CHUD.com Community › Forums › ARTS & LITERATURE › Books and Magazines › Not finishing a book
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Not finishing a book

post #1 of 22
6/16/02 at 3:15am
Thread Starter 
I hate when that happens, I try to get through every book I read but sometimes I just can't.

It's happend twice in a row with Darwins Blade and The Cold Six-Thousand. I hate myself for it, but I just couldn't get through them.

Anyone else do this? If so, do you hate yourself or just start the next one?
Reply
post #2 of 22
6/16/02 at 4:18am
Believe it or not, one of the first books I just stopped reading was The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson. I ended up about a year later actually starting it over and finishing it...afterwards kicking myself because I should have finished it the first time.

I usually don't hate myself for not finishing a book, mainly because there's usually an overwhelming reason for me not to finish a book.
Reply
post #3 of 22
6/16/02 at 9:26am
I ALWAYS do this. Some books I just can't stick with.

I still never finished Kavalier and Clay, LOTR: TT, The Fall of Hyperion, and Breakfast of Champions. I'm trying to read Stephen King's "It" now, and that's interesting enough so maybe i'll stick with it.
Reply
post #4 of 22
6/16/02 at 12:49pm
After so much reading, and with so much yet to read, I have little patience with badly written books. There's a large dent in the wall of my former home from tomes hurled across the room. There soon will be a large dent here in my new apartment.

If a book is well-written, I'll keep going ... but there's another danger that books face -- being uninteresting. These books I will give until 1/2 way through ... and then will ask myself if there is any character who I care about, or any situation to which I need to know the resolution. If the answer is "no," even though well-written, the book goes in a sack headed to the used bookstore.
Reply
post #5 of 22
6/16/02 at 1:03pm
I got about halfway through The Hobbit, then lost interest.

Twice.

Then I got about halfway through the first book of Lord Of The Rings, then lost interest/became pissed off.

I won't go near Mr. Tolkien again, at least not until the three films are out. ZzzZzzZZz.
Reply
post #6 of 22
6/16/02 at 1:57pm
I think it happens to every one from time to time. Last time it happened to me was when I was slogging through George Pelecanos' "Hell to Pay." I usually love his stuff, but this one was just flat and dull. After about a hundred and thirty pages I just gave up on it. Sometimes I can put a book down and leave it for a few months, then pick it back up where I left off and it ends up turning out to be a much better read that way.
Reply
post #7 of 22
6/16/02 at 6:00pm
I'm a pretty good judge of what I will or won't like before buying or borrowing, but there will always be those clunkers that slip through.
For the longest time I actually used to be totally anal about finishing a book once I started no matter how shitty or how boring I found it to be, but then I finally realized how much of my valuable time I was wasting & I was able to start tossing aside those books that just weren't doing anything for me. Talk about a newfound freedom! LOL.
That's not to say that I now leave a vast array of unfinished novels scattered behind me or give up on everything with a "slow spot". Far from it. I probably still stick with some things longer than most would, but now there's no guilt in throwing in the towel on stuff that I'm just not enjoying.

-Jim
Reply
post #8 of 22
6/17/02 at 12:28am
I usually give a book until the second chapter. If I've invested that much time, I finish it no matter what. Textbooks don't count
Reply
post #9 of 22
6/17/02 at 12:43am
Happened to me with Steven Pressfield's Tides of War and more recently The Last Full Measure.

I hate this too....escpecially considering I know those books get better. Suppose it doesn't helps the fact that I post here AND have the crummiest job in the world for 40 hours a week. Oh and a girlfriend.
Reply
post #10 of 22
6/17/02 at 9:54am
Quote:
Kid Ego:
Believe it or not, one of the first books I just stopped reading was The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson. I ended up about a year later actually starting it over and finishing it...afterwards kicking myself because I should have finished it the first time.

I usually don't hate myself for not finishing a book, mainly because there's usually an overwhelming reason for me not to finish a book.
Wow...

I also gave up on "The Diamond Age" and still haven't finished it. It wasn't as though it was badly written, I just lost track of it.

But when I was younger, I always used to finish a book. Because occasionally, they really, REALLY pick up. A good example of this was "Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks. Awesome use of narrative, but it's like a puzzle (which isn't clear initially) so it's hard-going initially.

Now, I can tell by the style usually whether something will work for me or not. And life's too short to indulge poor books.
Reply
post #11 of 22
6/17/02 at 10:09am
ALL THE TIME.

Here's a short list of books I haven't been able to get through:

Huckelberry Finn
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
The Cold Six Thousand
Memoirs of a Geshia
Cold Mountain
The Lord of The Rings (I have the 1 volume edition, I'm still stuck on part two of TT)

For me, I like a book to grab me on the few pages or so. Maybe it's because I've read all these screenwriting books that talk about "the hook" and it's carried over into my reading.
Reply
post #12 of 22
6/17/02 at 10:59am
I literally threw Cold Mountain out of my car window because I became so frustrated with it.

No, I wasn't reading and driving at the same time.
Reply
post #13 of 22
6/17/02 at 1:48pm
I had trouble getting through LOTR the first time I tried. I gave up, but the recent film releases piqued my interest again and got through them right quick. I enjoyed the story very much. Never read the appendices, though.

I had a LOT of trouble getting through one trilogy. So much so, that I don't remember the name of the author or books. I still have them somewhere. I seem to remember the story being about a leper who was transported (in dreams? coma?) to another land where he was a great hero, but didn't want the glory and responsibility that came with it.

Oddly enough, I had no problem finishing The Grapes of Wrath.

Reply
post #14 of 22
6/17/02 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought The Cold Six-Thousand was fucking awful, Rath.
Reply
post #15 of 22
6/17/02 at 3:15pm
Quote:
trippingbillie41:
I had a LOT of trouble getting through one trilogy. So much so, that I don't remember the name of the author or books. I still have them somewhere. I seem to remember the story being about a leper who was transported (in dreams? coma?) to another land where he was a great hero, but didn't want the glory and responsibility that came with it.
Ah yes, the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. Perhaps one of the the most over-rated fantasy books out there. It took me two tries to get through the whole thing, and even the second time I finished more out of dogged determination than actual enjoyment. And Thomas being a right bastard most of the first half of the first book doesn't make things any easier.
Reply
post #16 of 22
6/17/02 at 3:39pm
That's right! I knew it was Stephen something. Didn't he end up writing two or three trilogies about the guy?

A big part of what threw me off about the book was how Thomas was a fucking prick through the whole thing.
Reply
post #17 of 22
6/17/02 at 3:45pm
6 books. 2 trilogies.

Lord Foul's Bane
The Illearth War
The Power that Preserves

The Wounded Land
The One Tree
White Gold Wielder
Reply
post #18 of 22
6/17/02 at 4:07pm
Quote:
Tony Ryan:
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought The Cold Six-Thousand was fucking awful, Rath.
I love Ellroy, so don't a-getta me wrongo, but his style is just too much for me sometimes. I can get headaches reading his stuff.
Reply
post #19 of 22
6/17/02 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Blofeld:
There's a large dent in the wall of my former home from tomes hurled across the room. There soon will be a large dent here in my new apartment.
I do this, too. I also throw every book I finish. It started when I lived in a studio and would read on my bed. The book shelf was across from the bed so when I finished I'd throw my book trying to land it on the shelf. I guess it became a habit.

I too have never been able to finish The Cold Six-Thousand and The Diamond Age. I will, though. I don't think them bad, I think I just wasn't in the mood. I have a bad habit of starting new book before I am finished with current books.
Reply
post #20 of 22
6/17/02 at 5:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
RathBandu 2.0:
Quote:
Tony Ryan:
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought The Cold Six-Thousand was fucking awful, Rath.
I love Ellroy, so don't a-getta me wrongo, but his style is just too much for me sometimes. I can get headaches reading his stuff.
It got to confusing and Pete was a parady of what he was in the first book. Not to mention that both Waynes are fucking annoying and there is no dynamic between anybody.
Reply
post #21 of 22
6/18/02 at 12:37pm
Quote:
Blofeld:
6 books. 2 trilogies.

Lord Foul's Bane
The Illearth War
The Power that Preserves

The Wounded Land
The One Tree
White Gold Wielder
Hell yes.

Do people still read that stuff? And what is it with Stephen Donaldson and his fascination with rape scenes? I understand his SF series is riddled with them. The fact that the "hero" of the Covenant books rapes some chick that helps him in the opening chapter of the first book of the first trilogy, for reasons that are never satisfactorily explained, does very little to endear him, and since his character never evolves particularly, he pretty much stays a bastard.

Oh, and the *angst*.

This is the sort of book I'd give up now but didn't when I was younger, but yet directly contributed to my decision to can shit that doesn't look like it's going to go the distance.

Reply
post #22 of 22
6/18/02 at 12:40pm
Hmm ... I think the first trilogy goes the distance. Covenant's dispicableness is the point.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Books and Magazines
CHUD.com Community › Forums › ARTS & LITERATURE › Books and Magazines › Not finishing a book