Do you have a rule of how far into a book you have to get before DNFing it? Do you find it harder to DNF classics?
I don’t, I’ve always been a bit against DNFing classics as long as the book itself is under around 300 pages. That’s just me. However, I started Starship Troopers recently, and I’m just not hooked at all. I couldn’t tell you a single character’s name (except Zim) offhand, and I couldn’t tell you anything about the main character’s personality. I’m only on page 57, but the fact that it’s taken me a week and a half to get there sort of speaks volumes. It’s not a complex book, it reads very quickly and casually. I feel like I get the gist: American military industrial complex = silly and bad. Probably a hotter take at the time it was written.
I feel like the only reason I’m wanting to finish it at this point is because I want to get to get to Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake and Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper, which are staring me down from my shelf as I type this. However, being a scifi fan, I feel like I HAVE to finish StarShip Troopers. Do I? Does it get better, or was it profound and funny at the time it was published and just a bit dated now?
Maybe I should circle back? I’ve been on a red-hot streak. The last three books I’ve read are A Clockwork Orange, LOTR: Return of the King, and Blood Meridian, and all three for the first time, so I feel like my standards are inflated at the moment. This book just feels dumb comparatively.
by Apprehensive-Maybe91
4 Comments
I didn’t enjoy the book at all and only finished because it was an audiobook while I was working. It’s the one time where the movie is much much better than the book.
I don’t have any rules. If I’m not enjoying something I stop reading. That could be on page 2 or page 200. If I stop a book early on, I might come back and try again later.. sometimes not.
I think Starship Troopers is a really misunderstood book and a lot of people hate on it based on misguided judgements. It’s a fun adventure story that was written for juveniles. If you don’t like it, give it up.
I did not get the satire reading the book. Fairly pro-military from my recollection.
Not a great book or a classic in my opinion.
The film, on the other hand… my guess is the book would be largely forgotten without the movie.
There is a part of me that wonders if this one could be called a “classic” more than old. In some ways I found the movies satire more effective in conveying it’s intended message, whether that fully lined up with the original work or not. That said, there was an interesting line/take in the book that in today’s world of realitive calm I’ve always remembered and so I would not consider it a “waste of time” spent reading. Not in my best hits list, but one I finished and don’t regret.