Booking Through Thursday is hosted here. This weeks question is:
So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half.
What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?
Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?
I always used to make myself finish any book that I started but now I've decided that there's way too many good books to waste time reading ones I don't like. It does however, depend on the book. If it's just slow going then I may plow on but if I find myself choosing to do something else other than read when I would normally pick up my book then I stop.
It's mostly the plot that is the deciding factor. If the plot is boring me then most likely I'll stop reading. If the plot is okay but the writing is bad or the characters don't appeal then I may skim read the rest of it just to find out what happens. Plot-wise I tend to be a little more lenient of books that are the first in a series as these are often a little slower starting.
I don't have a set cut off point, like half way or 100 pages or whatever. I've dumped books after a couple of pages and others three-quarters of the way through. If it's making me not want to read it then I don't. I'd rather have 'wasted' the time on the bit I've read than waste more time reading the rest of it.
Occasionally I'll put a book to one side and read something else before attempting it again. I can usually tell if a books just not appealing to me because I'm in the mood for something else.
