I'm kind of a completionist so I tend to want to completely finish every book that I start. However, I have found myself more and more opting to drop the book if I'm not getting enough out of it or the time spent on it doesn't seem to be motivating me to finish, e.g. I sense in myself a reluctance to resume the book.
by ButtercupsUncle
4 Comments
I’m similar…I hate stopping a book part of the way though. However if I’m still not really interested around the 40 percent mark. It’s time to put it down.
It really depends for me. Sometimes I’m reading a book that I don’t love and find kind of dull, but if I see merit in the book, I won’t stop. Wolf Hall is a good example of this. I’m not going to read the sequels (anytime soon, anyway), but I still saw the first book as worth finishing because it was so well written.
On the other hand, I gave up on reading Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but it didn’t grip me at all. And unlike Wolf Hall, it didn’t feel like a great piece of literature, so I didn’t feel compelled to finish it.
I think that’s a good way to describe it. It feels like when none of the characters are compelling in any sense of the word, I just can’t connect and don’t usually finish.
I usually finish but when I don’t it’s typically because I realize either that I don’t give a damn what happens to any of the characters or because the author has them doing things that are too stupid to put up with as plot devices.