Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you finish every book you start?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
Simple answer is no. This year I have had a few I haven’t finished for different reasons. One was so confusing it took till chapter 3 for the heroine to be introduced and by then I stopped. Still no idea who the hero was. Another had too much swearing in the first few chapters I didn’t continue. I have stopped a few for not connecting with the Hero/heroine. Sometimes its the subject at the time. If I can’t connect or like a book after couple of chapters I will often DNF. Sometimes its when I don’t want to read more I know its time to stop.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. Remember all comments go into the monthly drawer for a gift voucher.
There are very few books I’ve not finished; I even plowed through ‘Great Expectations’ a little while ago.
I like your dedication.
I usually do because I hate starting a book and not finishing it. Even if I have to ‘skim read’ it. But there have been a few that I just couldn’t finish – so many books to read and so little time! So I had to give up on a few so that I could move on to the many, many that are still waiting to be read.
I now tend to look at samplers for some books and have decided I they were not for me. I have requested a couple of books at net galley and had to say I wasn’t leaving a review. I will admit the last couple I DNF was due to being miss lead by the genre. Expecting a romance when there wasn’t one (again another subject of authors or publishers putting books in the wrong genre and if at about chapter 4 or 5 there is still not romance in a Christian romance (and for that matter not defined hero/heroine) I am likely to not finish, If they had said its whatever genre it really was then I woudn’t been disappointed and there are times I want to read a book without romance in it.)
No way. I order mountains of books from the library, and I probably return most of them unread. (There are still a LOT I do read right through.) If it doesn’t grab me in the first couple of chapters, that’s it. Life’s too short.
I started reading a mystery yesterday and abandoned it before finishing the prologue. In short, it was crude. I’d probably enjoy the mystery part if I keep going, but I don’t want to have to wade through the sex scenes to get there. :o(
I can understand that. I get annoyed with bad language, inuendo, etc in a book and will stop. One recently others loved but due to being sexually harrassed and bullied having a character being verbally aggressive and sexually harassing the heroine was a trigger. The bigger thing was she put up with it cos he was a good worker and being a good Christian girl you don’t upset others which again I just couldn’t handle.
I hate to ‘not finish’ a book and will struggle through hoping it will get better. If it is not getting any better, then as a last resort I’ll flip through a few random pages or chapters and see if it still doesn’t grab me. If not, then I’ll discard it in disgust. Ha haa. But that doesn’t happen very often. If it’s worth persevering I’ll struggle through to the end.
I find if I am reading a book I can’t handle or get into or is a trigger it will often stop me from reading anything for weeks or months so now I tend to stop. A good indication is if I am reading a book and have a several day break and just don’t want to read more. I don’t need more stress
There have only been a few over the years that I haven’t finished. Most of them were books I was checking out for work so see if we should either add them to our library collection or if they were already there, keep them. Those books are no longer part of our library, in fact, they went to what I refer to as our ‘permanent relocation facility’ (aka the bin)!
We have just used the permanent relocation facility for some books someone donated at church. They are by authors who’s teachings are false or misleading.
I remember a lady bringing mum a book to check out cos she thought there was an issue with it. Mum started it and they both agreed burn it and as we had an open fire in the lounge it was burnt there and then rather than someone vulnerable to the false teaching reading it.
I am becoming a lot more ruthless. Life’s too short to wade through a book where I don’t connect with the characters or care what happens to them after at least the first chapter or two. Or where I can hear the author hovering in the background, or the voice is not convincing. The absolute doozy was a library book I discarded yesterday, after reading three chapters, dipping into the rest in a few places, and then reading the final pages. It finished with the heroine escaping a fiery road accident in the middle of winter and fleeing into the woods, and the words, “To be continued.” No resolution, no tying up of loose ends, no nothing, There are so many excellent books, old and freshly published, and no doubt many more about to appear, and I’ll gladly spend my time reading and rereading those.
Oh I hate those cliff hanger endings. One book I was struggling with I read the last few pages and then reviews and was happy to end. Most said it kept rehashing the same issues without moving forward. I was finding that myself and it wasn’t the genre I thought it was.
My ‘to be finished’ pile is almost as tall as my ‘to be read’ pile. And it doesn’t matter what kind of book it is; there’s an equal opportunity for not being finished. Non fiction. Fiction. (shrugs) I tell the books, “It’s not you; it’s me.”
I have quite a few sports books that happened with. (I still want to read the rest of the book about Mike Hussey but just haven’t gotten back to it). I am making myself finish a devotional not that its bad but it’s a rerelease but it doesn’t say that in the info. It also is missing the prayer at the end. So I alternate it.
I used to finish them all, but there just isn’t time anymore. I tend to borrow books I’m not sure about through the library because I don’t feel as bad about not finishing them. It was the same when I had Kindle. I was more ruthless to those and skipped more unless I really liked it.
However, if I bought it, I finish it. Sometimes, it takes me a few months, but I finish it.
I have a lot on my kindle that I haven’t read yet but I keep thinking I will get to them. It could take another 100 years. So now if I don’t like a book I tend not feel guilty anymore.
Sadly, I don’t. Sometimes I’ll put a book aside because It’s not what I feel like reading right now, and I may finish it weeks or months later. If the Amazon sample doesn’t hook me in, I’ll pass on reading the book. Same if I’m in a book store and the first page doesn’t grab my attention. If I’m going to DNF a book, I usually quit reading by 20% at the latest. I rarely quit reading after I reach 50%, even if the story is dragging. By 50% I’m usually invested enough in the story to at least skim through to the end.