I should have done this a long time ago, but as I commented recently over at Bookpuddle, I’m a big talker about abandoning books when you aren’t getting along, but when it comes down to actually doing it, I stink. I believe I have only ruthlessly abandoned two books in my entire life by page fifty. The few other books I have abandoned have been by page 100 – 120 or so and have been departed from with much guilt, tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth. Based on those statistics, I have no right to encourage others to abandon books they are not enjoying. If I ever do it to you, please just politely clear your throat and say, “Um, remember your stinky abandonment rate?” And if I splutter and protest that I just don’t read bad books and must be lucky that way, it’s ok to whack me upside the head with whatever book you may be holding in your hands.
Because of my abandonment issues, I have, therefore, managed to make it to page 146 (out of 194) in The Future of Ice. Close as I am to the end, I just can’t do it. I’m abandoning it.
Now here I wish I could write such a nice, witty why-I-did-not-like-this-book-post like Emily has done with an Elizabeth Bowen book. But Emily is much nicer than I am. I will say though that the book might be better than I think, it is simply not what I expected it to be and I have not been able to adjust my expectations. It’d be great if you want a travelogue and descriptions of beautiful scenery but if you want to learn anything about ice, nope. I’ve lost count of the number of times Ehrlich has said that ice teaches water about cold. What the heck is that supposed to mean?
I have considered abandoning this book on several occasions, but then I’ll come across a passage that talks about ice or global warming, she’ll say something intriguing like “a glacier is an archivist and a historian,” and I’ll think she’s finally getting down to the science, to the interesting stuff. But it only lasts for a page, maybe two and sometimes for only a paragraph.
And so because I haven’t been able to read anything other than boring chapters on data modeling for school since Sunday evening, the prospect of having a half an hour of free time to read this evening and filling it with this book is too much for me to bear. I removed my bookmark from its pages, I have put the book in the return to library spot on my desk. I will move on. I will get over feeling bad about moving on. Eventually.
Good for you! There are lots more icebergs in the sea. π
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life’s too short to read bad books!!
give up and move on
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I can be an author: “Steam teaches water about hot.” There is no shame in putting down something that isn’t entertaining or edifying.
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too bad
beautiful cover though
do ya ever put em aside for a prolonged rest and come back and finish/enjoy when youre in a different space?
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I’m the same way. I’ll read a book to the bitter end, even if I hate it. I’m obsessive-compulsive that way.
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I like how you can make a whole post about abandoning a book. π
I usually just kind of forget about the books I stop reading.
Too bad. Move on. What are you reading now?
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I can’t do it… I just can’t! The only times I’ve abandoned books, they weren’t really abandonments – it was for weekly essays at university, and I just ran out of time, and had to go onto the next (Middlemarch; Jude the Obscure – I shall return to them!) I certainly wouldn’t be able to reject a book that near the end, just because I want to add books to my ‘have read’ list… so, all in all, you have much better self-control than me, even if you think your record is stinky!
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I am getting much much better at this. I still worry that somehow something on the last page will redeem the entire book for me – although when I have stuck through a book I wasn’t enjoying to the end this has never happened that I can remember.
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Good for you! You’ll inspire all the rest of us with abandonment issues to give up on books we aren’t enjoying. I must improve at this too.
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I was just thinking. It seems worse when the book is good from the beginning and tanks at the end. At least when it is bad from the beginning you can choose to put it down; and if you don’t, you have nobody to blame. When a seemingly good book fails to finish well, I will blame the author for sucking me in but not delivering. π
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I have a hard time abandoning books as well. I think I’ve only abandoned 1 book, and like you, I felt so guilty! I need to get better about it…life is too short to waste time on a book that isn’t worth it.
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So close to the end I can understand your ‘issues’ but as you know I have abandoned many a book. Most I class as ‘not in the right mood for’ and tell myself I’ll get back to it ‘someday’. With so little time, I’d also would rather be reading something I enjoy rather then finishing a book just for the sake of it. What did you move onto?
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I should abandon many more than I do. What compulsion forces us on and on, even when we know the book is not going to improve? Good for you for realizing that finishing a book you don’t enjoy is not such a great accomplishment.
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I’m rather like Dark Orpheus in this matter; I abandon books left and right, and just forget about them. It’s only the ones I’ve really meant to read and have left half finished, intending to pick them up again someday, that weigh on my mind!
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Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. Johnson said, “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?”
Life of Johnson, April 19, 1773
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There are books that deserve to be left. It is rare that I come across them, luckily. But I have to say that Michel Houllebeq’s Atomised was one such truly dreadful book which irritated me so much by its sheer pointlessness that I had to stop reading it. Sounds like ‘ice teaches water about cold’ is in the same category. Well done for making the break!
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It’s hard to give up on a book when you’ve bought it. I give those a lot longer.
But borrowed and library books get short shift if I’m not liking them right away. I hate giving up on books too, but there’s nothing worse than finishing a book and thinking you’ve wasted your time.
But some authors — like Faulkner — have to be given a very long leash. And for authors like Faulkner — its worth it.
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I don’t have as big a problem stopping books anymore. A couple years ago it would have been unthinkable, but now, it’s a fairly common event. There are too many books to be read and enjoyed. It’s especially easier now that I don’t buy books anymore and I’m mostly just putting to bed a library book. (I’ve stopped reading Arturo Perez-Reverete’s The Painter of Battles and Kevin Baker’s Paradise Alley after reading 100 and 150 pages respectively…this week!)
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Now, if that had been my own personal copy I might have made myself trudge through the end, because lately I feel like I just set aside books like there’s no tomorrow. Okay, maybe not that badly! But now that you say it is a library book…heck, that baby would have gone in the return slot a hundred pages ago! π Since you have so little reading time as it is, pick something you’re actually going to enjoy!
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Move on and don’t look back! π
I used to always finish each book I started but I just can’t do it anymore.
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I check in your site regularly, I love how you write about books, and your librarian studies. I went to Bookpuddle to see her column, and ended up writing another comment, since leaving a book behind strikes such a chord of despair in me! I can’t help it! I want to like the book, and I’ve already invested time in it! I hate setting them down! But, every once in a while, I find myself like you, dreading picking it up. At that point, I will quit. I think. As I get older, I find I am more careful about what I read – I am aware there are so many good books out there (and you did steal my original name for my blogsite, you know!!!) and not enough time to read them all, so I am unwilling to waste my time so much now. Or else, I’ve just gotten more demanding as a reader, and if the author hasn’t put their soul into the writing, then why bother? I want to read something meaningful. And sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I don’t get an author. But it’s still hard to put it down, isn’t it?
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I’ve read and abandoned books, and feel super bad about them every time. My latest abandonment was The Jane Austen Book Club. I clung on to that book for weeks before putting it back in my bookshelf. I think I’ll do a book release soon of all these poor books. Maybe they’ll find a reader who can appreciate them.
Oh…popped in here by way of Bookgirl. π
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Sylvia, oh I don’t know, the number of icebergs is getting fewer and fewer π
jgodsey, thanks for the encouragement!
Bikkuri, LOL! I do get a bit resentful when a book that starts with great promise tanks in the end.
Doug, it is a pretty cover, isn’t it? Yes, I do put books aside sometime for a month or two for a little break and then come back to them refreshed and re-energized.
Brandon, I am trying hard to learn how to let go of books sooner if we don’t get along. I didn’t manage it very well with this one.
Dark Orpheus, funny what desperation and a little insanity can help a person do π Actively reading Maugham. Itching to pick up Herodotus.
Simon, I wouldn’t exactly call it self-control, more like unwilling to spend what little reading time I’ve got with a book I don’t like.
Verbivore, I think the last page will redeem everything too. It never does, so I’m not sure why I persist in that belief.
Dorothy, I don;t know about inspire. Maybe comfort and encouragement? π
bibliophylia, why is it so hard for us to abandon books when we agree that life is too short to spend time on them? It is a major mystery of my bookish life.
Heather, maybe I need to take a page from your book. I didn’t abandon the Future of Ice, I’m just not in the mood for it. I’ll get back to it one day and if that one day never comes, oh well. I think I might be able to feel less guilty with that approach.
Jenclair, if I could figure out what compels us to finish bad books, I could become a guru π
Melanie, what is your secret to abandoning books so easily?
Amateur Reader, that’s an excellent quote!
Maggie, thanks for the reassurance π
George, I agree, some authors you definitely have to give time to because the payback it worth it in the end.
Mike, I need an attitude like yours. It would make things so much easier.
Danielle, the fact that it was a library book didn’t even enter into my mind. If it had I might have been able to give up on it sooner.
Iliana, practicing not looking back π
Susan, thanks for your nice comment! Sometimes I think the harder I try to like a book and the bigger the author’s name, the harder it is to put it down.
Kisane, Welcome! What a good idea to release the books you’ve given up on. Every book its reader, right?
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Oh, I have abandonment issues, too. I claim to give every book thirty pages and then to move on, but, so often, after only thirty pages, I find myself thinking, “Well, I haven’t REALLY given it a chance yet.” And I wouldn’t be so sure that “Emily is much nicer” than you are. You should hear what she has to say about Jackie Collins.
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Heh, you sound like me Emily! Do you then give the author fifty pages and when page fifty arrives you do the same thing? Then up it to 75 and 100 and then, aw heck, might as well read the whole thing now. I’d love to hear what you have to say about Jackie Collins sometime π
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