Boring book...and then?

[Jimi75]

Lets say you read a book 550 pages strong. The first 160-200 pages were kind of a tough read and you feel you are fighting with most of the pages and also the content. What do you do (see poll)?

I had this with one of the last books I have read and I fought until the bitter end....unfortunately, it felt like a waste of time...I have only once or twice left a book unfinished due to the fact that most of the time I make good choices with my books. :happy

 

[Robert]

I usually read to the bitter end, especially if it's a book that has good reviews.

 

[Spudman]

I usually read to the bitter end, especially if it's a book that has good reviews.

Me too. Often I'll put the book down for a week or two and then come back to it. Sometimes that can make a change that allows me to start getting into it. Otherwise, I just keep reading. It took me 4 tries to get into and finally finish Lord Of The Rings.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

It took me 4 tries to get into and finally finish Lord Of The Rings.

WHAT!!! You heathen!

Me, I will keep trying, then if I can't get it going, leave it on the book stand next to the bed and try again later, and if it still doesn't work, it goes on the bookshelves at the end of the hall. If it does not get read in the next year, it gets put in a book sale. But that happens rarely.

 

[Commodore 64]

I got about 50% of the way through Grant's memoirs. Tough read, and I've plowed through several Grant biographies and the unabridged Lee's Lieutenants. I laid it down, and haven't felt like trying again.

 

[Bloozcat]

I usually read to the bitter end, especially if it's a book that has good reviews.

Same here.

I had not read The DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons, but my wife had and thought they were great. My wife had no prior knowledge of the whole conspiritorial myth that is the story line of the books, so she was a blank slate. I was very familiar with the various groups depicted in the book, both from the historical and theoritical perspectives. When I found myself answering historical questions that my wife had about some of the groups in the story (particularly the Knights Templar), I began to question Dan Brown's ability as a writer.

Fast forward about a year later when I decided to read Dan Brown's Digital Fortress after a co-worker left a copy on my desk. What the heck, I thought. I'm going on a trip so I'll take it along. Well, my suspicions about Dan Brown's writing abilities were confirmed in a most intellectually tortuous way. It's not just the fact that his story line was weak. His characters were stiff, cardboard-like caricatures of what they were supposed to represent. I couldn't warm up to the supposed heroes, especially the heroine, the most brilliant woman in the world with her 180 IQ. And of course, the heroine's equally brilliant boyfriend who speaks seemingly every language on the planet without even the slightest American accent to betray his true identity. The villians weren't devious, evil, or interesting enough to evoke even passing dislike. I won't even get started on Brown's writing "style". If I was to contrast writing "style" to fashion "style", Brown's would be on the order of the K-Mart Blue Light Special variety.

It took all of about 30 seconds for me to reason through the "climactic" ending - the answer to the scientific riddle that would save the world. It took our genius heroine 26 excruciatingly long pages of the book to figure it out. Brilliant. Now I don't pretend to be a physicist, a brilliant physicist, and certainly not a genius with a 180 IQ, but the riddle wouldn't stump the panel on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.

The only real emotion I felt throughout the reading of the book was the anger I felt at myself for having stayed with it until the bitter end. Morbid curiosity perhaps? Must have been very morbid indeed...

 

[marnold]

I read a lot, but I read very few contemporary fiction authors. Most of my reading is either non-fiction or the classics. If I'm reading, it's generally something that I'm pretty convinced I'll get something out of or it's a classic and if I don't get anything out of it it's probably my fault. That's my Liberal Arts B.A. showing itself again.