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In my midweek miscellany this week, a discussion on abandoning books partway through; news of a literary dinner next week in Abingdon; and some incoming additions to the TBR at Gaskell Towers…
Firstly, a post by Eva over at A Striped Armchair about abandoned books got me thinking about the last time I abandoned a book partway through. To be honest, the ones I could remember from the past few years numbered less than the fingers of one hand – in fact, just two… They were Special Topics in Calamity Physics
The Pessl was over 500 pages and kept digressing from the plot so much I despaired that anything was going to happen. However shedloads of people adored this book – see its Librarything page and look at the ratings on the right-hand side. It did have a lovely cover in hardback though (see left). With the Cornwell, this was when I fell out with Kay Scarpetta – I found this one so formulaeic, that I’ve not bothered with Cornwell since – although I’m happy to be pointed in the direction of a return to form as I loved the first half dozen or so of this series.
I’ve reached an age where I should be able to be ruthless and abandon any book I’m not getting on with, but I still seem to persevere to the end – usually skimming rather than reading properly, which is an even bigger waste of time. What I should do is put it aside to return to at a later date, or just stop reading and get rid of it. I’m OK(ish) at abandoning books before I start them, but again I tend to return them to the TBR rather than dispose of them. It’s still such a difficult thing to do – I’m always hopeful that any book I read will win me over in the end …
Can you abandon a book once you’ve started?
What are your strategies for whether to read on or not?
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Now for something completely different. Next week I’m going to another first in Abingdon – a literary dinner. My fave bookshop Mostly Books is hosting an evening at a local hostelry with the fantastic author Sophie Hannah who writes some of the best and nastiest British psychological thrillers out there. I’ve got her third novel The Point of Rescue
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Lastly a few incoming additions to the TBR to share with you …
- I Think I Love You
by Alison Pearson. I’m dying to read this as it involves my teen hero – David Cassidy (swoon). Strictly speaking, it’s a novel about the chap who runs his UK fanclub and pretends to be him corresponding with all the teenyboppers. Sounds hilarious and I may have to download some tracks to listen to to accompany it!
- Union Atlantic
by Adam Haslett – a contemporary novel about the nature of power and capitalism. Already read and reviewed at Just William’s luck - Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1
- I got sent a new edition of the first 3 Buffy novels by Simon & Schuster. I’m actually looking forward to reading them – particularly as I never really watched the TV series – will they stand up on their own?
Abandoning books is no problem to me – life is too short . . . as they say. I hate pretentious, boring, too-clever-by-half (or ungrammatical, badly structured, badly typeset). Fortunately there are plenty of great books out there which make me wish they were longer!
Tom, I wish I had your resolve, but being a resolute optimist I tend to keep on hoping that even a bad book will win me round a little before it finishes! I’m also glad that there are loads of books worth reading too.
Normally when Im reading a book and the thought of putting it down is the beginning of the end for me. I did force myself to finish The World According to Garp last week and I wish I had gone with my instints around page 100.
Jess – I remember enjoying Garp, it was a long time ago though but I definitely remember that the beginning was better than the end.
Not surprised that u abandoned Special Topics. I did too. In general I give a book 50 pages and if it fails to captivate me by then, I’ll abandon it.
That was an odd book! I often don’t find 50 pages enough, so I read a 100, then I think I may as well finish it …
I used to read grimly through a book whether I was enjoying it or not. Now, I give it fifty pages or so, less if I find the style annoying and then stop. After all almost always I’m reading for entertainment.
I used to read grimly through a book whether I was enjoying it or not. Now, I give it forty pages or so, less if I find the style annoying and then stop. After all almost always I’m reading for entertainment.
Kerry – you changed your mind from 50 to 40! I often find that I’m barely into a book at 40 pages, but good for you if you’re able to stop so soon…
Abandoning books is something I would like to get much better at because I have a pile of about ten books at the moment I am half way through and keep popping back to. I did give up on the Lacuna though and its now having a lovely time at my Grans as she is hosting a book group on it in a few months.
I am SOOOOOO jealous of you meeting Sophie Hannah I almost can’t speak.
Really looking forward to the SH event – We’ll be getting early copies of her latest paperback too … I plan to get a signed one for a giveaway!
Actually it’s really fifty but your website refused to take that saying that it was a repeat comment ( I assumed because the comment before mentioned fifty pages) so I changed it to forty as being in the spirit of what I meant and the website pasted both. This is probably a much longer explanation than you needed but . . .
How strange!
I can abandon books as long as I don’t think of it as abandoning them. Unless they’ve offended me in some way (racism, sexism, etc.), I have to play this little game where I ever-so-casually set them down on the sofa, and then bury them in other books, and then when it comes time to go to the library, I just return them. That way I don’t feel guilty: I didn’t abandon them, I simply didn’t have the opportunity to finish them.
I like your methods Jenny! Using the library certainly gives you deadlines to read or return.
It took me a very long time to learn how to give up on a book that I wasn’t enjoying – I just used to put it to one side and think I would go back to it but never did!
Have finally learned how to be ruthless and funnily enough I recall the Pessl as being one of those books that pushed me into it! I think I picked it up partly because of the cover and partly because of a review I had read, but it didn’t take me much more than 50 pages to realise that I hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on so there wasn’t much point in persisting.
Having said that , I am more likely to try skim reading first to see if things get better further on before I make the unilateral decision to abandon.
BTW I LOVE the pic of the divine David! Really cheered up my morning (out of the office yesterday so just catching up!)
Liz, I’ll be reading Pearson’s book as soon as I can, and my review will be filled with pics of ‘him’. Any excuse to include a pin-up!
I almost never give up on books, but I’m debating doing it with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo… I’m just finding it so very boring.
Each to their own Simon – I really enjoyed that book, but it did take ages to get going.