So… I want to talk about something that seems to have a little stigma around it, and that is, once you start reading a book you have to finish that book before starting another one.
Now, I guess you could say I am relatively new to reading. Since owning my kindle paperwhite signature edition a little over a month ago I have read 2 books. For me that’s awesome!!
BUT, I started my third book and it’s in a completely different genre, completely different author, and an entirely different structure of reading. For reference my current book is called ‘A Game of Hearts and Heists’ by Ruby Roe and previous to that was ‘The Teacher’ by Freida McFadden.
I would love to know what your thoughts are about this topic.
1.) Do you have to finish reading a book when you start?
2.)Do you give a book a certain amount of percentage before you determine you will continue reading?
Or
3.)Are you just cut throat if you are not captivated in the first chapter?
by thatothercouple_
6 Comments
No. If I’m not feeling it, I move on. Way too many books I want to get to to to spend time trying to grind through something I’m not meshing with.
Reading is supposed to be fun, and I do it to relax.
So if I don’t enjoy a book, I decide it isn’t for me and don’t finish it. I don’t see the point of punishing myself for the sake of completionism.
I try to give the book a chance to hook me in. Say 10% or 50 pages, whatever seems reasonable. But I don’t feel bad at all for stopping
I ploughed on with A prayer for Owen Meany because I had that mentality, I ended up googling and a LOT of other people ditched it, so I did too in the end.
Life’s too short!
I give myself roughly 15 pages to stop once I start. If it does have my interest or my attention by that point I can stop. But after that, any farther, and I will finish it, even if I regret it. But for me that’s more about compulsion than any rule. I have had this habit for a while now(since last millennium), so if you are relatively new to reading for fun, you kinda have carte blanche in the habits you would like to adopt. The only wrong way to do it in my book(intended) is to not read. So write your own rules. Eat dessert before dinner. Do what makes you want to read.
I’ve tried to read 1984 about 100 times – it’s never gonna happen
Like the others said, it’s supposed to be fun, not a chore – if you’re not feeling it you’re not feeling it, grab a different one!
Life is too short, and there’s too many books in this world to waste time on a book you don’t like :))