Do you have a hard time quitting a book?

[waryan]

I've a few books right now I am slowly caring less about, yet I always find it difficult to walk away.

how about yourselves?

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Always....

These days my family can pry me away from my books once in a while, but when I was living alone it happened that I looked up from a book only to discover that it was time to go to work...

/Claes

[Pewnut]

Good question. If I come across a book that I can’t “connect with” or if I feel like it’s going
nowhere in particular, then I will definitely stop reading it as soon as I make up my mind.
For instance, I stopped reading Kerouac’s “On the Road” when I had only 20 pages left to
go and I refuse to ever finish it. There are too many good books to last me a lifetime, I say.

[captainamanda]

sure it is hard to quit a book that "haunts" in your mind always...

[1n50mn14]

Even when I absolutely despise a book, I finish reading it. I almost always end up getting 'into' it at some point, even when it's just a few chapters from the end.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Always....

These days my family can pry me away from my books once in a while, but when I was living alone it happened that I looked up from a book only to discover that it was time to go to work...

/Claes

Ha, ha, works a bummer.


Good question. If I come across a book that I can’t “connect with” or if I feel like it’s going
nowhere in particular, then I will definitely stop reading it as soon as I make up my mind.
For instance, I stopped reading Kerouac’s “On the Road” when I had only 20 pages left to
go and I refuse to ever finish it. There are too many good books to last me a lifetime, I say.

I'm sure Kerouac divides everyone, I would have read to the end there surely though. There's a cool scene at the end when they dance in a bar in Mexico to some laid back jazz, tat da dar, tat da dar, ching! ;)

[Joreads]

Even when I absolutely despise a book, I finish reading it. I almost always end up getting 'into' it at some point, even when it's just a few chapters from the end.

I am the same once I start a book I have to finish it I have no idea why.

[kilted exile]

Nope, I read solely for enjoyment in my spare time. If I dont enjoy it I dont continue

[Dark Muse]

Yes I have had that happen before. I will be reading something and I will not care much about the characters or what happens to them, and I will find the plot slow, and have considered just not reading, and yet for some reason conitnue to do so.

[Cat_Brenners]

I fall in love with the characters in some books and find it very hard to put it down and move on to another. But, luckily, soon I am caught up with different characters again or interest.
Cat

[Silas Thorne]

I can stop reading and never pick up a book again if I feel that the thought of clipping my toenails is more entertaining than reading on. :)

[JacobF]

Lord of the Flies was like that for me. The relentless Christian imagery and allusions, the obvious allegory of human nature and overbearing descriptions made the novel transparent and boring. Even though Golding gave a pretty insightful commentary on human nature, I didn't care about the characters and the plot failed to entice me. I guess the two things that kept me reading is 1) it was for school, so I kind of had to, and 2) it was regarded so highly by critics that I felt I would be missing out if I didn't read it (to be honest, I really wouldn't have).

[Mopey Droney]

I only force myself to finish a book if it's really important, like Don Quixote. Anything else, even if it's somehow won a Pulitzer despite being crapola, like Richard Ford's Independence Day, can in good conscience be tossed against the wall once I start to catch on to and then reject whatever banal contemporary "point" it's making.

[ballb]

I've a few books right now I am slowly caring less about, yet I always find it difficult to walk away.

how about yourselves? I find it about as hard to abandon a book as I do to walk out of a play or a concert at the interval or walk out on a movie. Don`t do it often, but sometimes I think, well...Life is just too short.

[DisPater]

if the book is pure crap it's my pleasure to stop reading it.

[semi-fly]

Nope, if I lose interest in the book I put it down without thinking twice.

[annatak]

I'm struggling with this one, too. After reading the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I thought I'd found a new favorite author. So far, I forced myself to finish The Final Solution and couldn't get through Gentlemen of the Road or Summerland. There's a part of me that wonders if I'm missing out on the "best part" but since my bookshelves are more than stocked with books I can't possibly finish in a lifetime, I think I'll just have to move on.

[mono]

I've a few books right now I am slowly caring less about, yet I always find it difficult to walk away.

how about yourselves?
I get a bit remorseful. A few extraordinarily difficult books like Finnegans Wake by James Joyce or Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon took a few times of a pick-it-up-try-again-later routine; I finished both eventually, but they collected some dust in those in-between stages.
One writer I have completely given up on - Gore Vidal. I feel awful because so many readers love him, and I have a reverence for him for that, but I have started reading Creation and The City and the Pillar, and just cannot get into them. :sick:

[manolia]

I've a few books right now I am slowly caring less about, yet I always find it difficult to walk away.

how about yourselves?

Same here. Even if i don't like a book i feel a strong obligation to finish it. Pure masochism :lol: