I’ve had company from out of town and been hanging out with friends, which puts me behind on reading and writing. But there’s been lots of talking about books — who’s reading what, can’t stand this, what do you think of that. One question invariably arises: When do you give up on a book?
Several of my friends always finish what they start, trudging on to the bitter end. This book isn’t going to beat me, they declare, even as they put it down to read a magazine or turn on the TV. Others admit to skimming but vow to finish. Then there are those who feel no guilt about setting aside a book they don’t like or in which they’ve lost interest.
Over the years, I’ve finally become a setter-aside, believing that life is too short for bad books. I don’t necessarily mean “bad,” in that I’m sorry a poor tree gave its life for this tripe, although there are way too many of those non-starters around. No, I mean “bad,” as in wrong for me at this particular time for whatever reason. So I give a book 30 minutes or 30 pages, and if I’m not hooked, I’m outta there.
I never finished Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, even though people whose opinion I respect think it’s a masterpiece. I made it about halfway before deciding this was not the book for me, that I disliked all the characters and the plot was a downer. I had my own family dramas, thank you very much. I wanted escape, entertainment. I just wasn’t in the mood.
I may go back to it someday, but then again, there are way too many books I want to read, that are intellectually stimulating, wonderfully written and keep me turning pages. That’s the way I feel about John Banville’s new novel, The Infinities, in which several Greek gods insert themselves into human lives. It even sent me back to to Roberto Calasso’s splendid narrative meditation on the meaning of myth, The Marriage 
of Cadmus and Harmony. I may even pick up Edith Hamilton’s Mythology before I’m finished with this tangent.
Not your cup of tea? Sip it, turn up your nose, move on. Tastes vary. I admit to being disappointed when a longtime friend whose reading almost always matches mine disliked Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, which is one of my favorite novels of the last decade. Then again, I think she liked The Corrections. So there.
Permission! Bless you.
I had the exact same reaction to The Corrections. Exact.
I’m very tough. A book gets maybe 20-30 pages – unless someone I trust has told me, look, the first chapter is a little slow but once you get past that, it’s great. (Weirdly, this exact thing happened to me when I read The Corrections – the first chapter left me shrugging, but after that, wow, I loved it.)
But if I’ve read 30 pages and the story is dragging, why should I continue? Shouldn’t I be hooked by then? or at least interested? Just a few days ago I read the first chapter of a new book and disliked it so much I gave up.
I have told a few people to stick with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, simply because the way it starts is not where it leads (although we come back to it eventually). Perhaps I should heed my own advice more.
If I have been told by a trusted source that a book is good, I will generally see it through to the bitter end. I just had that very thing happen. Two weeks to get through a 600 page book! It seemed like an eternity! But the payoff was worth it. I did like The Corrections, but I had to stick it out. I know many that didn’t make it that far! I also loved Never Let Me Go. I often wonder if I am a “loose reader”…I just throw that love around to too many books!
I never finished “Dr. Zhivago.” There, I said it.
I had to start these other books over, but when I got into them subsequently, I loved them — “The Color Purple,” “Confederacy of Dunces,” “The Invisible Man” (the one by Ellison). It just goes to show you — as my Grandma Roseannadanna said, If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
I divorce a book after 50 pages if it isn’t doing it for me. I will make exceptions for book group picks and some review copies but usually I stick to the 50 page limit.
I use to finish a book…”do or die” sort of thing, but you’re right life is too short to spend time on a book you don’t like. Where have I been? I’ve never heard of any of these books you’ve mentioned. Duh
A clarification. The friend who didn’t care for Never Let Me Go says she despises Franzen.
Connie, I stopped with Girl w/Dragon Tattoo and had to start over later. It might have been the dead cat. I object to gratuitous animal mutilation/murder just to show us someone’s evil.
Sandy, I don’t think you can “love” too many books.
Gail, I don’t think you’d like The Corrections. But then again we know I’n biased!