Put It Down and Walk Away

| Tasha

I was captivated by Suzanne Munshower’s piece on half-read books in The Guardian.  I am a reader who is always stopping in the middle of a book, or just after starting it.  I am brutal.  If the book isn’t delighting me, intriguing me, or just interesting me, I simply don’t have the patience to wade through it.

Luckily for me, I review children’s and YA books, so a certain amount of interest at the start is necessary to get young readers to keep going.  But that is just my handy-dandy excuse.  I was equally brutal before becoming a reviewer and when I read mostly adult books.  It also doesn’t have to do with length for me.  I set down picture books that are 30 pages long if they are not doing it for me.  Opinionated, aren’t I?  😉

So how do you read?  Are you as snotty and brutal as I am?  Or are you one of those nice people who finish every book you read? 

I knew one person like that.  She insisted that so many books become worthwhile in their later stages that it was worth it.  She’s probably right, but I’m just not that type of reader. 

How do you read?

9 thoughts on “Put It Down and Walk Away”

    1. I’m pretty brutal, too. And I’ve also put down picture books, unfinished, if they don’t work for me in some way. If a book puts me to sleep several nights in a row, I stop. If the writing makes me cringe, I stop. Etc… Sometimes, it’s not even that I think that a book is bad, but if it’s not working for me, it slows me down too much (the falling asleep, for instance), and I just can’t stick with it.

      Anyway, for anyone who gets through as many books as you do, I would argue that you have to be brutal.

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    2. Anything to read is better than nothing to read. That includes cereal boxes, toothpaste ingredients, and even bad writing. 🙂

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  2. I posted almost exactly the same question after reading this. I am your polar opposite when it comes to reading. I push on no matter what. After reading Munshower, however, I’m thinking it may be okay to let it go if it isn’t working for me. I’ll let you know if I have the guts to put one down in the future!

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    1. Let me know how it works for you! I would think it would be just as hard for you to put them down as it would be for me to finish them! 🙂

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  3. I give a book 50 pages- if I don’t like after 50 pages, chances are I won’t like it after 350 pages. I tend to read most of picture books all the way through though. I only put it down if I don’t like the illustrations or I think the illustrations don’t coincide well with the text.

    And I have to say, that the books I have forced myself to read, just weren’t worth it. I would have rather read a book I enjoyed than something that was a chore to me.

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  4. My mother equated finishing a book with morality. I wouldn’t start any book for a few years in high school because I knew I’d have to finish it. Now, I REALLY enjoy not finishing books I don’t like. I admit to starting and quitting The Hobbit at least three times.

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  5. Oh I have such a huge to-read pile that I don’t have time for (A) books that ultimately don’t interest or (B) a book that perhaps I should read at another time. I do believe some books have their own timelines and know better than us when we should read them! So I’ve given up on plenty of books – I even have a ‘Didn’t Finish and Perhaps Never Will’ shelf on my GoodReads account!

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