Yes, though I'm a persistent and patient reader, there are some books that I just can't connect with. The most recent one is Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope. After 100 pages, the plot was going nowhere.

I agree with some of the commenters here that 100 pages is a good gauge if the book is worth continuing.

There are some books though that I've had several false starts, like One Hundred Years of Solitude which I've tried to read 3x but can't get past Chapter 1. But it's not the writing or the style that's the problem, it's me. I'm just not in the proper mindset yet to digest that book. Do you feel that way about some books?

Jennifer wrote: "Yes, though I'm a persistent and patient reader, there are some books that I just can't connect with. The most recent one is Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope. After 100 pages, the plot was going nowhe..."

Yes, I do feel that way about certain books for sure.

Whenever I give up on a book, it falls into one of three piles.

The first pile consists of books that gave me a negative emotional response. I've physically tossed a handful of books on the floor, and they all fall within the same category. Although, thanks to my prior research, there are really only less than five books in this pile, not very many.

The second pile consists of books that I simply did not care for. Sometimes, right around 100-200 pages, you find your brain wandering and are, very simply, not interested in plot or the characters. It's one thing to challenge yourself with a tough book, yes, but it's another to suffer a story that you feel halfhearted about. I'd say most of the books I give up end up here in this pile.

Then there's the third pile, which consists of books that, instinctively, I knew I wasn't mentally or intellectually ready for. Off the top of my head, I'd say The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov falls into this category. Perhaps its the subject matter (Russia) or the author (very Russian), but I knew that I simply wasn't ready for something like that. I do re-read some of these books when I have the time, and some of them do end up as my favourites. I remember reading The Dark Tower Volume 1 by Stephen King when I was 15 and not understanding half of what was going on. I picked it up again last year and fell in love with the world. Some books, you really need to grow into them instead of the other way around. For these books, you want to give them a second chance, because they look like they're worth a second shot. It's like that rowdy kid from school with all the potential in the world.

I had an interesting experience lately - I started, finished and loved a book I had previously given up on. It was "Darkmans" by Nicole Barker. I think I hadn't given it quite enough time, so I pushed through the place I had stopped last time. So I also think that it's definitely possible to stop too soon.

Usually I don't, because at least by finishing it, you'll at least be able to review it comprehensively, even if it is a negative review. The most recent one I couldn't pull through was Thomas Merton's "Contemplative Prayer". Too deep for me, totally had no idea what he was getting at when I completed chapter one. However, I'll give it a go again. Afterall, I didn't complete Pride & Prejuidice and Jane Eyre during my first try in my teens, and now Jane Eyre is in my list of top favs. Sometimes, we have to be ready for the book too... :)

The question I have is what to do with a book on Goodreads when you've given up? Mark it as read? I've created a given-up shelf for those books I just know I'm never going to finish but I mark them read so I can give an appropriate rating and review if I can be bothered.

Simon wrote: "The question I have is what to do with a book on Goodreads when you've given up? Mark it as read? I've created a given-up shelf for those books I just know I'm never going to finish but I mark them..."

Personally, for books that I give up on, I still mark it as "read" because I did read the book. However, I don't actually rate the book. Giving it one star just means that the book sucked. Not giving it a chance just means that "maybe I will give it a try some other time" or "this just isn't my thing". That's how I see it anyway.