I have been super busy the past few days and haven't had much time to post, but I had to throw out this little tidbit I have been thinking about since my book club meeting last Thursday...
So often I hear:
"I hated the book, but I had to finish it because I can never leave a book unfinished."
WHY?!
Of all the things that drive me nuts when I read a book review, or ask someone about a book they didn't like, that has to be one of the worst. And it happens all the time! Why do people have this obsession with finishing books? If you like it--great. Even if it's just okay, but you care enough to see what happens--fine. But to force yourself to read the entirety of a book that you hate from beginning to end, makes no sense to me. Furthermore, the people who do this, do it all the time!
They say - "But I have to know what happenes..."
I say - "Read the last chapter."
They say - "But I spent money on this book, and should at least finish it..."
I say - "So, let me get this right, not only have you already wasted money on a book you hate, but now you also want to waste your time in finishing said book?..."
They say - "It will drive me crazy not to finish..."
I say - "This will be a useful lesson for you. Quitting can be a good thing. Go find yourself a good book to get lost in and I promise, you will forget all about it."
I mean seriously people, how much of your lives have you wasted reading material you can't stand, just for the sake of saying you've done it?! How many hours of time will you never see and again and have only horrible characters and boring plot lines to show for it?
Life is short, stop reading!
See... I'm one of those people. I don't know, now that I have gone this far in my life having never not-finished a book, I don't want to break my record.
ReplyDeleteThough I will say that I am very chosey about what I read, so I don't often find myself disliking my books.
I do agree with you about the reviews. I always go to amazon or goodreads and read not only the good reviews but the bad one too, and I see the 'had to finish even though I hated it' line all the time.
I've been guilty of this very thing. I'm just starting to be okay with setting a book down. It was really hard when a bought a book I thought I would really like, and ended up hating (Water for Elephants) but I did it. I found the courage, and I'm not even going to go see the movie. You're right, why waste time on story you hate?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I try to at least make it to page 50 (sometimes to page 100), but if it doesn't have me by then, it never will. For example, I hated (and I mean hated) "Eat, Pray, Love." I gave it the benefit of the doubt though, and read about 1/3 of it. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore--I felt like I was reading a travel guide. I had noooo problem saying adios to that book. ;o)
ReplyDeleteJessi - Take the leap! Quitting is fun, just think of how liberated you'll feel! :)
ReplyDeleteJen - I went through that same thing with 'Die For Me'. I did a review a few weeks ago in that one here, and just like you, I really thought I'd like it. I couldn't wait for it to come out, and the premise really did have a lot of potential, but it was just bad. I did finish it, but I think that had more to do with the fact that the overall premise had so much promise that I kept saying, "It's got to get better, any minute now..." Needless to say it didn't.
Angela - YES! I did the same thing with 'Julie and Julia'. The movie was super cute, so I figured I'd love the book... Yeah, made it through two and a half chapters before it hit my bookshelf, not to come down again until about three weeks ago when my library had a drive.
Thank you! I stop reading books I don't like all the time, and I always feel guilty about it! Good to know there are other people on my team!
ReplyDeleteI have ditched so many books, I couldn't agree more! By the way, I see you're reading Dark Lover. I just have one word for you: MMMMMMMMMMMMM
ReplyDeleteDana - We're with you, don't worry!
ReplyDeleteBethany - MMMMMMMMMMM is right! :D