Roger Sutton has a post here about giving up on a book that's just not clicking with you as a reader. I have to say that I fully support this. Life is finite, you know? I'm not going to stick with a book or a movie or a television show that I feel is a waste of my time.*
Of course, there are some things that are worth the time--David Foster Wallace for me, Faulkner for my friend Anonymous, we all have our little ballywicks--and I believe in giving a book a fair chance. A book under 200 pages gets at least 50 to get moving for me, and a book over 200 pages gets at least a 100, but if I'm not interested by then?* Forget it. I'm not going to be interested.
Another factor that sometimes comes into play is how long it takes me to read the pages. I'm normally a very fast reader. Fifty pages of your average level adult fiction won't take me a half hour, even if (or especially if) I like it.** If it takes me an hour, or two, or three, I don't like the book. I may not realize it until I take a break, but I'll realize it during the next fifty pages, and I'll put it down.
Life is too short to read books that you don't like, man.*** There's too much good stuff out there.
~~~
*True story: just last night I gave up on the film version of Snow Falling On Cedars because it was taking too long to get started. I guess that there was a lot of "cinematography" going on, but when I could fast forward through, literally, minutes of set-up shots, from an assortment of angles, I knew the movie was doomed for me. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if, perhaps, the author had a contemplative style or something that encouraged this kind of scenery shooting in the director, but either way it did not work for me.
**This is why I read a book I like two or three times. If I'm really into a book, I'll end up going so fast that I miss things. Strange, but true.
***This is not a quality judgment, but a value judgment. Books that are good to me aren't good to others, a fact I had to face when I tried to give my mom one of the books I loved when I was a kid. She was really not into The Wind in the Willows, for reasons my six-year-old mind could not grasp, as that is a kickass book.
Of course, there are some things that are worth the time--David Foster Wallace for me, Faulkner for my friend Anonymous, we all have our little ballywicks--and I believe in giving a book a fair chance. A book under 200 pages gets at least 50 to get moving for me, and a book over 200 pages gets at least a 100, but if I'm not interested by then?* Forget it. I'm not going to be interested.
Another factor that sometimes comes into play is how long it takes me to read the pages. I'm normally a very fast reader. Fifty pages of your average level adult fiction won't take me a half hour, even if (or especially if) I like it.** If it takes me an hour, or two, or three, I don't like the book. I may not realize it until I take a break, but I'll realize it during the next fifty pages, and I'll put it down.
Life is too short to read books that you don't like, man.*** There's too much good stuff out there.
~~~
*True story: just last night I gave up on the film version of Snow Falling On Cedars because it was taking too long to get started. I guess that there was a lot of "cinematography" going on, but when I could fast forward through, literally, minutes of set-up shots, from an assortment of angles, I knew the movie was doomed for me. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if, perhaps, the author had a contemplative style or something that encouraged this kind of scenery shooting in the director, but either way it did not work for me.
**This is why I read a book I like two or three times. If I'm really into a book, I'll end up going so fast that I miss things. Strange, but true.
***This is not a quality judgment, but a value judgment. Books that are good to me aren't good to others, a fact I had to face when I tried to give my mom one of the books I loved when I was a kid. She was really not into The Wind in the Willows, for reasons my six-year-old mind could not grasp, as that is a kickass book.
Comments
I've given up on very few books in my life but I also try to avoid reading something that I suspect will not work for me. I find that my attention span is getting worse because I was reading a bunch of short stories the other night and while they were actually very good, I kept flipping ahead just to see how LONG the short story was, ha ha. Not a good sign. I'm having trouble losing myself in books these days. Maybe having a three-year old around just isn't conducive to immersing yourself in a book!
I recall giving up on Ulysses and something by Dostoevsky once. Russian authors just wear me out.
So now we know that you'll give a book a decent shot. Your loyal readers now want to know if there are things you read over and over again because you like them so much or do you consider that a waste of time? It will come as no surprise to you that I reread Faulkner over and over and over again. It's so dense that I typically find something new every single time. How about it, do you have a favorite author or series that you like to reread every now and then?