When to Stop Reading a Book
washingtontimes.com
washingtontimes.com
That said, I think there are cases where you should plow through a book you don't (at first) enjoy. E.g. when a book comes highly recommended by people you trust, or from an author who has delivered in the past. This is especially true for older books that were written for less attention-sapped audiences and have cultural gaps that take getting used to. I'm thinking of Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov." It was highly reccomended by friends with good taste, and I had enjoyed some of his shorter works. Still, it was incredibly slow getting started. But once I had ingested the multi-layered background and got a grip on Russian peasant culture, was one of the more amazing books I've ever read. And could not have been otherwise if not for the investment required to get into it.
But the the book takes a little while to start, then just when it does it changes characters, and Hugo takes forever to describe things which have very little to do with the story or characters. So I bored reading when Hugo suddenly began building a new story arc at the height of the last one. Even still the ending was tearful.
Haaah, I wish I loved reading as I did when I was a boy.
It was my "gym book." I'd read it while on the cardio machines at the gym, and only allowed myself to read it there, so as to provide encouragement to go and to stay longer.
(This was at Caltech where reading at the gym is normal: holders for books are provided.)
Yea, the Sales Prevention Department has a way of doing that.
The fun bit is that she has paid for said 100 books. Amazon, on a financial level, could be quite happy for her to not read them - it saves time before she buys another.
I wrote a system for myself (called Mnemo) that I used to catalog and cross reference stuff. I can tag things, and search by author, keyword, whatever. This is useful not only for going back through a topic I'm interested in, but also because while I'm reading I can ask myself constantly: would I put this in Mnemo or am I spinning my wheels?
Maybe I'll release Mnemo and see if it works for other people.
Please do that ... It sounds pretty interesting.
Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON. 'I have looked into it.' 'What (said Elphinston,) have you not read it through?' Johnson, offended at being thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, answered tartly, 'No, Sir, do _you_ read books _through_?
With a series, you can take a break between installments. I read the first Otherland book several months ago, and I'm just now feeling ready to pick up book 2. What about this situation in the middle of a book? Put it back on the shelf to finish later, or cut your losses and move on?
Decide now on a chapter that you haven't reached yet as a goal. Force yourself to take a break when that milestone is reached and read something else in the intermission. If you still feel its worth the effort to finish the book, go back and pick up where you left off.
The last time I had read a book of similar size, density and importance, I had dropped it for six months - and that book ended up becoming one of my favorites. (For the record, it was "The Powers That Be.") I wanted to avoid doing that, so I just had a policy where I read a lighter book at home, and read the denser book when I was out. It worked great.
When it comes to fiction, I cannot disagree more with your implied sentiment. The primary point of fiction is to entertain, and if I do not enjoy the book, then I am certainly not being entertained.
Some books come with side effects. Some fiction books push an agenda or try to make a political point (1984 comes to mind), but then it is the author's task to both convince me their point is right and keep me sufficiently entertained to keep me reading. Also, some books are supposed to help expand your "cultural horizons" and can increase your vocabulary or introduce you to interesting ideas.
But I find that a bad reason to read fiction. If entertaining fiction comes with a good side effect, then that is an added bonus. If it is the side effect itself that I am truly looking for then I am better off taking it in its concentrated form. If I want interesting new ideas, I will sit down with a book purely on the subject I am looking into.
In short, it is little problem if nonfiction is boring, but fiction which is boring has failed its primary purpose entirely.
I was reading "Fooled by randomness" and just could not make myself go beyond the ~25% mark..!
I think people should do stuff like this more often. Like YAGNI with real-life objects. You just ain't gonna need most of the crap in your house.
Chernyshevsky's "What's To Be Done" is easily one of the worst pieces of literature in history, but that didn't stop Lenin from being inspired by it. The book's major claim to fame is the infamous list of influential people who loved it, and not in that ironic "so bad it's good" way either.