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Comment by Loic | Hacker News Reader

Or stop reading if you feel it is not worth your time.

Yes, this is something I had to learn over the years. I always had this notion that I HAD to finish something (book, movie) to be able to express the opinion on it. Now, if I dont enjoy it I just stop reading and when I’m asked what did I think of it I simply answer that I didnt finish because xyz. It gives you so much more time resulting in reading something you actually enjoy.

Yes, I used to have this compulsion as well. I still remember the book I was reading, at the age of 31, when I realized this was counter-productive and that I was slogging through things I didn't enjoy because of some misdirected completeness requirement I'd imposed on myself. Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon. Page 90. Since then I've had a low tolerance for authors who can't be bothered to make me want to continue hearing their ideas.

Right. More and more nowadays with non-fiction, I read a few chapters, realize I've already heard everything the author has to say, and drop it. Life's too short.

It's also very common for non-fiction books to have 20 pages of substance, but be padded out to 200 or more with repetition and filler.

Indeed. Read those 20 pages, say "OK, I got it," and skip the padding.

No one who downvoted this is a serious reader. I would much rather jettison a bad book or movie than waste the one life I have on material that doesn’t make my life better in some way.

I think it may be being down voted as it can he read as saying stop reading entirely rather than just stop reading a particular book, ie an attack on reading as an activity. Doubt the comment was meant that way though and I agree with you, dropping a particular book if it's not rewarding is something I do although I do still struggle with myself when doing so.

Thank you for your comment.

We have 1000's of books in our house. We read a lot and I would have not imagined a second that my comment could be interpreted this way.

So, yes, drop the specific book and enjoy another one is my advice.

Absolutely do! I was reading John Calhoun's Disquisition on Government, which is not very long, but extremely dense, and full of those passages that sound at first as though they mean the opposite of the author's point, but work around to it by degrees. I struggled with it for a while before I realized that the wordiness was a disguise for poor or non-existent reasoning — at least, that's how it seemed to me — and went to read something better.

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