Aug 26, 2019
Why would you, as an author/reader, abandon (stop reading) someone else’s book?
As I mentioned in a comment a few weeks ago, I take pride in reading completely almost every book I start. Almost is the key word here. Every now and then, I run into a book I just can’t handle, it’s so bad.
I won’t be naming any names. Most of them are wiped from my memory. But because of the bad books I’ve run into, I’m pickier about what books I buy. I’ll even take the time to read the reviews for freebies to escape my pet peeves.
The first and biggest reason is bad grammar. Typos, words spelled wrong, the wrong form of a word used, incorrect punctuation. Sure, a few errors here and there happen, even in books by traditional publishers. But when I pick up a book that has several a page, it makes it hard to slog through the entire story. If it’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book, I’ll erase it from my ebook reader. (Thanks, Judith Viorst)
Next up would be boring characters and a boring plot to match. Ever run into a book where you ask yourself why the author even bothered to write it? The characters are flat and nothing happens. The main characters go to work everyday and that is somehow an existential crisis. I’ve never read one of those books the whole way through.
Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay
How about unrealistic story line? Let’s say in the story it takes an hour to get from point A to point B and you know in real life it would take three or four. Or it’s a mystery and the author has no idea of police procedure. I’ll let one instance pass, but if the book is full of similar mistakes, I can’t finish it.
What do I do with really bad books? It’s easy to get rid of an ebook. It’s a little harder to get rid of a paper version. I feel guilty passing it on to a charity and inflicted the pain on someone else. And it breaks my heart to put any book in the garbage. I have to weigh the end results and usually the garbage can wins.
I did a quick poll on Twitter to see what would cause other people to stop reading a book. I only got a few responses, but the clear winner—or is it loser?—was bad editing.
I’m curious-what’s your number one reason for not finishing a book? Even if it’s already been mentioned, feel free to chime in. Consider the comments section as an informal poll. I suspect there will be a lot of repetition in the blog hop posts this week. But I’m going to go check, anyway. Follow the links below to join in.
Aug 26, 2019
Why would you, as an author/reader, abandon (stop reading) someone else’s book?
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1. Link your blog to this hop.
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3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
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A friend of ours who did four years in prison tells me that prisoners will read ANYTHING. The primary punishment in modern America prisons is boredom, so even guys who weren’t readers before they went in become readers while they’re in there. He burned through the library in a year, then read through everything he’d previously read. He’s a construction worker with a side gig as a book editor now, twenty years since his release.
So, some charities wouldn’t see it as an affliction to read a bad book.
There’s at least one book that I didn’t finish I wouldn’t donate even to a prison. I think asking an inmate to read it would be cruel and unusual punishment.
Wow, that’s a sad book. I kind of felt that way about 50 Shades. The book didn’t belong to me, so I was glad to return it to the owner, who to this day says I didn’t give it a fair shot.
More than I gave that particular book or movie..LOL… I just couldn’t think my stomach could take either. lol
I’ve never seen the movie and doubt I ever will. There’s just some things I don’t think I need to fill my mind with.
I keep thinking I should attempt to read that series, but the snips I’ve seen from it made me cringe. Granted, they were chosen because they were bad, but still…
What amazes me is how many of the women I know who think that would be an exciting relationship. The coworker who insisted I read it – she’s a social worker. In her practice, I hope she would tell a woman that is an abusive relationship and get the heck out, but then she doesn’t see the cognitive dissonance of reading about it. Romance literature is generally unrealistic (though I’ve read some that weren’t), but most normal people would consider what Gray does to the woman he supposedly loves to be abuse.
I have read parts of a series that attempts to explain the psychological reasons behind BDSM (as part of the story.) While well-written, I wasn’t convinced it could be healthy.
Certainly not for the person taking the abuse. When I worked for community mental health we had some clients who engaged in it. All the counselors said it was deviant behavior. And, we had at least one client go to prison for it. Apparently the woman he choked out during sex thought he was trying to kill her.
Bad spelling is my number one reason too. Although as Lela says, being bored in prison with lots of time on your hands is a good reason to read anything.
I don’t understand how people have so many misspelled in one book, other than sheer laziness. There are too many programs out there that will correct the errors for you with minimal effort.
Well, one person’s garbage is another person’s art project. I used to cringe every time I saw a book cut up into art, but then I kinda liked that they were given a second life!
I’m usually terrible at getting rid of books, but I’m starting to weed some out from my personal library and donating them to the library. If they can get a buck out of it, then that’s a good thing.
I’m with you on the cringing of making books into art, but now that I think about it, it’s a better ending then being in a garbage heap somewhere.
All I can say is, I sure hope it isn’t any of my books you don’t want to continue reading. LOL. There have only been one or two books I had to put down to save my sanity, of course they will remain unnamed, however, my problem now is not being able to read anything anymore. I actually have two book I was dying to read, checked them out from the library, and now have late fees and final notices to bring them in and I haven’t even cracked the spines yet. Sad.
If I had a problem with one of your books, I would have given you gentle criticism. 🙂 Nope, your books hold a place of pride on my bookshelf, out in the open.
I would never name an indie writer’s failures because it’s hard enough to get started in this business without that. I just stop reading and don’t post a review. Trad writers, however — they have the Big Five behind them and they’re on the New York Bestsellers, so I’m not worried about my opinion hurting them. Yeah, 50 Shades was supposedly self-published, but she doesn’t have that excuse anymore.
I make myself read even when I feel like I don’t have time. In the summer, I set up a camp chair on the lawn at work and read during my lunch hour. I don’t borrow from the library anymore, though, because it does usually take me longer than two weeks to read a book these days.
So, Steven/Tim – you live in Alaska, right? I’m in Fairbanks.
I won’t reveal Steven’s location-I’ll leave it up to him-but I know it isn’t Alaska!