Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: How do I get through an uninteresting book? Sometimes we want to read something because we're "supposed to" and want to say that we did. Or, it's something that needs to be read for a school assignment. Either way, how do you get through books you find uninteresting?
You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki.
Thank you and enjoy!
by AutoModerator
2 Comments
Break it into tiny chunks – like 10-15 pages at a time with rewards after each section (snack, quick walk, whatever). Also audiobooks can be a game changer for boring stuff since you can multitask and the narrator might make it more engaging than your internal reading voice.
the question i ask first is whether i’m bored because the book is slow to start or because it’s genuinely not for me right now. a lot of ‘uninteresting’ books have a payoff around page 60-80 once the setup lands — what feels like a slog is often just front-loaded worldbuilding.
for the ones that don’t turn around, i’ll skim chapter endings to get a feel for where it’s heading. gives me enough to keep going without grinding every word. for nonfiction or classics, reading some outside context (what the book was reacting to, author background, a good review) can flip a dry read into something that actually holds your attention.