Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

How do you decide whether to keep reading a book or quit? Some people have a rule of thumb like 40 pages. Or are you someone who always finishes no matter what?

My rule used to be 100 pages but in the last couple of years, I have decided that there are too many books I want to read and only so much reading time so I shouldn’t waste so much time with books that don’t grab me right away. My new rule is 25-30 pages, no more than 50.

I pretty much always finish a book. Reading for prompts has meant that there isn't enough time to give up on a book and then find a replacement.

If I start a book I have to finish it. I think that probably makes me a bit more choosey about what I read. If I'm really not liking it I keep at it, moan, but keep going as fast as I can.

I use a percentage rather than a number of pages. If nothing is happening at the 20% mark or the writing is bad, I stop reading.

I quit about a chapter in, usually. No point sticking with books that you dislike.

I do quit some, sometimes it's just not the right time or mood. I might come back to it later and like it. If it's for a book group, I might skim to the end so that I can at least talk about it a bit. There are some I have given up on because they are too ridiculous, badly written or suddenly have a lot of unnecessary violence or misery.

Sometimes I quit after the first page. If I don't like the writing style, the book isn't what I thought it was, etc. But if I like it fine, I will read the book until it's time to stop reading, and then I'll reassess when it's I have time to start reading again. If I'm not really feeling it, I'll probably pick up something else. But I won't automatically call it a DNF. But if I realize I'm dreading going back to the book, I DNF that sucker right away.

I am more likely to quit a book for really bad writing. Currently I have been tracking my DNF books for only a couple of years and so far have quit on just 4.

I also have a to finish reading shelf for books that I am quitting but might come back to later. It has 6 books on it - four of which I own.

I'm in the same camp as Dubhease, Jill, and Robin for my approach is usually to finish it, but I think I am getting better at selection of books rather than just reading anything!

I definitely quit when I'm not enjoying, and generally feel better for it! Although admittedly that doesn't happen too often. For me I don't quit after a certain amount of pages read, but more after a certain amount of time invested. The longest I spend reading most books is a week, if I get up to a month and I'm still not enjoying it/have made no progress (generally because I'm not enjoying it) then that's generally an indication that I should drop it and move on to something else.

I keep going & finish the book. I did give Infinite Jest 100 pages then quit. I toyed with the idea that every year I would read 100 pages of that book until I finished it. I then decided life is too short.

My first grade teacher decreed that we had to finish every book we started and that stayed with me a long time, like until my mid-twenties. I'm sure she had good intentions about teaching us self-discipline and persistence and sometimes books do take a while to get good, but I don't think that's a rule that served me well. Since allowing myself to quit, even after just a few pages, I've found I'm more open to trying books and authors I'm not sure about. It's like the stakes are lower.

I don’t have a criteria for quitting a book. Sometimes after 1 page and others at 50%! A lot of books I plan to pick up again but most I don’t. When I realize that I don’t care what happens next or if it’s too much of a struggle, that’s when I quit.

I useed to read everything even if I hated it. I have become more choosy. Lately I quit a book which I think I might have enjoyed but the PB edition font was so small and difficult to read that I just had to give up

I rarely officially quit a book. I aim to finish everything I start. As most of my books come from the library, it often happens that I don't finish a book before it comes due. I aim to get back to them as soon as I can (some sooner than others, some have taken me years to get back to!).

However, if I'm not liking a book, I usually give it about 50 pages to decide. Once I get 1/4 to 1/2 in, I will push through and finish it even if I'm miserable.

I usually finish a book if I start it, but there are a few I have tossed aside. Racism/sexism is a reason I will DNF - actually that is the main reason I will DNF. If a book is just horribly boring, sometimes I will DNF. If it is an author's first book, I will often give it more time than an established author because sometimes it takes a new author a little more time to get their rhythm.

I’m trying to be more ruthless by dropping books I don’t like. Its easy when the writing is bad, or if it’s a genre I’m getting tired of. It’s not really in my nature to be ruthless, so I usually say I’m “pausing” the book, to finish at another time. My reading preferences change with my mood and my eyes. I often juggle two books anyway (usually a kindle and an audio), so its easy to set one aside and try something else. If I really don’t care about the characters or what comes next, it’s easy to forget it. But sometimes books will nag at me from the back of my mind and I’ll return to them - in a few cases, it was months or even years later.

If a book was recommended by a friend, or has something special about it, I will give it more chances, or look for additional information. I just read Trust, and when I reached the second major section, I was confused and thrown off by a change in writing style. I read a couple reviews (one with a spoiler), and decided I really wanted to finish. I’m so glad I did. In other cases the reviews helped confirm it wasn’t worth my time.

NancyJ wrote: "I’m trying to be more ruthless by dropping books I don’t like. Its easy when the writing is bad, or if it’s a genre I’m getting tired of. It’s not really in my nature to be ruthless, so I usually s..."

Good point, I sometimes look at GR reviews to see if there are comments on plot, style, etc. and if they confirm my feeling (plot is a mess, characters are flat, etc. ), I will quit.

I find I'm more likely to regret the books I force myself to finish, than books I DNF. There have been a few exceptions, were I ended up being glad I powered through, but not that many.

I don't quit, ever. You never know when a book will turn around. There are very few books I've read that I truly disliked (the most recent being Verity. Some are kinda meh but I usually find something to like in the majority of books I read

I don’t quit. It bothers me and then I sit and wonder what happened. I have DNF’d 3 books that I can think of because I couldn’t force myself to keep going.

I usually finish every book. There are a few that I have started and put down, sometimes more than once, but I plan on reading them eventually. It just isn't the right time.

I don't quit. A few times I have abandoned a book for months but then I go back and finish it.

I try to follow Nancy Pearl’s “Rule of Fifty”, whereby you give yourself roughly 50 pages before committing to a book and set it aside if it hasn’t grabbed you by that point. Subtract 1 page for each year over the age of 50 that you are, reading time being that much more precious as we get older. I don’t always follow it, but it’s a good rule of thumb. I don’t regret quitting any books. It’s always possible to go back to them at a later date. However, I do regret the time I wasted on certain books that I despised.

I used to finish every book I started, no matter how much I didn't care for it. I'm much different now-I read entirely for pleasure and relaxation-not expanding my mind, or learning, or anything else. Whenever I realize the book isn't giving me that, I stop reading. Sometimes I figure this out pretty quickly, and sometimes it takes me half the book. No matter. There are so very many books to read, no time to read books that don't give me what I need!

I am so bad at quitting. I am actually trying to get better at it. I don't mind reading a fast paced book that I dislike — sometimes it can feel kind of good to feel like I can make a well-evidenced argument for why I didn't like a book, or if it's a very popular book I like having the shared experience with other people. It can be fun to talk about things I didn't like with someone who also didn't like it, and I can usually find a nice thing to say about something when I run into someone who did like it.

But I have to stop reading books that I find a slog. Sometimes pushing my way through a book I'm not enjoying wastes days or even weeks of my time and I end up in a real reading slump. I want to stop doing that, and I did successfully DNF one book this year so far because I was feeling that way! It helped that it was a challenge prompt where I was able to get my hands on a different book that fit that I was more interested in.

100p or 20%, whichever comes first. There are also plenty of times I pick up a book I think I'll like, only to drop it very early on - in those cases, they usually end up back on the TBR for a later attempt, because it's more likely I'm just not in the mood at present.

I've only quit a book a few times. Usually I try to fight through the slog and carry on, but as I'm getting older, I think that will soon change. Life's too short - and there are just too many great books out there! - to eke one's way through really bad writing.

Robin P wrote: "How do you decide whether to keep reading a book or quit? Some people have a rule of thumb like 40 pages. Or are you someone who always finishes no matter what?"

I give it and hour. If I don't care by then, I'm not going to.

Somewhere I read (heard) that if you read a book a week, in your entire reading lifetime, you'll read something like 10,000 books. In the big scheme of things, that's not very many, even if you multiply that by 3 (or 4).

So I have decided that life is just too short to read a bad book. I'll give it a chance, but not much of one.