SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

A friend of mine came over my place the other day while I was reading, and when he walked in I was finishing a book.

"I'll wait," he said, politely.

"It's OK," I replied and put the bookmark in at the last 3-4 pages.

"You don't want to finish?"

"It can wait," I said.

He was surprised that I didn't want to just take the few minutes to finish, insisting that it would drive him crazy.

We then had a conversation, one that I've had before, in which the person that I'm talking to tells me that they have to finish a book at a certain point, and that they can't just put it down in the middle of some scene or another.

That kind of thing doesn't bother me at all. I do prefer to get to the end of a paragraph, but I don't have to finish a chapter or get to a "stopping point" before putting down a book. It's nice, but not necessary. I can pick the book up at just about any point, maybe back up a paragraph or two for context, and go on from there. No problem.

A lot of folks, however, seem to think that's odd, and I'm always willing to explore the possibility that *I* am the weird one. (Wouldn't be the first time....)

So, do you HAVE to finish a book when you get to the last chapter or last few pages? Can you put down or pick up a book at any point? Do you have any other reading foibles that you'd care to describe?

I definitely have that point in most books where I have to finish. Stopping in the last 3 or 4 pages is almost never an option, even the last couple chapters depending on what I'm reading, what time it is, etc.

If I'm in the early/middle stages, I don't have to stop at the end of chapters though. When I get tired or have to do something, I can stop wherever and, like you said, pick back up fine.

I love to read and prefer it to watching TV or listening to the radio.

That said; I never mind stopping at any time, regardless of where I happen to be in the story.

Though a favorite past time, that's all it is. There are many things going on in my life at any given time that have a much higher priority; which is why it usually takes me at least two weeks to finish a book.

If I'm at the last few pates, I HAVE to finish it. So,
Gary, obviously, that makes you the weird one.

Perhaps I'm even odder. If I so much as start on a book I have to finish it, even one I'm not particularly enamored with. Probably why I don't like the trend toward massive great tomes and prefer something I can read in an afternoon, or a day at the most.

I'm the same way as you Gary. I can stop anywhere even if it is in the last three or four pages of a book I really like.

And I used to be like you Pat, in that I had to finish each and every book I began, but as I get older this is getting less important.

I can't think of any books that were so compelling I couldn't put them down for a talk with a friend.

I usually read in only one hour stints anyway, as most of my reading is done over a meal or coffee out by myself. I do prefer stopping at breaks in the book: chapter, change of scene, or at least end of paragraph. But I find it very easy to pick up stories wherever I left off. Probably comes from days when I'd have 3 books going at once. Don't do that anymore.

I also tend to read books all the way through even if I dislike them. I can only think of 2 SF books I didn't get through once I started them. And unfortunately, I bought 3 of the Brian Herbert prequels to Dune before reading one of them...ended up suffering through all 3 of those abominations. **shudder**

Non-fiction, general fiction and classics, though, I've put many of those down and never gone back. The Fountainhead? **even bigger shudder**

Hakon, I'm approaching 70, so I don't think you're offering me much hope. And Micah, I have to agree, but this presupposes my having friends.

I have a flexible policy of reading to the end of chapters. It's flexible because I may be too busy to do that. So it's an if my schedule permits kind of thing.

If I find that I don't like reading a book, I can quit at any time. There is an exception to that policy too. If I have been asked to review a book, I will read it from start to finish.

i'm 100% with you, Darwin - if it's that last handful of pages, it takes a movement of the earth to tear me away, but at the midpoint (even if i'm really into it), i can put it down mid-chapter no problem. fortunately, most of my best friends are book friends, too, and understand the torture of "just 2 more pages," and are ok to wait til i'm done :)

Darwin wrote: "I definitely have that point in most books where I have to finish. Stopping in the last 3 or 4 pages is almost never an option, even the last couple chapters depending on what I'm reading, what tim..."

I wonder if there's a connection between the reading 2+ books at once and being able to put down a book at any particular point.

I usually am reading 2-6 books at any given time, and I'll sometimes put down one and pick up another, just to have a kind of change of "flavor" in my mental "palate" if you will.

Plus, I can just about read anywhere. I do need a little sound isolation (a headset and some MP3s will do it) and I can't read in a moving car for the motion sickness, but I'm happy to take five minutes here and there to check out a few pages. I prefer to read in bed or on my couch, but it's not necessary.

Do you have a "reading space" that you prefer?

i HAVE to finish if it is the last few chapters of a mystery. I've been known to push bedtime later and later to read the end. For me, there's something to be said for world immersion, and if I have a lot of interruptions (for instance, I don't read while baking cookies), it's not worth it. It's also why I don't listen to music or tv while I read--no reason to. It just distracts me from the book.

I sat on the metro in China and missed my stop once because I was so involved in the chapter. Was nearly late to work.

I hate to finish on a page without a page break of some sort. A new chapter is best.

I've stood on the side of the sidewalk, leaning up against a post reading that last page or two before getting to my page break.

It must be done.

I wouldn't want to finish a book while someone was waiting, it would take away from the whole indulgence of the conclusion.

I can stop on any sentence or word even (I have small children nothing is sacred, not even 1am reading), I just fold the page and know to read from the top when I come back!

I love it when I find a book that I can't put down at the end. The first Hunger Games was like this for me.

I have to finish a book, especially the last few pages, preferably alone (in case I cry, too many times a sad ending has caught me by surprise in public and then people stare...). However, I have been able to stop with some books and that generally means that it is a crappy ending.

I'll usually stop at least 30 pages before the ending and save it for when I am alone in bed cuddling with a cat knowing that my girlfriend is busy with something else. I like my privacy for endings so in that case, if someone was going to wait for me, I would have probably claimed the need to pee and finished locked in the bathroom.

Whether it's reading or something else, I have to get to a "stopping point" before I can switch gears and do something else. It's just really hard for me to jump from one thing to another instantly. With a book, I don't necessarily have to finish the chapter, but I like to at least finish reading the piece of action or dialogue passage I'm on.

It depends on the book, really. If I'm reading something I don't particularly care for, like a textbook or assigned novel for a class (that I'm not fond of), I can stop pretty easily. But if it's a really engaging read that I like, I prefer to find a good stopping point.

Being interrupted when I'm reading a good book is just the thing to irritate me, although I probably won't say anything about it. I just hate being ripped out a good read right in the middle of something, especially when it's the middle of a major plot point.

I used to be like this more when I was younger. I would have to get to an end a chapter and at times that wasn't good enough if the chapter ended in an exciting and suspenseful place. So I'd have to wait until I got to the end of a chapter that felt like a less intense stopping point.

I sort of had to get over that though when I started reading Terry Pratchett because most of his books don't have chapters and it can be very hard to find a good stopping place in his books. So at least when reading Pratchett I've had to learn to force myself to stop wherever if I really need to be doing something else including sleeping. It's harder though to force myself to just stop in the middle of a chapter with books that actually have them though.

Another factor is that I suffer from chronic illness and there are a lot of times that I simply fall asleep while reading even if I'm really enjoying the book and didn't feel particularly sleepy when I started reading. So in those cases I'm definitely forced to stop in the middle of a chapter or paragraph and as much as I hate it, I just have to learn to live with it and go back a few(or even several) pages to remind myself what was happening.

As far as having only a few pages left to go in the book, I do get quite agitated if I'm not able to finish. This doesn't happen often, but sometimes I just have to stop because of something more important that needs my attention. I might even be annoyed if I had just one more chapter left and then was forced to stop.

My friends don't usually drop over without notice, but if they called I'd be fine with saying "give me ten extra minutes to finish my book." But if one of them did drop over, with just a few pages left, I'd be fine with that.

I can stop and start anywhere in a book.

If I'm hating a book, I'll just hate it more if I am forced to finish it, so I've mostly given up on that. I'm not at a point in my life now where I am required to read books, so I give up them.

If I got to the last few pages, I'd really want to finish.

I have a love/hate thing with chapter breaks. Some OCD part of me wants to get to the end of a chapter before stopping. But once I get there, I'll always read the first page of next chapter. Result: never truly stopping at the end of a chapter.

Scene breaks are good stopping points. If a book has those, that's most likely where I'll leave off. I'm not sure why it's easier to stop at those than with a chapter break. I guess a new chapter page is just too enticing. ;)

I'm more like Carol.

If the worldbuilding is fantastic then I need a stopping place (or a late bedtime).

If I'm not that into a book I can stop anywhere.

But I can tune stuff out if I'm reading so I have to stop if someone is over the house. Otherwise I'd never notice them.

Interruptions are an inevitable part of life that we have to deal with graciously, but I don’t really like to be interrupted, whether I'm reading or doing something else. The closer I am to finishing something, the more it bothers me to be interrupted. On the other hand, I really hate to feel like people are waiting for me to do something, even if they seem to be perfectly patient about it. So, while I wouldn’t be particularly thrilled to put down a book when I was four pages from the end, it would be the lesser of the two evils in my eyes versus having somebody sitting there waiting for me to finish my book.

But when it comes to my own choice about when to put down a book, as opposed to once forced on me by an interruption, I’m not very picky. Actually, I’m a lot like Jenz in message 21… I have a really hard time stopping at a chapter break because I can never resist seeing what the next chapter is about. If the next chapter catches my attention, sometimes it takes me a while to realize what I've done and stop reading. Like Jenz, I also do better with section breaks. But when my schedule gets really busy, by the time I get a chance to do any reading, I’m often so tired that sometimes I’ll put a book down right smack in the middle of a sentence because I just can’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Once I get close to the end, though, I do want to just finish it without stopping, especially if I like the story. If I take a break in a book when I’m too close to the end, I don’t always have enough time to regain the emotional momentum I had going in my previous reading session. I feel like I lose some of the impact of the ending because I just don’t care quite as much. The more time that passes before I can start reading again, the more of a difference it makes.

For the same reason, I also prefer not to start a series before the author has completed it. I prefer to read the books all in a row if I like them. I feel like I appreciate a series more if I read it from beginning to end, because I remember events from the previous books more clearly and I can better appreciate the payoffs and references to previous books.

All right, I'm not the only one who has trouble stopping at the end of a chapter!

I won't avoid a series I want to read because it's not finished, but it does feel like a really big bonus when I start into one that I like, and all the books are already done and waiting for me. ;)

I can stop and pick up whenever, wherever. I usually try to stop at chapters or the mid-chapter breaks. But very often *SQUIRREL* happens and I just have to take a few seconds to find my spot.

It really depends on how much I want to know what happened to the characters. Or any other form of suspense.

In general I take breaks all over the place I often read books in the company of others and will activily jump in and out of the conversations while pausing wherever I am in the book. The only time I really hate putting down a book is when stuff is getting really complicated. So complicated that if I stop I'm going to have to reread some pages in order to get everything back in my head.

I can stop anywhere, though I usually don't do it 3-4 pages from the end of a book. I often read in short bursts (between cooking tasks, while waiting for something to download, in line at the bank, during commercials, etc). However, if I'm REALLY into it, I prefer to read longer sections, and find myself not going back to the task at hand (my cooking burns, my computer goes to sleep, the bank closes, I turn off the TV).

When I'm just READING (like lying in bed reading, not multi-taksing), I generally don't stop at the ends of chapters, since there's often a cliff hanger, and I know I'll want to read further. Mid-chapter is better.

In the situation OP describes, I would have done what he did - not because I don't mind waiting to finish a book, but because I would hate to try and finish it with someone standing over me. It would ruin it.

the WEIRD me puts down a book when i'm on a really really good part, the one that elicits the most emotion out of me be it annoyance, laughter, anger, incredulity, uttering out a few swear words before putting it down(i did this quite a lot in GoT series, obviously)...

because letting the book sit and simmer at these parts feel like i'm doing the book credit, much like when you clap hard after a really good speech..or you're tasting a good dish for the first time, it's so good that you just had to move it around your mouth a bit before swallowing to savor it more. i'm sorry for the bad analogy but it's really the best i can describe it.

oddly enough, i do this when i watch movies at home haha i freeze it on parts that are really good and try to predict what would happen next. lately, though i do this on Survivor Cagayan a lot. A lot, a lot.

to each his own i guess!

Yeah I do that. Just sit for a bit, let it sink in, enjoy the moment and the feeling.

I have to agree with Jonathan. If I'm close to finishing the book I'll probably finish reading before doing anything else.

I guess it would also depend on what's interrupting me.

I've been caught up in a book (as most have) and that hour's reading turns into an all-nighter. it seems the better the book the less I want to gulp it down. my second reading of LOTR's I limited myself to a chapter or two a day.

Gary wrote: "A friend of mine came over my place the other day while I was reading, and when he walked in I was finishing a book.

"I'll wait," he said, politely.

"It's OK," I replied and put the bookmark in a..."

I can easily stop where I am at. I usually make a bookmark. A lot of my books have makeshift bookmarks at stopping points, and then i'll just come back and then stick in a new book mark.

Jonathan wrote: "Alexa wrote: "I guess it would also depend on what's interrupting me. "

If the house is on fire I'll take it with me."

But you'd have to close the book to run down the stairs. Or risk getting killed in the process.

Which reminds me I do read while walking all the time (I commute to work on foot) and some times I read through ups, downs, crosswalks... I should not be pointing fingers.

I love to read and prefer it to watching TV, listening to the radio or playing games; however, reading ranks low on my priority list.

I will immediately and gladly close a book if any of my children or grandchildren contact me and wish to do something together or an opportunity arises for some socializing - physical, not cyber.

I am also prone to spontaneously pack a bag, hop in the car and set out on long road trips; but I always bring a book along to enjoy while relaxing in the hotel in the evening.

As I grow older and the physical capability and opportunities for other activities dwindle, reading will no doubt move up on my personal priority list.

I used to be in the 'can't put it down' camp. When I was younger, I would barely stop to sleep but, since having kids I've learnt to drink cold coffee, read with lots of noise going on and dip in and out of a book whenever a few minutes permit. I must admit, if it's a really good book, I'll try and keep it for quiet times but finishing chapters is, most often, not an option and I don't mind that really.
I can leave a book a few pages before the end too but I think that's a subconscious result of me not wanting to say goodbye to characters I've come to love... Delaying the inevitable I suppose.

When a book is sheer delight (the one I'm reading at the moment is - that's Lyonesse by Jack Vance), I don't think I mind being interrupted, because it just means I'm going to be able to live in that book that much longer.

Yep, that's exactly what I feel like.

Chris wrote: "When a book is sheer delight (the one I'm reading at the moment is - that's Lyonesse by Jack Vance), I don't think I mind being interrupted, because it just means I'm going to be ab..."

I've just re-read all three books, one after the other. I bought them originally when they first came out in paperback and I'm not sure how often I've read them. I'd say they could be one of the finest Fantasy series ever written, certainly one of the top three or four.
But yes, I've reached the stage with Lyonesse that I don't have to keep reading, but instead can put it down to do something else, secure in the knowledge that the book awaits me for further immersion :-)

You know, I can't remember what I did before having kids. Well, I can't remember a lot of things before kids, but specifically if I stopped at the end of a chapter, or anywhere on the page. With small children around, I can (read 'frequently must') stop in the middle of the sentence--and end up re-reading that same sentence at least eleven times complete with eleven other interruptions, before eventually finding a quiet moment to continue.

It's all good in the end. At some point, I'll finish the story and the good books will always make an impression with me, whether they were interrupted along the way or not.

And the upside of having small children is that you have someone to share reading with. I remember my oldest, at maybe one-and-a-half, toddling up to me with an armload of picture books and urging, "Read all book!" And we would. :)

So true, Margaret! We have shelves and shelves of books and my daughter has developed such a love for reading. I have to remind myself that they will grow older and my interruptions will fade away, but I hope their love for reading never does.