Okay, so I haven’t been “into” the last couple of Booking Through Thursdays; yesterdays was about the Olympics/sports, which I’m not exactly into. I like watching some events but I think I’ve watched a grand total of 30 minutes; last week’s BTT question was about Other Worlds and which ones you want to live in — well I read about them to get away from this world, but that doesn’t mean I want to be in them… they’re just entertaining at the time. Anyway, so I decided to ask my own question of blog visitors:
What do you do when you get bored of a book? Does it matter how far in you are?
Right now, I’m not “feeling” my book. It’s not really going anywhere… and it keeps jumping back in time… and between characters who have never really met… and I’m just not intrigued. Should I plough forward? Some books take a while to get started (Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series, or J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series…) there is a bit of set-up within the first 100 pages or so of a 700-page novel.
I am 70 pages into a 330-page novel. When should I call it quits? I’ve given up about 3 pages into a 100-page novel… is there a reading ratio? Am I wasting valuable reading time on a less-than-valuable book? Does it make a difference that it won Honourary Mention in a recent Book Prize?
All these things are things to consider… but for now, I’m off to read my not-so-intriguing book and hope it perks up. Either way, I’m taking another book for the weekend in the ‘burbs — one of my new prizes!
Follow via Bloglovin’
BookCrossing
Flickr
GoodReads
Instagram
LibraryThing
Ravelry
Subscribe with RSS
Twitter
August 16, 2008 at 6:21 am
Oh I so agree… I read a book for a mystery book club I am in, and honestly it was awful. I kept hoping it would improve, I gave it the benefit of the doubt but it never did. I however read to the end just in case.
Guess I am not a quitter, BUT I will not risk reading another of this authors books no matter how much others seem to like them. One was enough.
August 16, 2008 at 8:58 am
I’m the same way…I’ll keep reading, hoping against hope that it will get better.
August 16, 2008 at 9:34 am
It depends on how bored I am with the book. If I find myself bored to tears with a book and don’t see any hope that my impression will change–I don’t care what happens and what direction the characters may go–I give up. It could be on page 15 or on page 75. If I am interested in the outcome or there’s some glimmer of interest in what will come in the next few pages, I will keep reading–there’s always hope in those cases that the book will get better. It’s when I stop caring one way or the other that is the real clincher.
Sometimes a book will get off to a slow start, but slowness doesn’t equal boredom for me.
August 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm
It depends on what book it is, and what other books are waiting in the wings. I read Wuthering Heights and didn’t really enjoy any of it, but I kept reading because its one of the classic that I wanted to check off of my list. Other books I have given up on because I know that I have another book of my shelf that I will enjoy.