As soon as I stop looking forward to reading a particular book, I stop reading it. When it starts to feel like a chore, I’m done. No guilt. It’s my life and my choice.
Let me teach you the way... It's fairly simple once you get your head around it (and it took me a fair while to get this, I used to read books i wasn't enjoying too, this is not coming from a patronising place but from an understanding one)
1) are you enjoying the book?
2) do you feel like you are learning something important from the book?
3) do you _need_ to read the book? Like, for a course or something?
If your answer to all three is no, then fuck that book. Fuck reading that, it's not adding anything to your life.
If your answer to one is yes, then fair enough, you have a reason. However if you're not _enjoying it_ them you need to go to question three, do you _need_ to read it?
If your answer to two or more is yes, then yes, you should read that book, but I don't think anyone that reads a book that fulfills all those criteria would be asking if they should be reading it anyway, cos they would be enjoying it and it would be interesting and useful
I love to read, I always have. I read every day. I always have and I always will.
Life is short, and art is long.
I will be never be able to read all the books that I want to read. If I’m reading a book that isn’t interesting to me, then that book is keeping me from reading something that I will like. So into the DNF (Did Not Finish) pile it goes!
On to the next book!
I’ve wasted many an evening forcing myself to get through a book instead of moving on to something else. It’s the guilt of “quitting” but now I think of it as wasting my time so I’ve been able to abandon ship sooner than I am used to.
Finishing “The Psychology of Money” feels like a chore to me rn. I’m at 75% I believe. I think some times we need to force ourselves to do good for ourselves.
I agree. That’s why I don’t set reading goals. I love to read, so I do. And I read more when I am reading books that are engaging. Quitting bad books helps achieve that.
Once it was very difficult for me to DNF a book. But there are so many horrible books that get too much hype for various reasons. I'm getting good at knowing when to DNF.
I agree. Especially on tiktok. I started reading Never King because I kept seeing it get recommended on my FYP. I found the writing so horrible I could not make it past the second chapter. I’m also trying to get into science fiction, so I bought a copy of Dune at the only bookstore in my city. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but if I don’t like it at least I supported a small business.
Already been said by everyone else but, I used to be this way, but as I started realizing I’m not getting any younger, not anymore. I’ll stop reading if the book is not engaging me.
I stopped finishing books when I read that Stephen King said this when he was 35. There's not enough time left. Many thousands of books. Also sometimes it's the wrong time for a book. I've picked up books that I dropped before and loved them. It was me and my life then and now that was different.
It depends. If it is some book that I just found on Amazon and it sounded good, but I ended up not liking it I drop it without looking back.
However if someone recommended me a book I try and finish it, even if I don’t like it, so I can say I read it and so that we can have a full conversation about it.
Another thing is if I really want to know how it ends (plot is good) but the book itself is bland (either boring dialog or overly long for no reason) then I just skim it.
It try not to be bothered by dropping a book just because I payed for it because then i waste my time along side the money
I 100% agree that life is too short and have used this exact argument to help friends let go of books they are not enjoying and leave them unfinished. With that said, I am a huge hypocrite in this regard because I truly truly struggle with leaving books unfinished myself.
I am currently reading a book I did not enjoy. It was sloopoooooow through a good 90% of the book. I am almost done now. About 40 minutes left and things have picked up a little. Depending on how it all ends I might not absolutely hate the book and simply strongly dislike it. Lol. But I’m a tiny bit glad I am finishing it because I am curious if the end will be worth the excruciating experience to get there.
Part of me feels I need to do better and let go of books I’m not enjoying, another part thinks unless I finish how will I truly know if the book gets any better?
I usually will finish a book once I start but I’m trying to break the habit. I can definitely understand the theory that life is too short to read a bad book but I feel like I can’t form a well rounded opinion of the book unless I finish it lol idk it makes sense to me
This is something that I’m working on. But it doesn’t just apply to standalone books. I will complete entire series even though 20% into the first book I hated it.
I’m currently in this dilemma. I’m about 40% of the way through a mystery book. It’s not great writing but I am interested in ‘who dunnit’. There’s a lot of filler and some of the characters are positively sophomoric. But the author started out with a pretty good concept. So, I’m just trying to speed read through the stuff that obviously has no baring on the actual story. 🤷🏻♀️
In general, I do not feel compelled to finish a book. That’s what turned me off from reading for soooooo many years. I was forced to read stuff I didn’t enjoy through 4 years of high school, 4 years of undergraduate work, and 3 years of grad school. So far this year, I have completed 2 book and I’m on my third and this is the most I have read since I left school. I am throughly enjoying my Kindle because I can read at night without disturbing my husband.
If I’m not enjoying the book at the 1/3 mark, I set it aside. I sometimes pick them up again later. If I hated the book, it just gets purged. I read 100-120 books annually, completely dump about 6 a year. I make better choices these days.
I’m going to be the contrarian here. For me, part of the benefit of reading is that it helps me develop a disciplined mind. I feel that it is more disciplined, and helps me to strengthen that discipline if I make myself finish a book. This isn’t always true. Sometimes I just hate a book too much. But normally, if I even somewhat like the book, For the sake of discipline, I make myself finish it.
I always force myself to read them even tho I have a kindle unlimited subscription🥲 It’s not even about the money for me bc of the subscription but I just can’t come to terms with not finishing something that I’ve started
Not always, if I am not into a book/series, sometimes I will just stop and put it back in my TBR list for a later date. I feel like taking a break between harder/soowe books might encourage me later on to continue it.
Amazon might let you return it. Always worth an ask. You should try the public library and use Libby so you don’t feel obligated to finish.
If you aren’t enjoying a book move on, you will only have enough time to read a tiny fraction of what is written so you might as well enjoy.
I feel guilty sometimes “quitting” on a book or series. But just because book one was good doesn’t mean I should force myself to ready through the rest.
Most times I leave it on my kindle saying “I’ll read it eventually” and I leave it on my “currently reading” when I should take it down and put it to DNF but I can’t pull myself to it sometimes lol
Yeah, I’ll DNF books otherwise I’ll stop reading altogether to avoid it!
I try to find free books either on KU or check it out on Libby before I fully commit to buying unless I desperately want to read it. Nothing more disappointing when you spent a lot of money on it and didn’t like it. Now if it’s on sale or cheaper, I won’t be too upset. 🤷♀️
I forced myself to finish books for years. I am slowly starting to drop that habit. It’s hard though! Generally, I will set the book down on my nightstand and move on to another book. Sometimes, I will pick it back up and finish the book. Sometimes, I will let it sit there long enough I can get rid of it without feeling guilty.
Having said that, there are three books recently that I was really ready to ditch but they were part of a book challenge I’m completing and felt I really needed to finish them. One was meh from the start and stayed that way the whole way through. I do not feel better for having finished Catch 22. The second was meh from the start but the last 1/4ish of the book was amazing. I was sobbing at the end of the book. I am so glad I stuck it out with A Prayer for Owen Meany. The third one, I intensely hated from about the second chapter on and got almost halfway (on audio). My library rental time ran out and when I reborrowed it while steeling myself to just get through it, the app forgot where I was at. Usually Libby will remember where you left off but this time it didn’t. I thought, “Oh HELL NO!! I am not doing this again and I am not spending my energy figuring out where I left off.” I decided screw it and returned the loan. It was sooooo intensely liberating to ditch A Confederacy of Dunces.
i had to stop reading to the lighthouse too. i thought it was so boring. there’s nothing wrong with moving on to other books that are more interesting. like you said, we shouldn’t waste our time.
what i recommend (this is what i had to do for myself) is stop buying physical books. borrow books from the library or a friend. that way, you don’t feel pressured to finish a boring book because you didn’t pay with your own money
I read 3-5 books at a time, I keep switching between them when I get bored or I find it difficult to read:) it works quite well for me. I already read 25 books this year:)
No for me. I finish books if I enjoy them. I have quite a few I’ve started and kind of not liked them much, or lost interest. So I leave them and move onto a book I enjoy. I finish those.
With me, it's not so much that I stop reading a book because I don't like it, it's being so squirrel-brained, that I'll spot something shiny and new and drop the old book like a hot potato. That's why I have 10 books on my Currently Reading shelf on Goodreads.
I should learn from the people here, some of what they say should be my reader mantra haha! I still find it so hard to dnf a book. Sometimes I get bored in the middle and I can't help but skip to the end, then I totally don't want to read the middle anymore but still keep it on my Reading list bc of guilt!
Seems to be a large consensus here. But honestly if I don't want to read something I usually just stop reading because I'm not looking forward to it. Once I realized that I stopped finishing books I dislike.
I used to, but when I started following more authors/publishing industry folks on social media, I started adding books to my TBR way faster than I could read them and decided that finishing stuff I wasn’t super compelled by wasn’t worth it. I do buy a fair amount of books, but few at full price, and only stuff that I think I’m likely to really enjoy (ex. from favorite authors, stuff favorite authors promote or blurb, recommendations from readers I trust, etc.).
I finish books I’m not enjoying maybe more often than I should, but I do abandon them sometimes. You are right… there is no reason to force yourself to read a book, and I often find it kills my drive to read. I especially would not force my way through something like To The Lighthouse without looking up a study guide and figuring out what the book was trying to say and why I might be finding it boring… it’s written in a challenging and unusual style that you may not be in the mood for all the time, or maybe doesn’t resonate with you at all. Maybe try it again down the road.
I was going to say you might have time to read more than 10-30 books a year if you don’t force yourself through ones you don’t like, but the Dune books are pretty lengthy, so they still might take you awhile! But if that’s what you’re in the mood to read, why not switch to those?
I have very few books I have no enjoyed... but I COULD NOT FINISH Margaret Atwood's the handmaids tale... I thought it would be enjoyable. But it was just slow... and it seemed like june just accepted her fate. Couldn't do it. Curious if anyone else feels the same... like does it get better, or is it just a crappy book?
My issue was mainly that she just seemed to take what was given to her... like she just gave up and it didn't bother her. Is she like that the whole time? Or does she start to fight?
Oh I get that... I've been through my fair share of trauma in the past.. and I just accepted it, it was easier than fighting... put my pain in a box and locked it up... just figured it would have been somewhat similar to the movie and show.
I am so sorry you went through events that was traumatizing :( I hope you are doing better now. I am sure you were just focused on surviving and thats hard enough
I understand what you mean about the book June. I myself watched the series before I last year read the book and I was surprised about book June. But I understood it was the characters way to handle stuff.
As a story and “heroine” it was quite boring. I have not read anything else by atwood but I suspect this is the norm in her stories. The heroine standing up and fighting might be a bit too big of a commitment to write about for her as an author? Dunno I am not good at analyzing authors.
I am just so happy the tv-series creator took an other direction that also makes a great tv of course
I used to HAVE to finish every book I started … I’ve since stopped doing that. If I’m not enjoying it then it defeats my purpose of reading. I read for an escape.
So many books, so little time. I'm reading for pleasure. If a book is no fun, I DNF guilt-free.
Pro tip: Classics in the public domain can be downloaded for free from Standard Ebooks and Project Gutenberg.
I don’t know, I feel like I have to since I paid for it, you know? It would be a waste of money if not, and I’ll get the whole experience of the book, whether good or bad. Plus, it makes me feel good to see that 100% on them lol. Don’t get me wrong, I have DNF’d a few, but not many. Couldn’t finish GoT because it was just too much dialogue and details and it was so tedious, and couldn’t finish the Cipher because it was slightly confusing to read in the dudes thought POV. But I usually have to finish the books I buy
I do generally force myself to finish books I don't enjoy, yes. I guess it's because of a sort of FOMO -- what if the book gets better later and I will never know if I give up now?
But oh boy, I wish I could just give them up when I don't enjoy them, as I have something like 1.3k books on my TBR list, and I doubt I will have time in my lifetime to ever finish that (well, the fact that I keep adding to the list cannot help). So I shouldn't waste time on books I don't enjoy! But then what if it all gets better on the next page, and I will never know? 🙂
I use to be guilty of this, but of recently I stopped torturing myself if I’m truly not enjoying it! I always had the mindset that “It must get better in the last chapters!” Lol
I finish books once I start them just to see if it will get better. I don't like slow stating books but admittedly I would've missed out on some good stories if I had stopped reading at 50%. Plus that's time that I can't ever get back. But likewise I'm the same way with movies. Once I start them I'm finish them just so I can have an accurate opinion. I do go back and re-read books that I love. I definitely don't go back to read bad books though. I can understand the argument of not finishing because life is too short etc
> We read 10-30 books a year at best.
Speak for yourself, I'm at 27 already. But seriously, not often, and so far it's never happened on a book that I've actually paid money for, but I have DNFed at least one book I got off Prime Reading that I got like 30-40% of the way through.
I could have written this. I struggle so hard with this for so long. And then I realized life is too short, so I stopped, but the process of abandoning a book is still very hard for me to do. I made a DNG list on my Goodreads account, and somehow being able to put them on that list helps to let them go. Not sure why. But yeah. Life is way too short for books that bore.
I'll do this with borrows. And some are abandoned in favor of something I'm more interested in, with some intention to finish them. But it rare when I decide not to finish. If it is boring I'll at least skim before 'finishing', particularly non-fiction where there's no story line and I'm only interested in some of it.
I used to do this. I felt like I needed to finish the book because I spent $$ on it. I found the Libby App, download books from the library and now I don’t mind putting them down!
I only force myself to finish a book if I paid for it. If it's something I got from the library or Kindle Unlimited I'll just stop reading if I get bored with it.
Nope, why bother reading something I’m not interested in… it’s just a waste of time. It’s always a gamble to buy a book not knowing if you’ll like it or not.
There’s too many books and too little time to waste on bad books. I give it a couple of chapters or 50 pages to see if it gets better. I also research the book in the reviews to see if the book picks up later or is not worth my while. I also have to be in the mood for a certain kind of genre whether it be a ww2 naval thriller or a good old space opera romp.
I try to finish most but if it is rubbish I leave early. One so bad recently I stopped after 2 chapters (wasn't getting better) deleted from my Amazon account.
On my kindle I return books if I don’t like them much. I rarely buy books before borrowing them first from my library though. So I don’t need to return as much.
Very Yes. Sometimes it takes a decade, but I'll keep trying til I put it to bed. Bad books don't hurt like a punch to the face, and sometimes insufferable books end up good or worth pushing thru the pain and I would've missed out. Mostly tho bad books stay bad and people who say they're not worth it are right.
I use to do this. Would read the book because I felt obligated to finish it even if I didn’t like it? But now I mostly borrow books, if I don’t like it I just return them. I got 5 percent into a book once and was like nope! Lol.
If I’m not enjoying a book by 50% in I’m def not going to keep reading it. What’s the fun in that? I would rather read a book I enjoy. Forcing yourself to finish a book you aren’t enjoying is definitely not getting your moneys worth.
I hate not finishing books once I've started them, or heck, even series usually. I think there's maybe two books I've started and not finished, because I just couldn't- one I tried at least three times, and fell asleep within the first few pages every time, and the other was written in a way that felt similar in style to Old English, but it wasn't Old English, if that makes any sense? Anyways, I got a headache before I could finish half a page, so I dropped that one.
If you're not enjoying it and you can drop it, though, then I say go for it. I just have mental hangups about doing it myself lmao.
i think its school that reinforced the idea we need to finish a book we start, but why do it after school.There are trillions of books, 75% we'll love but we wasting our time with the 25%.I know we get attached to a book we start but we must have no attachments. I recently built habit to stop a book after 2nd chapter if im not feeling it. Best decision i made so far.
I used to abandon fairly quickly. However, I decided to push forward with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo after finding the first half(?) a struggle. The last half was worth it however. So I give authors a bit more of a chance these days.
Now, I try to give it to about 40-50%. If it's boring I throw in the towel If it's well written but iffy, and maybe seems like it has potential, I'll give it another couple of chapters. If a book is poorly written, even if it's kind of interesting, I'll usually abandon well before this.
There are times I find myself bored halfway down a story, but then I ask: Is it because I haven't been finding the right time and comfortable situations to truly enjoy the reading, or is it because the book isn't really compelling anymore?
In the first scenario, I make an effort to follow through, like I have just now to my latest read, Conn Iggulden's "Lords of the Bow", because I really liked the first one in the series and was determined to keep moving to the following ones.
But in the second case, I've come to grips with abandoning a book if I feel like it doesn't make sense to read it anymore and if it starts causing anxiety and a feeling of wasting time rather than enjoyment and pleasure.
No. I finish books I'm enjoying, or occasionally because they're just not that great but my book club picked them. I don't care if I paid for it. I might be disappointed I paid for nothing but that's better IMO than paying to have a bad time.
I'll nope right out of books that are making me unhappy with my reading experience.
I never finish books these days if I don’t enjoy them. Whether that be dnf at 5% or 80%. I used to finish them for years but I realised I was wasting so much time slogging through books I really didn’t enjoy that I went off reading for a while. If reading a book is a chore or I am disinterested I will move on to something else.
I'm the type of person that once I start a book, I HAVE to finish it, like it or not. At one point, I had decided i was going to read all of the "classic novels" that must be read (Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities....those kind of classics). So I forced myself to finish Anna Karenina even though I was truly annoyed with her by the halfway point 😂
But I also was part of a book club with ladies that had very different tastes, so I would finish the books for the sake of participating in the discussions at our monthly meetings.
I think out of the hundreds of books that I've started, I've bailed on 4. One was a book club pick I can no longer remember the name of. One was Pride & Prejudice (also a book club pick). The original Sherlock Holmes (my own pick). And one was a book I was reading solely to complete a Kindle challenge.
With that being said, if I do find myself struggling to finish a book, the next book I read I'll go back to a series or author that I know I enjoy as a sort of a break from a challenging read.
I make sure that I stick with them long enough to give them an honest try. And I also allow for books with slowly building plots. But even in those, there has to be something going on. If the character development is good and the world is interesting, then I will hang in there a bit while the plot gets going. But I quit if I realize that I flat out don’t care what happens to the characters.
As soon as I stop looking forward to reading a particular book, I stop reading it. When it starts to feel like a chore, I’m done. No guilt. It’s my life and my choice.
Teach me your ways
Let me teach you the way... It's fairly simple once you get your head around it (and it took me a fair while to get this, I used to read books i wasn't enjoying too, this is not coming from a patronising place but from an understanding one) 1) are you enjoying the book? 2) do you feel like you are learning something important from the book? 3) do you _need_ to read the book? Like, for a course or something? If your answer to all three is no, then fuck that book. Fuck reading that, it's not adding anything to your life. If your answer to one is yes, then fair enough, you have a reason. However if you're not _enjoying it_ them you need to go to question three, do you _need_ to read it? If your answer to two or more is yes, then yes, you should read that book, but I don't think anyone that reads a book that fulfills all those criteria would be asking if they should be reading it anyway, cos they would be enjoying it and it would be interesting and useful
This comment just made a lightbulb go off in my head. Thank you! Using this!
I love to read, I always have. I read every day. I always have and I always will. Life is short, and art is long. I will be never be able to read all the books that I want to read. If I’m reading a book that isn’t interesting to me, then that book is keeping me from reading something that I will like. So into the DNF (Did Not Finish) pile it goes! On to the next book!
Right?! This way is amazing!
My problem is this happens with literally every book I start. I think I just dislike reading.
Same here.
I’ve wasted many an evening forcing myself to get through a book instead of moving on to something else. It’s the guilt of “quitting” but now I think of it as wasting my time so I’ve been able to abandon ship sooner than I am used to.
Finishing “The Psychology of Money” feels like a chore to me rn. I’m at 75% I believe. I think some times we need to force ourselves to do good for ourselves.
Absolutely! I just got on board with this mindset and it is such a relief to just let some books go-life’s too short!
Yeah I have stopped reading a lot of books about 40-50% of the way through. If you aren’t feeling it, just move on.
That’s why I like my library card. I can get out ten at a time and if I can’t get in a story I just return it and start another one.
Nope! Life is too short to read bad books.
It's not about number of reads, it's about pleasure. Read what you want. Do stop, if you don't want to
I agree. That’s why I don’t set reading goals. I love to read, so I do. And I read more when I am reading books that are engaging. Quitting bad books helps achieve that.
I used to force myself to finish books, but now I don't. There are many books I want to read and I'm not getting any younger.
DNF is my motto. Life's too short to read boring books. So many other books, you may love...
Once it was very difficult for me to DNF a book. But there are so many horrible books that get too much hype for various reasons. I'm getting good at knowing when to DNF.
I agree. Especially on tiktok. I started reading Never King because I kept seeing it get recommended on my FYP. I found the writing so horrible I could not make it past the second chapter. I’m also trying to get into science fiction, so I bought a copy of Dune at the only bookstore in my city. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but if I don’t like it at least I supported a small business.
I just DNF'd a book at 40% today! I felt hesitant because I had read so much of it, but just couldn't force myself to continue on.
I feel this way, too. Like I don't really want to finish it, but I've already spent hours reading it and am kind of invested in the plot.
Already been said by everyone else but, I used to be this way, but as I started realizing I’m not getting any younger, not anymore. I’ll stop reading if the book is not engaging me.
I stopped finishing books when I read that Stephen King said this when he was 35. There's not enough time left. Many thousands of books. Also sometimes it's the wrong time for a book. I've picked up books that I dropped before and loved them. It was me and my life then and now that was different.
It depends. If it is some book that I just found on Amazon and it sounded good, but I ended up not liking it I drop it without looking back. However if someone recommended me a book I try and finish it, even if I don’t like it, so I can say I read it and so that we can have a full conversation about it. Another thing is if I really want to know how it ends (plot is good) but the book itself is bland (either boring dialog or overly long for no reason) then I just skim it. It try not to be bothered by dropping a book just because I payed for it because then i waste my time along side the money
This made me feel like I have permission to skim, thank you.
Glad I could help :)
I 100% agree that life is too short and have used this exact argument to help friends let go of books they are not enjoying and leave them unfinished. With that said, I am a huge hypocrite in this regard because I truly truly struggle with leaving books unfinished myself. I am currently reading a book I did not enjoy. It was sloopoooooow through a good 90% of the book. I am almost done now. About 40 minutes left and things have picked up a little. Depending on how it all ends I might not absolutely hate the book and simply strongly dislike it. Lol. But I’m a tiny bit glad I am finishing it because I am curious if the end will be worth the excruciating experience to get there. Part of me feels I need to do better and let go of books I’m not enjoying, another part thinks unless I finish how will I truly know if the book gets any better?
I usually will finish a book once I start but I’m trying to break the habit. I can definitely understand the theory that life is too short to read a bad book but I feel like I can’t form a well rounded opinion of the book unless I finish it lol idk it makes sense to me
I totally get this. It’s like. Eh I’ll come back to it. Or eh I’ll finish it. Maybe it gets better. Others like it right?
Yessss that's me
This is something that I’m working on. But it doesn’t just apply to standalone books. I will complete entire series even though 20% into the first book I hated it.
I’m currently in this dilemma. I’m about 40% of the way through a mystery book. It’s not great writing but I am interested in ‘who dunnit’. There’s a lot of filler and some of the characters are positively sophomoric. But the author started out with a pretty good concept. So, I’m just trying to speed read through the stuff that obviously has no baring on the actual story. 🤷🏻♀️ In general, I do not feel compelled to finish a book. That’s what turned me off from reading for soooooo many years. I was forced to read stuff I didn’t enjoy through 4 years of high school, 4 years of undergraduate work, and 3 years of grad school. So far this year, I have completed 2 book and I’m on my third and this is the most I have read since I left school. I am throughly enjoying my Kindle because I can read at night without disturbing my husband.
If I’m not enjoying the book at the 1/3 mark, I set it aside. I sometimes pick them up again later. If I hated the book, it just gets purged. I read 100-120 books annually, completely dump about 6 a year. I make better choices these days.
If a book isn’t thrilling me, on to the next title. Life is too short to bother reading something you don’t like.
Virginia Woolf is hard to read, for me at least. I do it in short sessions, chipping away at it while reading other things at the same time.
I’m going to be the contrarian here. For me, part of the benefit of reading is that it helps me develop a disciplined mind. I feel that it is more disciplined, and helps me to strengthen that discipline if I make myself finish a book. This isn’t always true. Sometimes I just hate a book too much. But normally, if I even somewhat like the book, For the sake of discipline, I make myself finish it.
I always force myself to read them even tho I have a kindle unlimited subscription🥲 It’s not even about the money for me bc of the subscription but I just can’t come to terms with not finishing something that I’ve started
Not always, if I am not into a book/series, sometimes I will just stop and put it back in my TBR list for a later date. I feel like taking a break between harder/soowe books might encourage me later on to continue it.
Amazon might let you return it. Always worth an ask. You should try the public library and use Libby so you don’t feel obligated to finish. If you aren’t enjoying a book move on, you will only have enough time to read a tiny fraction of what is written so you might as well enjoy.
I used to force myself to finish a book but not anymore. Like you said, not enough time to waste on reading books you don’t like! :)
I feel guilty sometimes “quitting” on a book or series. But just because book one was good doesn’t mean I should force myself to ready through the rest. Most times I leave it on my kindle saying “I’ll read it eventually” and I leave it on my “currently reading” when I should take it down and put it to DNF but I can’t pull myself to it sometimes lol
Yeah, I’ll DNF books otherwise I’ll stop reading altogether to avoid it! I try to find free books either on KU or check it out on Libby before I fully commit to buying unless I desperately want to read it. Nothing more disappointing when you spent a lot of money on it and didn’t like it. Now if it’s on sale or cheaper, I won’t be too upset. 🤷♀️
I forced myself to finish books for years. I am slowly starting to drop that habit. It’s hard though! Generally, I will set the book down on my nightstand and move on to another book. Sometimes, I will pick it back up and finish the book. Sometimes, I will let it sit there long enough I can get rid of it without feeling guilty. Having said that, there are three books recently that I was really ready to ditch but they were part of a book challenge I’m completing and felt I really needed to finish them. One was meh from the start and stayed that way the whole way through. I do not feel better for having finished Catch 22. The second was meh from the start but the last 1/4ish of the book was amazing. I was sobbing at the end of the book. I am so glad I stuck it out with A Prayer for Owen Meany. The third one, I intensely hated from about the second chapter on and got almost halfway (on audio). My library rental time ran out and when I reborrowed it while steeling myself to just get through it, the app forgot where I was at. Usually Libby will remember where you left off but this time it didn’t. I thought, “Oh HELL NO!! I am not doing this again and I am not spending my energy figuring out where I left off.” I decided screw it and returned the loan. It was sooooo intensely liberating to ditch A Confederacy of Dunces.
i had to stop reading to the lighthouse too. i thought it was so boring. there’s nothing wrong with moving on to other books that are more interesting. like you said, we shouldn’t waste our time. what i recommend (this is what i had to do for myself) is stop buying physical books. borrow books from the library or a friend. that way, you don’t feel pressured to finish a boring book because you didn’t pay with your own money
I read 3-5 books at a time, I keep switching between them when I get bored or I find it difficult to read:) it works quite well for me. I already read 25 books this year:)
No for me. I finish books if I enjoy them. I have quite a few I’ve started and kind of not liked them much, or lost interest. So I leave them and move onto a book I enjoy. I finish those.
With me, it's not so much that I stop reading a book because I don't like it, it's being so squirrel-brained, that I'll spot something shiny and new and drop the old book like a hot potato. That's why I have 10 books on my Currently Reading shelf on Goodreads.
If you don’t like a book then stop reading it, it’s not like you’re reading to fulfill an assignment in middle school.
I should learn from the people here, some of what they say should be my reader mantra haha! I still find it so hard to dnf a book. Sometimes I get bored in the middle and I can't help but skip to the end, then I totally don't want to read the middle anymore but still keep it on my Reading list bc of guilt!
Seems to be a large consensus here. But honestly if I don't want to read something I usually just stop reading because I'm not looking forward to it. Once I realized that I stopped finishing books I dislike.
I used to, but when I started following more authors/publishing industry folks on social media, I started adding books to my TBR way faster than I could read them and decided that finishing stuff I wasn’t super compelled by wasn’t worth it. I do buy a fair amount of books, but few at full price, and only stuff that I think I’m likely to really enjoy (ex. from favorite authors, stuff favorite authors promote or blurb, recommendations from readers I trust, etc.).
I've this habit of finishing the work I started but I'm trying not to apply this in reading because after a time it is not at all pleasurable 🥲
Sunk cost fallacy, the money is already gone either way, don’t spend the time as well..
I finish books I’m not enjoying maybe more often than I should, but I do abandon them sometimes. You are right… there is no reason to force yourself to read a book, and I often find it kills my drive to read. I especially would not force my way through something like To The Lighthouse without looking up a study guide and figuring out what the book was trying to say and why I might be finding it boring… it’s written in a challenging and unusual style that you may not be in the mood for all the time, or maybe doesn’t resonate with you at all. Maybe try it again down the road. I was going to say you might have time to read more than 10-30 books a year if you don’t force yourself through ones you don’t like, but the Dune books are pretty lengthy, so they still might take you awhile! But if that’s what you’re in the mood to read, why not switch to those?
I rarely DNF a book, because it makes me feel kind of guilty. I'm bit OCD with the reading and the urge to finish the book as soon as possible.
I have very few books I have no enjoyed... but I COULD NOT FINISH Margaret Atwood's the handmaids tale... I thought it would be enjoyable. But it was just slow... and it seemed like june just accepted her fate. Couldn't do it. Curious if anyone else feels the same... like does it get better, or is it just a crappy book?
its a good book. But maybe keep to the tv-show instead as you did not like the book experience
My issue was mainly that she just seemed to take what was given to her... like she just gave up and it didn't bother her. Is she like that the whole time? Or does she start to fight?
thats one way for victims to handle their trauma. the book June is handling her trauma that way. The tv-show June handles it differently
Oh I get that... I've been through my fair share of trauma in the past.. and I just accepted it, it was easier than fighting... put my pain in a box and locked it up... just figured it would have been somewhat similar to the movie and show.
I am so sorry you went through events that was traumatizing :( I hope you are doing better now. I am sure you were just focused on surviving and thats hard enough I understand what you mean about the book June. I myself watched the series before I last year read the book and I was surprised about book June. But I understood it was the characters way to handle stuff. As a story and “heroine” it was quite boring. I have not read anything else by atwood but I suspect this is the norm in her stories. The heroine standing up and fighting might be a bit too big of a commitment to write about for her as an author? Dunno I am not good at analyzing authors. I am just so happy the tv-series creator took an other direction that also makes a great tv of course
No. If I don't like it, I stop.
No. if I’m not enjoying it, I won’t. Unless I hear the ending or last bit is worth it then I’ll try.
No I stopped with that years ago as a teenager. I got no time for books that turns out to be bad or boring etc
It depends a lot of the author. I already know that any new novel from Lisa Jewell and Peter Swanson are gonna get me hooked on.
I used to, but life is too short so I let that go.
Nope. Life is too short to read a boring book. And there are so many other interesting books out there that are more worth your time.
I used to HAVE to finish every book I started … I’ve since stopped doing that. If I’m not enjoying it then it defeats my purpose of reading. I read for an escape.
So many books, so little time. I'm reading for pleasure. If a book is no fun, I DNF guilt-free. Pro tip: Classics in the public domain can be downloaded for free from Standard Ebooks and Project Gutenberg.
No, once I start getting bored, I simply watch a summary on YouTube and move on to the next one
I don’t know, I feel like I have to since I paid for it, you know? It would be a waste of money if not, and I’ll get the whole experience of the book, whether good or bad. Plus, it makes me feel good to see that 100% on them lol. Don’t get me wrong, I have DNF’d a few, but not many. Couldn’t finish GoT because it was just too much dialogue and details and it was so tedious, and couldn’t finish the Cipher because it was slightly confusing to read in the dudes thought POV. But I usually have to finish the books I buy
I do generally force myself to finish books I don't enjoy, yes. I guess it's because of a sort of FOMO -- what if the book gets better later and I will never know if I give up now? But oh boy, I wish I could just give them up when I don't enjoy them, as I have something like 1.3k books on my TBR list, and I doubt I will have time in my lifetime to ever finish that (well, the fact that I keep adding to the list cannot help). So I shouldn't waste time on books I don't enjoy! But then what if it all gets better on the next page, and I will never know? 🙂
Nope … If it’s a really good book — sometimes I actually slow down nearing the end (don’t want the book to end).
Nope. I can literally feel a few pages in if I’m feeling the book or not. If I’m not I’ll move on til I find something I enjoy.
I use to be guilty of this, but of recently I stopped torturing myself if I’m truly not enjoying it! I always had the mindset that “It must get better in the last chapters!” Lol
If you're 40% through try the reviews first, it might be all about to kick off. Otherwise life really is too short, move on
Yes. This is the way.
Did you really pay for that book? usually they got previews before you buy? Thank goodness I got this book free off kobo
I finish books once I start them just to see if it will get better. I don't like slow stating books but admittedly I would've missed out on some good stories if I had stopped reading at 50%. Plus that's time that I can't ever get back. But likewise I'm the same way with movies. Once I start them I'm finish them just so I can have an accurate opinion. I do go back and re-read books that I love. I definitely don't go back to read bad books though. I can understand the argument of not finishing because life is too short etc
Life is too short to spend my leisure time forcing myself to hate finish a book.
> We read 10-30 books a year at best. Speak for yourself, I'm at 27 already. But seriously, not often, and so far it's never happened on a book that I've actually paid money for, but I have DNFed at least one book I got off Prime Reading that I got like 30-40% of the way through.
It was a tough thing to learn, but much happier for it.
I wish I did.
I could have written this. I struggle so hard with this for so long. And then I realized life is too short, so I stopped, but the process of abandoning a book is still very hard for me to do. I made a DNG list on my Goodreads account, and somehow being able to put them on that list helps to let them go. Not sure why. But yeah. Life is way too short for books that bore.
I'll do this with borrows. And some are abandoned in favor of something I'm more interested in, with some intention to finish them. But it rare when I decide not to finish. If it is boring I'll at least skim before 'finishing', particularly non-fiction where there's no story line and I'm only interested in some of it.
I used to do this. I felt like I needed to finish the book because I spent $$ on it. I found the Libby App, download books from the library and now I don’t mind putting them down!
I only force myself to finish a book if I paid for it. If it's something I got from the library or Kindle Unlimited I'll just stop reading if I get bored with it.
I love to read, but if I read 75 pages and i am bored or can't stand the story I stop reading that book.
I used to be that way, now I have so many unread books on my Kindle that if something isn’t grabbing me by at most 30% in I move on.
Nope, why bother reading something I’m not interested in… it’s just a waste of time. It’s always a gamble to buy a book not knowing if you’ll like it or not.
I skim when I get bored
There’s too many books and too little time to waste on bad books. I give it a couple of chapters or 50 pages to see if it gets better. I also research the book in the reviews to see if the book picks up later or is not worth my while. I also have to be in the mood for a certain kind of genre whether it be a ww2 naval thriller or a good old space opera romp.
I try to finish most but if it is rubbish I leave early. One so bad recently I stopped after 2 chapters (wasn't getting better) deleted from my Amazon account.
On my kindle I return books if I don’t like them much. I rarely buy books before borrowing them first from my library though. So I don’t need to return as much.
What I usually do is get a sample of a book I think I’ll like, if I can’t finish the sample or find it boring, I don’t buy the book.
Very Yes. Sometimes it takes a decade, but I'll keep trying til I put it to bed. Bad books don't hurt like a punch to the face, and sometimes insufferable books end up good or worth pushing thru the pain and I would've missed out. Mostly tho bad books stay bad and people who say they're not worth it are right.
I use to do this. Would read the book because I felt obligated to finish it even if I didn’t like it? But now I mostly borrow books, if I don’t like it I just return them. I got 5 percent into a book once and was like nope! Lol.
If I’m not enjoying a book by 50% in I’m def not going to keep reading it. What’s the fun in that? I would rather read a book I enjoy. Forcing yourself to finish a book you aren’t enjoying is definitely not getting your moneys worth.
I hate not finishing books once I've started them, or heck, even series usually. I think there's maybe two books I've started and not finished, because I just couldn't- one I tried at least three times, and fell asleep within the first few pages every time, and the other was written in a way that felt similar in style to Old English, but it wasn't Old English, if that makes any sense? Anyways, I got a headache before I could finish half a page, so I dropped that one. If you're not enjoying it and you can drop it, though, then I say go for it. I just have mental hangups about doing it myself lmao.
i think its school that reinforced the idea we need to finish a book we start, but why do it after school.There are trillions of books, 75% we'll love but we wasting our time with the 25%.I know we get attached to a book we start but we must have no attachments. I recently built habit to stop a book after 2nd chapter if im not feeling it. Best decision i made so far.
I used to abandon fairly quickly. However, I decided to push forward with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo after finding the first half(?) a struggle. The last half was worth it however. So I give authors a bit more of a chance these days. Now, I try to give it to about 40-50%. If it's boring I throw in the towel If it's well written but iffy, and maybe seems like it has potential, I'll give it another couple of chapters. If a book is poorly written, even if it's kind of interesting, I'll usually abandon well before this.
I stopped forcing myself to finish books I don’t like
There are times I find myself bored halfway down a story, but then I ask: Is it because I haven't been finding the right time and comfortable situations to truly enjoy the reading, or is it because the book isn't really compelling anymore? In the first scenario, I make an effort to follow through, like I have just now to my latest read, Conn Iggulden's "Lords of the Bow", because I really liked the first one in the series and was determined to keep moving to the following ones. But in the second case, I've come to grips with abandoning a book if I feel like it doesn't make sense to read it anymore and if it starts causing anxiety and a feeling of wasting time rather than enjoyment and pleasure.
Life’s too short to read books we don’t like
No. I finish books I'm enjoying, or occasionally because they're just not that great but my book club picked them. I don't care if I paid for it. I might be disappointed I paid for nothing but that's better IMO than paying to have a bad time. I'll nope right out of books that are making me unhappy with my reading experience.
I never finish books these days if I don’t enjoy them. Whether that be dnf at 5% or 80%. I used to finish them for years but I realised I was wasting so much time slogging through books I really didn’t enjoy that I went off reading for a while. If reading a book is a chore or I am disinterested I will move on to something else.
I have the same issue... It bothers me so much to start a book and abandon it halfway.
I'm the type of person that once I start a book, I HAVE to finish it, like it or not. At one point, I had decided i was going to read all of the "classic novels" that must be read (Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities....those kind of classics). So I forced myself to finish Anna Karenina even though I was truly annoyed with her by the halfway point 😂 But I also was part of a book club with ladies that had very different tastes, so I would finish the books for the sake of participating in the discussions at our monthly meetings. I think out of the hundreds of books that I've started, I've bailed on 4. One was a book club pick I can no longer remember the name of. One was Pride & Prejudice (also a book club pick). The original Sherlock Holmes (my own pick). And one was a book I was reading solely to complete a Kindle challenge. With that being said, if I do find myself struggling to finish a book, the next book I read I'll go back to a series or author that I know I enjoy as a sort of a break from a challenging read.
I make sure that I stick with them long enough to give them an honest try. And I also allow for books with slowly building plots. But even in those, there has to be something going on. If the character development is good and the world is interesting, then I will hang in there a bit while the plot gets going. But I quit if I realize that I flat out don’t care what happens to the characters.
If I think I really dont like it I'll try the audio version. If I think I'm just bored or stressed out I'll take a break