Thursday 2 July 2009

Reading habits

I don't seem to be very good at reading a bit of a book. I can turn off after a page or two easily enough and think, don't fancy that one, but I can also--and this happens more often than not with books I don't finish--try and like a book, and attempt to get into it, and then find myself well over two-thirds of the way through with absolutely no intention of finishing.

It nags at me though, all these unfinished books, maybe they had brilliant endings.

As the ladies and gentlemen from Cadbury's creme eggs would say, How do you do it?

5 comments:

Frances Garrood said...

I have just reached that stage with a novel I'm reading - three quarters through, and not enjoying it (then why did I persevere at all?). John (husband) always says 'let it go'...easier said than done. But then, by finishing it what am I achieving? The right to judge it soundly? The right to say 'I've read it'? I think on the whole John is right. Life is just too short to read books you don't enjoy. Neil - I'll ditch mine if you ditch yours (I assume you have one, hence the post?).

Dr Ian Hocking said...

I have metric arseload of books lying around and they hurt me terribly. Usually, I'm remembering a mixture of (i) the hope at the beginning of the book that it might be great and (ii) nostalgia for a time when there were enough hours in the day to them.

David Isaak said...

Time was if I started a book I'd damn well finish it. I'm too old for that sort of nonsense nowadays.

I don;t stop two-thirds of the way through, though. If I stop, I stop before I've gone fifty pages.

"The Da Vinci Code" probably holds the record for me, though. I was already annoyed by it on the first page, and there was no hope of reaching anywhere near page fifty.

Unknown said...

Frances: actually I've a book that I am going to finish, but it's easy to get distracted from as it has an odd, tangential structure.

David: I think it was first paragraph of Da Vinci code for me. Thankfully I didn't buy the thing, but picked up in a shop to see what the fuss was about.

Frances Garrood said...

I actually bought The Da Vinci Code (big mistake) as a holiday read, and made it (I think) to about the second chapter. But now that you're finishing your book, Neli, maybe I ought to finish mine. Husband calls this 'oughtism', and he's probably right. But still...
(Word definition: 'hootie' - rather jolly).