Finishing a bad book.

[LVSteve]

I knew a nurse who always went straight to the last five pages of a book to see if she liked/understood the the ending. If neither applied, she would not start the book. I think it's a control thing.

Had a coworker who couldn't stand any kind of non-happy ending of a movie. He was adamant that Hollywood should be banned from putting out anything where a couple of guys from the squadron didn't make it back. I guess he'd need a puke bucket for "Titanic", "633 Squadron" or "The Battle of Britain".

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I am an avid book reader, never was a reader as a child but picked it up while I was in college. I read a lot of military history, historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies, humor and have a few preferred authors for fiction I enjoy. When I start a new book and I am really into it, I can and have finished them in a single day/night.

However, there are those books that I struggle with for various reasons. Either the story/narrative just never takes off or maybe the writers style makes it hard for me to follow but I seem compelled to struggle my way through all the way to the end. I can probably count on one hand the number of books that I have finally given up on part way thru. Maybe I have a bit of an OCD personality that won't let me quit on it before I finish it.

How many of you readers can give up on a troublesome book and how many of you are compelled to struggle your way to the end of a really difficult read?

Am I alone?

"Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man" and "The Brothers Karametzoff" are two that come to mind as well as some obscure tome written by some US Bankruptcy Trustee (who looked like Gollum) on the interplay of the UD Tax Code with the US Bankruptcy Code pertaining to the ranking of liens when some sort of trust was included in a Bankruptcy Estate. Now THAT crossed yer eyes

 

[JohnRippert]

Life is too short to waste time on a bad book. If I can't get into one for whatever reason it goes on the get rid of pile and when the pile gets too tall they go to Half Price Books. I at least get something out of it.

 

[GB]

Seldom do I not finish a book but it does happen. Sometimes it takes along time. Took me a couple of years to read Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising". Couldn't get past the first few chapters. When I did, it turned into my favorite Clancy book.

 

[TX-Dennis]

If after a few chapters I am bored I will put it aside. I like to read, but I don't like to read stuff that bores me.

 

[jbtrucker]

I quit reading if predictable and lose interest . My sister reads the ending first , I gave her a book once and tore out the last page.

 

[Imissedagain]

My favorite books/authors are:
Dolly Parton
Bach
Hank Williams
Mozart
Jobim
Edward Elgar .... he wrote: "goodbye high school"
the Beatles
RCA Receiving Tube Manual
and similar to the pics below.

 

[raljr1]

I tend to plow thru them regardless...there have been a few I have bailed on, however.

Robert

 

[Huski92]

I am more compelled to finish a book. I love reading, but I am not consistent with it. I'll go months and months without reading and then I'm reading a few times a week.


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[Donn]

There are a few things that will make me put a book down, no matter the author or how highly reviewed it might be. 1) It has to grab me in the first chapter. 2) No flashbacks, just tell the story. 3) No minutia, don't drown me with useless detail. I don't need to know the color of the stitching on the lining of a character's jacket. Numbers 2 & 3 are the reason I bailed on Clancy's "Without Remorse."

 

[duman444]

Try new authors

My version on whether to stay with a book or not, is I really read the same authors. Then see when their writing goes down. The most consistent author I ever read was Dick Francis. His stories, which were all based around English horseracing, mostly steeplechase, stayed consistent for his first 30 or so novels.

Will try a new author, if I like, will try a second book. If I don't, he/she is out of the queue.

Favorites beside Dick Francis in no particular order:
Lee Child-did not like the brothers first attempt at carrying on Reacher
Michael Connelly
CJ Box
Craig Johnson
Randy Wayne White (recent books are not great)
Timothy Zahn
David Weber
David Baldacci
Robert Crais
Nelson DeMille
Dennis Lehane
Vince Flynn-later books since he died are ghost written-literally by Kyle Mills continue the tradition. Oddly enough I have not found Kyle Mills other books interesting

There are many more-those are just off top of my head.

 

[djohns6]

I suffered through a particularly bad John Grisham book once . Picked up a W.E.B Griffin book that was so bad I kept skipping pages hoping it would change . I finally gave up on it . I don't have the patience anymore .

 

[SS336]

Like the OP, I grit my teeth and plow through it.
I am on a first name basis with the local library and have read most of the series mentioned here. Usually am waiting eagerly for the next one.
I avoid books when they are written by the author and someone else. If the author can't write his own book then I will let someone else read it.

 

[bobcat]

My Nook is well stocked, I usually find interesting books in the under $5 section. I may park them away for awhile until I'm in the mood for them, favorite authors I read right away, between that and thrift stores there's plenty to read, and I keep a stack on hand. That being said, if I can't get into it, I quit reading it. I've got to many that hold my interest to force myself to read a book I'm not into. I'm not getting any younger...

 

[mckenney99]

Here are a couple of examples of my NEED to finish a book no matter how hard it was to read, that kind of paid off.
I have never really done much reading on the Civil War and a friend loaned me his copy of Ulysses S. Grant's, Personal Memoirs. The dated writing style and Grant's inclusion of very detailed accounts of his war time service was difficult for me to read. I finally struggled my way through (it took more than a month) and I came away with great appreciation for a man with an incredible memory for detail, a much better understanding of the man and his thought process for the decisions he made during the war and during his Presidency.
Another friend gave me a book that I never would have chosen off the shelf for myself. The book was a collection of humorous short stories written by a 1940's British Veterinary Surgeon whose pen name was James Herriot. Initially I found trying to read the British style of story telling a little difficult to follow but I persisted and the more I read, the easier it was to read and understand. I now find myself reading everything by this author that I can find because his outlook on his life is so refreshing and positive. The author's stories can be about the most heart breaking topic or difficult situations that he found himself in but his outlook on the situation and his stories of a more gentile time leave me uplifted and grinning.

Not all of my COMPELLED completions have turned out to be winners and those books are traded off. Most books however remain in my collection and thanks to my memory issues, they get read over and over and over.

I am glad to see that I am not alone in my compulsion.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Lets just say I've read too many bad books.................. but thousands of good to great ones!

I'm on the Board of our local library.

 

[Narragansett]

I wish I could get into reading, but somehow I just can't. I was an electrical contractor for over 40 years, and all I did every day was read. Plans, specifications, letters, shop drawings, contracts, code books, and on and on.
When I want entertainment, I want to watch Jason Stratham or the like doing somebody in.

I can get into John Grisham stuff. He is a page turner, and peaks my interest.

The last book I read was " We Were Soldiers Once and Young ". If you think the movie is brutal, try the book!

 

[upcountry]

We have a great thrift shop in my area. Paperbacks, unless just released are $1. Every time I stop I come out with books, my wife had to get and extra bookcase.
C.J.Box, Michael Connolly (Bosch), Graig Johnson, Leonard Elmore, Harlan Coben, Linwood Barclay, but in the last few years I discovered James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series. My problem is I tend to collect a series and hold on to them. If it's a book I picked up on a whim and not like it, I bring it back to the shop for them to resell. Every night I can read for an hour or 2, if I finish a book I literally have one on the nightstand to pick up and start.
My wife has a Kindle, but I like the feel of a book.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Dick Francis (and his son Felix who has carried on with the tradition) is my number one favorite. I also enjoy David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, CJ Box, Clive Cussler, some WEB Griffin (some of his non spy or war related books have been utter garbage), John Sandford, James Patterson (but only his cop novels - not the romance novels), Lee Child, Greg Iles, and Tony Hillerman and his daughter Anne who has carried on his navajo tribal police novels. I liked Vince Flynn, but haven't read any of the newer novels by his successor. Tom Clancy was great, but not so much the authors who have continued his series.

 

[RobertJ.]

I treat a book like I treat a movie: if a movie hasn't grabbed me in the first 15 or 20 minutes, I'm done with it. If a book hasn't grabbed me by the end of the first chapter, I'm done with it. Life is too short to waste on something I don't like.