The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Mike wrote: "So far I haven't been able to get past all the architecture stuff in the beginning. I haven't completely given up yet, I'm just waiting for the right mood to give it another try."

It is a good book. If you only want to read about the crime or only want to read about the fair - just read every other chapter. He alternates subjects. We recently gave this advice who was fearful about reading about the crime. She thought it would be gory or something. We tried to explain that it really doesn't go that deeply into it. Maybe she'll try the every other chapter method of reading.

If the book is boring, I don't finish it either as it
usually means the writing is awful, the plot is dumb, the characters are unbelieveable. A book should bring
enjoyment, guessing what will happen, intensity to make you continue reading and finally, possibly learning
something. Unless you paid $25 for it, dump it!!!!!!!!

I've become so much less tolerant of bad books over the years. It used to be that if I started a book, I finished it. Now? No way. I read to enjoy and I'll dump a stinker quick.

I will only give a book 75-100 pages and then quit. With over 500 books on TBR, I don't waste my time if not interested.

If it doesn't grab me in the first 100 pages, chances are it's not going to happen. This is especially true for new authors first book of a series. If that book is disappointing, I won't read the next one in the series and that one may be the "breakout" book - or not. Best to have multiple backup books. I try to have a list of at least five - just in case!

Having a tough time finishing my Kate Norton first read - The Forgotten Garden.
Anyone else have trouble getting through her books?
She's not the best writer, in my opinion.
Her writing is too wordy, her meaning not very clear at times.
Tom

Duh.
Kate Morton, not Kate Norton, in my last comment.

I just recently gave up reading The Greatest Works of Edgar Allan Poe Book 1. I had got it because the kindle version was free, and I really enjoyed his stories when I had to read them in school.

The formatting and beta they used was terrible. All kinds of question marks throughout the stories in the middle of words and spacing was awful. It took away greatly from the stories.

Thomas wrote: "Having a tough time finishing my Kate Norton first read - The Forgotten Garden.
Anyone else have trouble getting through her books?
She's not the best writer, in my opinion.
Her writing is too word..."

I enjoyed that book Thomas, but none of her other books did it for me and I skimmed most of them. Yes, she is very wordy.

If I don't like the writing, I throw it dowm immediately--life is too short to read bad books. The trouble comes when I enjoy the beginning, but then bog down in the middle. Should I stay or should I go? I'm having that problem right now with Jess Walter's OVER TUMBLED GRAVES. I read his newest, BEAUTIFUL RUINS, and LOVED it. So I went back to catch his first book which is a serial killer police procedural. The opening was quite dramatic, but now I'm just slogging along--I don't really care what happens to any of the characters. I'm taking a break to read something else. This may go onto my "I give up" shelf.

Thomas wrote: "Having a tough time finishing my Kate Norton first read - The Forgotten Garden.
Anyone else have trouble getting through her books?
She's not the best writer, in my opinion.
Her writing is too word..."

I am a big fan of Kate Morton. But, honestly, the stories are probably more interesting to women. No, I am not sexist. I find the men I talk to about books want the action and get on with it. For me, the book had to have a lot of background and history to understand the characters. I did have a problem in the beginning when she ran off from her family. I found that hard to accept. I didn't see that in most women's nature. I have all Kate's books, my favorite is "The Distant Hours." If you're willing to give her another chance, read that one. It's a very intriguing mystery.

Gave up on JG's "The Appeal" - very boring and too repetitive to me. Haven't read one of his books since.

I give up on books that bore me or if the protagonist is unlikeable. Also some books just move too slow or have too much repetition and description for my pleasure.

I gave up reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf after finding it too whimsical. It lay on my shelf for a couple of years, then I 'rediscovered' and gave it a second chance in 2012... and I loved it. I'm probably a bit too quick to cast books aside in general.

Yes, I am usually pretty good at guessing which books I like based on the syopsis and first page, but I gave up on the Mystery Alphabet books halfway "C is for" and a steampunk.

I never feel guilty for stopping in the middle. Think of it this way. There are more books than you'll ever have time to read, so if something doesn't strike you, it's okay to drop it. (I have fast-forwarded to the ending of books that I was curious about but the reading was slow-going.)

I think the one exception is slogging through classics or non-fiction.

Absolutely. I'm more likely to give up on a book than I am a movie, mostly due to the time required. However, I've sat through some bad movies and then thought, "there's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back." The purpose of both is to engage and entertain. If that's not happening after a while, then there's no obligation to continue.

I've definitely given up after investing a couple of hundred pages. We're all different, after picking up a recent thriller the majority of my Goodread friends fawned over, I just couldn't finish it. BORING! But I'm sure some books I've loved have irritated other readers. I'm glad we're all not like me.

Heidi wrote: "I just recently gave up reading The Greatest Works of Edgar Allan Poe Book 1. I had got it because the kindle version was free, and I really enjoyed his stories when I had to read them in school.
..."
I am most concerned about bad formatting in eBooks. I am no expert but I have discussed it with those who are.
I think the basic problem is that many programs try to convert static PDF files to Mobi or ePub for ereaders.
From what I am told it just cannot be done properly. It costs between $70 and $200 to convert for Ereaders and some publishers will not pay it and use an ineffective automated converter.

Once upon a time I would never give up on a book... then came A Discovery of Witches and I just couldn't continue LOL
Since then I have given up on lots of books but find many of them just didn't suit me at that time and I've gone on to read and enjoy them at a later date. (but not ADOW ... lol)
So now if I give up on a book early I don't mark it such, I leave it as unread. I've noticed that these same books (title/cover/blurb) do still attract me again and that my moods have a lot to do with how I'm getting through them.

Thomas wrote: "Having a tough time finishing my Kate Norton first read - The Forgotten Garden.
Anyone else have trouble getting through her books?
She's not the best writer, in my opinion.
Her writing is too word..."

I tried the Forgotten Garden. Halfway through I had to abandon the book. To long, to wordy.. I have since tried all the others and had the same problem.
Not the best of writers, in my opinion. My sister eats them up and loves them although she said in the last book it was too long and descriptive. I think Kate Morton is just trying to hard. Even so she does have a following so good luck to her.

All the time. Before even seeing this I started a new bookshelf for those books. I recently gave up on Game if Thrones and the Docekerpers. Both good books and great stories I just ran out of time for them since they are so long.

aprilla wrote: "Once upon a time I would never give up on a book... then came A Discovery of Witches and I just couldn't continue LOL"

I had trouble plowing through this one, too. I ended up finishing it, but I don't plan on reading the sequel. It's not really my typical kind of read, but it got such good reviews, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I'm about to give up on Cloud Atlas in the middle.

I don't give up often, but I have on occasion thrown in the towel. I tossed Kate Norton, and have given up on several others including Burke and Grisham. I'm preferring a faster pace these days and giving a lot of new authors a shot at my hard earned nickel.

I gave up on The Gargoyle a few years back, the cover and the premise sounded interesting but unfortunately it never held my attention and I never finished it.

Yes, D. M. I read 50 pages of W and could go no further. Disjointed,
uninteresting, etc.

I can't leave a book unfinished. Maybe it's the optimist in me that believes it will get better or maybe it's that I can't bear not knowing how it ends, good or bad. In my entire reading history I've only left one book unfinished, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. I tried everything with this one but it eventually beat me.

In all fairness, I do select many books based on feedback from friends and others who I share an affinity for similar authors and genres so I hedge my bets.

Not in the middle. When I've given up it's been by the first quarter of the book at the latest. If I can get to the middle I'll just finish it at that point.

I really liked Angle of Repose. I have left many books unfinished. There was one lengthy book where I had read 700 and gave up on the last 100 pages.

Mike wrote: "Very rarely. If I do it's after I've tried to go back to it again and again and still couldn't get into it. The most recent one was The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the ..."

Mike you're breaking my heart! I loved that book. If you can get past that part, I know you are going to love the crime section later on.

I never gave up on a book in the past, but now I just have too many things on my to-read pile to try and push through something I'm not enjoying. My most recent give up-Full Black.

Yes! My most recent give-up read is Bel Canto . A friend recommended and I know its highly praised, but I cant get thru it. I've heard there is an ending that really gets you, and I wanted to get there. I think it's the omniscient view that does not appeal to me. I can't connect to the characters from this view. Plus I feel like more should have happened by now and it's the same thing on and on...each scene duplicated with minor changes and not enough moving on to keep me interested.

Long before the middle. Since I got my Kindle I've downloaded all kinds of stuff that looked interesting at first glance, but was just awful. These days I give up on about 80% of stuff I start.

For what it's worth, I also give up on films and restaurants.

And my first twelve wives

I almost always finish a book.

Almost.

I gave up on The Confidence Man (Melville) and never went back to it. It's sitting on my shelf unfinished. I also gave up twice on A Song of Fire and Ice but finally returned to it and plowed through. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's great and all, but I just couldn't do it, and now that I'm done, I have no plans to read the sequels.

I also gave up on a self-published sci-fi I'd been given free to review. It was terrible. I have read a LOT of good self-pubs and Indies, but this one...wasn't.

I rarely stop in the middle but I often stop after 10 or 20 pages. If it holds my interest much past that I am probably hooked until the end, although many times I've been disappointed that I took the time to finish. Like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which got way too gross and sadistic at the end. With mysteries I probably only finish about 50%, with sci-fi no more than 20%.

I rarely stop in the middle but I remember that there was one time. The author was Colin Harrison and I think the book was Afterburn. One of the characters had an arm chopped off and he tried to save it but was unsuccessful. Didn't want to read it after that.

Julie I am so glad to hear someone besides me gave up on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! I must have tried at least 5 different times to read that and to this day I can't tell you a thing about what I read. I can usually read anything, but there are a few books I have given up on. I generally read a few books a week, so it doesn't bother me to give up on a few. I could not get through Creole Belle, The Casual Vacancy and a few other well reviewed books as well.

As I stated earlier, I can read just about anything - I'm a nurse and I can sit and read boring medical journals and retain everything. I've sat and read inserts and instruction books when there was nothing else around to read. But those few books were like torture for me.

Dottie wrote: "Julie I am so glad to hear someone besides me gave up on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! I must have tried at least 5 different times to read that and to this day I can't tell you a thing about ..."

Dottie

I too put it down after about 100 pages. Couldn't see what the buzz was all about. Slow and boring and a difficult read. But many people told me over and over--stick with it. Another 50 pages and it changes. They were right. I did pick it up again and indeed after about page 150 it took off. When Lizbeth appeared and took over much of the story. Then I read all three and loved them.

Dottie, I'm with you! I couldn't finish that book either, nor the next two books! I really thought I was alone! I also hated the movie, but my hubby wanted to see it because he loved all three books! Go figure.......

I plodded through "Dragon Tattoo" and its shopping and its home decorating and wondered what everyone was so excited about. Almost tossed it down when [SPOILER ALERT] her final predicament occurred. Images of Monty Python's "Black Knight" popped into my head... "It's just a flesh wound!"

Jerry wrote: "I've become so much less tolerant of bad books over the years. It used to be that if I started a book, I finished it. Now? No way. I read to enjoy and I'll dump a stinker quick."

Here,here ! Me, too. at age 72 i still read a lot...2 to 3 booka a week...but i usually give up on another 2 or 3 after one or two hours...the writing, the tone and the voice of the book have to keep up with the plot, or i'm gone.

D. wrote: "Dottie wrote: "Julie I am so glad to hear someone besides me gave up on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! I must have tried at least 5 different times to read that and to this day I can't tell you..."

In my case, I finished the book but I wish I didn't. Makes me feel worse that I wasted my time with it in the first place. I would never read another book in the series.

There are very few that I haven't finished. There are some that I've ended up skimming through to get to the end. I agree with the person that said there are just too many very good books out there to waste a lot of time on one you just don't like. I can usually tell how good a book is by how fast I read it.

I bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo months ago, but after hearing it was really slow to get into, I haven't picked it up. I might not ever read it. There are so many good books out there, why waste the time.

Joan K. Maze
writing as J. K. Maze
The Hierophant, now available on B&N & Amazon

a book I had recently tried to read was "Small town Christmas" and after the first chapter I quit. Nothing about the book was interesting and apalling. not worth my time.

If I lost interest, I will just skip to the end. Sometimes the end doesn't make much sense since I skip a lot.

I usually give a book about twenty pages. I prefer books that grab me on page one.

I do, especially if it's a borrowed or library book; however, if I purchase it, I do try to read it.

Yes and I am afraid it was game of thrones book 2. I just got stuck and felt bogged down in all the politics and just didn't like it at all that I have and will not read again

Yes and I am afraid it was game of thrones book 2. I just got stuck and felt bogged down in all the politics and just didn't like it at all that I have and will not read again