Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
What would lead you to not finishing A book?
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!
For me its a book which isn’t what it says it will be. A Christian Fiction full of swearing or sex scenes. Also a book dealing with an issue I am at the moment which is to close to home. For Example when mum was dying books with people with cancer or terminal illnesses I couldn’t handle. Also a book I can’t get into due to poor writing or just doesn’t capture my attention.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. I will be late replying as have a trip to the city today.
And don’t forget: if you’d like to participate in our weekly Book Chat by posting the question and your answer on your blog, drop us an email via our Contact page and we’ll send you the list of questions for 2021.
To not finish a book means that either the book was too slow and didn’t grab my interest or it was not well written with glaringly obvious mistakes. Also, if it is too complicated with too many characters and names and the characters have titles or positions – I find it too confusing and lose my spot as I have to keep referring back to who everyone is. If a book has mystery and intrigue and is fast paced – I can’t put it down.
Thanks for stopping by Jane, I agree with all you say. I once tried to read a book and by chapter 3 I still had no idea who all the people were and was so confused it also kept changing the point of view and I gave up.
I agree with the mystery also
If it was part of a book club, and the next meeting comes around with the next book! Haha. Most of my reasons are about me and not the books. I usually try and finish even books I dislike – out of a sense of respect for the effort – but my partly read pile is overwhelming to be honest.
Boredom or distraction are my main reasons. I just don’t resonate with the theme.
As a wannabe writer I’ve enjoyed some of the more specific comments.
Thanks for stopping by Tam. I have finished books due to having to review them but a couple I just had to stop. The one I have half finished is the distraction and not really interested in the book right now. Before that the books I didn’t finish were more subject and too close to a situation I was dealing with. I am not sure I am up to reading a story about someone struggling with cancer or some terminal illness. Even if they pull through the scenes getting treatment did me in.
I have tried a sample of a couple of books and decided after a few pages they were not for me partly due to poor editing and rambling.
For me, I think it’s a few things combined – characters I’m not invested in, a plot that’s predictable and/or slow paced. I’m also put off by unnecessary language (swearing) or sexual content. It’s rare for me to not finish a book, but I’m also fiercely protective of my time, so don’t just pick up any ol’ book to read. I read a lot of Young Adult fiction, so it can be difficult to find YAs that don’t have excess language and/or explicit sexual content.
It’s also a challenge for me, as a YA writer, to find this balance.
Thanks for commenting Catriona I agree again. In a Christian Fiction I don’t think there should be swearing it’s not needed or sexual content. A couple books I read were really good till they had a rape scene which wasn’t just mentioned it was to graphic and I was shocked a Christian publisher would allow that content.
I think there is a market for clean YA for Christian youth and other youth.
I’m pretty much like the others who have already commented. If a book is boring I’ll soon stop reading. But I also hate bad writing. If it’s poorly written – poor punctuation, and spelling or is seriously overwritten – I put the book down and will not pick it up again. The third thing is if I find the content offensive in some way. I read broadly and have a pretty wide tolerance but I can’t stand the following:
* excessive violence
* sexual violence and erotica (ie there is not really any story and the book is filled with sex acts)
* an overload of swearing. I’ve got a high tolerance for low to moderate swearing in the right context, but I’ve been in groups where people are proud of the fact that the book they’ve just written contains more than 20 F-words per published page. If it’s needed for the story, I suppose that’s fair enough, but otherwise I’ll plonk that book right down.
That would annoy me too Susan
It could be a number of things for me. I tend to get bored if people are just sitting around talking for long periods, or there’s tons of description, but not much is actually happening. I like it to move along, preferably with a killer to catch or an avalanche to climb out of. I’ll also stop if I don’t really care about the main characters. I’m happy for them to be flawed, but I have to feel something for them and care about their journey. I also like there to be enough original things in the plot to keep my interest. If I feel it’s just the ‘same ol’ same ol’, I’ll stop reading. Also poor writing will stop me. If it’s an author I’ve read and liked previously, I’m also more likely to persist to see if it gets better.
I agree. I read one once where the heroine kept a diary and we would rehash all she had done in the day. It felt like the diary entries were to make the book longer not better.
I once purchased a supernatural fiction book by one of the big Christian publishers. It was the first book in a series & I was super excited to get started, but in the first couple of pages a word was doubled in a sentence. It was something like, “there were were soldiers”. To think that a mistake like that got through so many sets of eyes & still made it to print was really disappointing. I know it’s probably extreme, but I just couldn’t get absorbed after that & gave up.
You would think on the first page it would be picked up. Makes you wonder if it kept happening. I did read one where they named the person by the wrong name. Had to re-read to see if I was mistaken but no it was an error it did pull me out of the book but because I was enjoying it I kept going.
I’m picky at the purchase stage (or library borrow stage). If the cover and title catch my attention and the blurb convinces me it’s likely to engage me, I often read the first paragraph or page to seal the deal. Thankfully, after that, I’m rarely disappointed enough to give up but life happens and hinders progress sometimes.
I do have unread books that stay low on the TBR pile though, especially if something more intriguing turns up before I’ve started them. Some have been gifts which are probably great books, but outside my preferred reading comfort zone so I need to be in the mood to try something completely different to actually start.
I can appreciate that. We all have different reading habits. I remember trying to read Christy by Catherine Marshall. I couldn’t get past the first chapter or so, it had so much descriptive info that it was overwhelming for me. But I loved the movie, series etc. The same with Anne of Green Gables. I couldn’t get into it as when I tried to read it I was above my reading age but loved the movie etc. I would probably love it now but just cant get past not being able to read it as a kid.