Reading books...

[sleigh]

On Melinda's most recent post, she mentioned that her reviews are almost always four or five stars since she rarely finishes a novel she doesn't like. That makes perfect sense to me: like Melinda, if I start reading a novel, put it down for the night and it doesn't scream at me to pick it up the next day, I leave it down. A novel in which I lose interest part of the way through, or which for one reason or another I find annoying to read, I don't finish. I'll usually give a novel 50 pages or so, but if after that point it hasn't grabbed me, then I move on to the next one.

Life (and spare reading time) is too short to finish a piece of fiction I don't enjoy. (It's different for non-fiction; then, I'm often reading more for information than entertainment, and so I'm more likely to finish the book -- but even then, I've stopped reading research books halfway through as well...)

What about you? If you're reading a novel, do you feel compelled to stick with it all the way to the end, no matter what? If so, why?

Comments

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

The first book I didn't finish, I didn't finish because the dog ate the last 12 pages. At first I was sad, but then I realized that I didn't care what happened in those last 12 pages. It was a happy release. Now I feel free to not finish books or decline to go on to the next book in a series. Previously to the canine intervention, I had been taught (I think in school) that one must always finish every book one starts. As you say, life is too short.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I love the story about the dog!