How many pages?

I usually get about 1/4 of the way through before finally giving up on something. I am pretty easy to please and have only done that with 3 books...of course I can't remember which ones now, but they were just boring.. after pages and pages and pages of stuff I didn't care about I finally said "I have better things to do with my time." felt guilty about it for weeks, I had purchased the books..the authors put a lot of work into it, I could have always used them for "what not to do" or some other kind of analysis.. but, there it is.

I used to force myself to finish a book no matter what, but as I get older, I realize that there are tons of good books out there to read. I'm fairly picky and I'll give a book between 50 and 100 pages to hook me.

I figure at that point, if I just don't care about the characters, then I'll find something else that I'll really enjoy.

I largely read stuff I'm very interested in, so I haven't given up on many. But I tried reading one of the year's most acclaimed books two years ago because it was so well reguarded and sounded like my kind of thing. I despised it for a while but held out till almost halfway (and it's a very long book) and then gave up.

I was able to re-gift it though. Not entirely a lost cause...

zeprosnepsid said:

I largely read stuff I'm very interested in, so I haven't given up on many.

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Same here. But I have many different genres in the giant pile on my nightstand. On several occasions, I have opened one, read a few pages, and decided that I just wasn't in the mood for that particular book at the time. On occasion, I've picked that same book up again years later and loved it. I can't think of one that I've given up on completely, although there are several that haven't led me past that first few pages, even after multiple tries.

When I read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, I wasn't that excited about if for the first 50 pages or so. But I knew it was setting up a huge story [how many pages is it? 900?!], and I knew that it was a type of book that I ought to like. So I figured that such a long book ought to be granted a generous trial period. I suppose it was somewhere around the 100-page mark where I really committed to it. I did end up really liking it, but I didn't love it the way I expected I would.

DamaNegra said:

How many pages of a novel do you read before deciding it's good or you just don't want to read it?

Ok, imagine you're reading a novel that totally sucks. How many pages will you read before deciding: "I just can't keep on reading this." ?

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One. But getting past that doesn't mean I'll stick it out. Books can alter and lose me. I remember reading David Morrell's DOUBLE IMAGE and loving the thing. Then at about the halfway point the book changed into a kind of chicklit romance. I tried to stick it out, thinking it was just a subplot and we'd get back to the meat shortly, but it soon became obvious this was the new meat. I ended up bailing and never getting to the end of that book.

Only quitters quit

I give up on books all the time. Probably because I am dyslexic and hence a slower than average reader I am more likely than others to decide “I just don’t have time for this.”

When thinking about quitting a book I have been known to read the last few pages and see where to story goes. Sometimes this will drag me through the book – usually I will skim the chapters I am missing to get the basic idea and then toss it… or swap it for something better in the “book swap” section of a guest house.

I used to finish every book I started, even if it was torture. Not sure why. Maybe my mother taught me not to waste perfectly good words, kind of like how I always had to clean my plate and not waste perfectly good food. I still find it hard to completely give up on a book. What usually happens is a new and exciting book comes along that I can't wait to read. I put the current, not-quite-as-exciting book in my bedside drawer, just until I finish the new and exciting book. Right now I've got five or six drawer books in various states of un-read-ness.

I guess one of these days I'm going to have to admit that I'm never going to finish those drawer books. And that's okay.

Short cuts are dead ends

To answer the question - there is not a set number of pages before I will quit. It could be four pages, forty, two hundred or however long it takes for boredom to set in.

I'm afraid I don't have a concrete answer to that question, DamaNegra. My figuring is, if it gets to the point that I dread reading it, I'll probably just pick up a different book.

That happened with me and the book I'm reading now. I started off reading a newer Anne McCaffrey work (an author whose work I simply adore) and couldn't get into it. There was no page limit before I canned the book, it just did not interest me.

So I went to the bookstore and got something completely different. I didn't like that book at first, but kept reading it because I rather enjoy the subject. It paid off, and now I'm thoroughly loving the read.

So like I said, there is no concrete answer for me as far as page count goes. If I like the work, I'll continue reading it. If not, I'll eventually shelve it and not pick it up again.

Page count has nothing to do with it for me.

I won't read past the first couple pages unless something has peaked my interest. I give up quickly but not often.

I don't like to pick up and stop. It is like starting a converstion and walking away...seems rude. I just read the thing. If I buy a book on my own with no reccomendations ( I'm wandering around in a book store) I read the covers or flaps and if I think I'll like it, then I buy it, and I read it. I may not like the beginning but the ending cracks me up or vice versa, but in order to evaluate the book and the author, I need to read the whole thing. ( What if the story is crappy but the author tells it well. I may want to read another book by the same or if it really bites, I need to be able to tell myself why so I don't buy another by the same.)

When people gift me books, I figure something about it really turns them on and they want to share the experience. I read the jacket, and then I decide to read the book.

( I was a silly fool and avoided reading "Interview with The Vampire until I'd had it for two years, but I read it.)

So far the only book I have not been able to get into is 'Dahlgren'. I don't know why I cannot get past the first 50 pages. ( And I have read them over and over and over) I've had the book for 15- 20 years I think, and I will have to force myself to finish it before I die.
And My M.I.L. gave me a biography on Elenore Roosevelt. I'm probably not going to read that one. Not into biographies. ( Well, if it had been Elenore of Aquatine.......)

So. I guess 2 books I can't get into, but own. And I think that everything else I've started or bought, I've read. Maybe not enjoyed, but read.

That probably did not answer any questions.

Like others, I used to make myself finish a book, but I don't anymore. I also won't just quit reading because I find mistakes or am a bit dissatisfied. I'll usually read a book all the way through, even if I'm not thrilled with it because I don't pick up books that don't interest me in some way, shape, or form. Actually, the first time I just could not finish a book was just a few months ago. It was a thriller/mystery with a romantic subplot...just my style...and it was HORRIBLE!!!! The plot, the characters, the repetative mistakes. I couldn't find ONE good thing to keep me reading and within ten pages I found myself hoping that ALL the characters would be killed off and this was like a pseudo beginning. No such luck. After about 70 pages, I gave up and moved on to a different book, similar genre, and had a MUCH better read.

So basically, even if it's not great, I will usually read all of it...but if I find myself fantasizing that the main characters meet an untimely end...it's time to put the book down and move on to better stories with characters I actually like.

It depends on the book actually. Some I can make it halfway through before getting horribly horribly bored (Interview with the Vampire), some I can barely make it through the first chapter before realizing I can't relate at all to the MC (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), and some I couldn't even get past the first paragraph because it was just so oddly written (The Hobbit).

But generally, if the book hasn't grabbed me by the first couple pages, I don't bother with it.

I am a slow reader, so it takes me a while before I could totally immerse myself in a book. But it usually takes me fewer than 10 pages to know if the book is even worth a read. Then I'll give the book at least 60 pages to grab me. If not, then it's gone. I have short attention span and many things I need/want to do in life -- I am not one of those people who would read the whole thing (since they pay for it) no matter what.

I expect the same from my readers. I expect them to stop reading my book and toss it away if they don't get hooked or find it at least interesting after 60 pages. That's a good motivation for me -- to write something that nobody would want to put down once they start!

Before I'll pick it up I'll randomly flip to somewhere in the middle and read one or two pages. If what I see there doesn't turn me off I'll move to purchase or read the book from the beginning. But if I get to a spot where the book just gets boring for too long (or in some rare cases stupid) I'll stop reading it.

I usually have the patience for 50 pages or so. If I'm not hooked by then, I usually stop reading. Sometimes I've forced myself to over 100 pages before giving up, especially if the book has received rave reviews or awards.

DamaNegra said:

How many pages of a novel do you read before deciding it's good or you just don't want to read it?

Ok, imagine you're reading a novel that totally sucks. How many pages will you read before deciding: "I just can't keep on reading this." ?

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If I'm in a bookstore, I'll generally read the first page or two; online, I'll look and see if I can find a chapter and decide that way.

Novels that suck? I think there have only been 2 that I haven't finished, and 2 others that I finished but wanted to fling across the room.

The 2 I didn't finish were Neil Gaiman's American Gods (I enjoyed his Neverwhere, but I just didn't "get" AG) and the 4th book of Robert Jordan's neverending series, Wheel of Time (got through about 1/4 of that book before putting it aside after one of the character's tics got on my nerves).

The 2 I finished but wanted to hurl were a mystery book with a horse racing theme (egads, what's the author's name? I'm having a brain fart.) and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I didn't like the way that particular mystery ended (frustrated and angered me) while with Ender's Game I didn't relate to any of the characters.

What's funny is that I read a lot of that mystery writer's books and loved them all - up until that book - and haven't read any since.

~Nancy

I very rarely give up reading a book. It doesn't take much to keep me reading.

The last one I completely gave up on was King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I was about 1/4 way in, and the plot was basically "annoying young girl gets lost in wilderness." Really didn't do much for me.

One book I started reading but haven't finished was China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I've heard a lot of good things about this book, so I'll probably give it another try later, but last time I just found I had no connection to the characters, and the world it was set in seemed just a little too weird.

And the last book I finished but wished I hadn't bothered was Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle. Ridiculous plot about talking dolphins being used to deliver explosives to sink ships, combined with several sentences that exceeded a page in length. But something about it kept me reading despite this.