Author Topic: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book  (Read 710 times)

Offline cayenne

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 139
    • View Profile
Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« on: May 30, 2018, 11:38:12 pm »
I know I'm borrowing this thread idea from somewhere, I think the old Television Without Pity forums? I can't remember, but it sounds like an interesting idea to resurrect here. Here is one of mine: I couldn't finish The Source by James Mitchener because the name of one of the main characters grated on me so much I winced whenever I saw it. The book itself is a great book, but due to my hatred for that character's name I skipped parts of the book he was in so I can't say I have honestly read it through. What is your silly or irrational reason you felt you just couldn't finish a book? 

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Offline Pangur Bán

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 52
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2018, 01:34:24 am »
I usually try to finish a book no matter how bad it is.  Years ago, there was this one book I started reading and it was so awful that I really struggled to get through it. I don't know where I got it from, I think back then I used to do a book swap with a friend and I got it from her.  I remembered the title of the book but I had to look up the author because it was so long ago. Anyway, it was "Atlantis" by David Gibbins. And according to a lot of the reviews on this site I'm looking at right now, many people felt the same as I did.   It was a giant snoozefest. Everything about it was terrible.

Thankfully, one of my cats did me a massive favor and shredded most of the pages, so I didn't have to force myself to finish it. 


Offline MariaE

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 101
  • Location: Denmark
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2018, 03:03:13 am »
I usually have no qualms putting down a book that doesn't work for me. "I just don't care enough" is a perfectly good reason to put down a book in my eyes.

However, twice I've put down an audiobook version of a favourite book because the narrator mispronounced words!!!! It grated on my nerves no end, and I just couldn't finish it.
"The Last Battle" by C.S. Lewis - the narrator called the country nar-NI-a instead of NAR-nia. This was after the movies. There's no excuse.
"Alanna" by Tamora Pierce. An all-time favourite book, but when the narrator insisted on calling the main character AL-lanna (short A to start AND emphasizing the wrong syllable) I was out. Especially as this is a word that's said a LOT, considering it's the main character's name!!!

Fortunately I own both as physical books, so I could just read them that way instead.
Like Like x 1 View List

Offline Alyonka

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 23
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2018, 11:26:21 am »
Eyebrow quirking.

If somebody "quirks an eyebrow" more than once in the first couple of chapters, I'm out.


Offline Amara

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 303
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2018, 12:42:34 pm »
I agree that "I just don't care enough" (AKA "It's boring") is the reason. For me, the latest get-rid-of-it book was Julie and Julia. I just didn't care.

Offline lowspark

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 177
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2018, 01:05:12 pm »
Oi, MariaE, I can relate! I pretty much always have an audio book going in my car so those kinds of things grate my nerves as well. Mispronunciations and putting the emPHASis on the wrong sylLABle is unforgivable. I mean, I can forgive the reader for not knowing everything but is no one else listening? The producer, the people in the sound booth, whatever?

I was actually going to post that I've quit audio book specifically if the reader's voice bothers me. I normally love audio books "read by the author. So I checked out a book by Amy Tan (whose books that I have read are very good) that was read by the author.

Oh boy. Her voice was sort of high pitched squeaky and I couldn't make it past about half way through the first disc. The reader can really make or  break an audio book for me.
Houston 
Texas 
USA 

Offline Kiwi Cupcake

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 135
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2018, 01:57:46 pm »
I remember a book series that I loved but then the author's second series was so disappointing that I couldn't even finish the first book of the next series. I don't know if book was bad or if my expectations were just too high.

Offline Chez Miriam

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 71
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2018, 02:36:50 pm »
I've learnt that it's perfectly OK to put down a rubbish book; there is no great Cosmic Law saying I must finish every piece of trash I pick up - it's really liberating. ;D

My silly reason for not finishing a book was falling out with the guy who lent it to me - I don't know what I'd done to upset him [but it could have been my (very polite) refusal to confirm or deny his assertion that I'm bound to have a rose tattoo*] - it was by Will Self, and I realised that I really didn't care enough to go to the nearest bookshop and read the last 3 pages.  Can't even remember anything about the book now.

* I may or may not have a tattoo, and if I do, it may or may not be a rose - he had no right to demand an answer, and I think I was winding him up by politely evading his questions.  Seriously, dude, WTH?!  You don't get to grill coworkers about what's under their clothing, and if you think that's OK, expect some people to not answer. ::)

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."  - Julian of Norwich
Agree Agree x 2 View List

Offline Pangur Bán

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 52
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2018, 02:56:39 pm »
I started reading another book that I struggled to read and never finished.  I have to take my husband to a hospital appointment tomorrow so I'm looking for something to take with me while waiting. I did look for that book, but it mysteriously vanished.   :P We normally give our books to a little second hand bookstore and they give us a discount on purchases for the trade in. That's where I got that one from, they can have it back (if I ever find it)!

I must break myself out of the habit of forcing myself to read a book I can't get into.  :D

Anyway, I'm off to find another book to take with me tomorrow. Whatever I find is bound to be more interesting than the one that went missing. Perhaps my cat did me a favor and shredded that one too. He's such a book critic!

Oh yes, I remember a book I read a very long time ago. It wasn't a bad story,  but the author used a word excessively to the point where it drove me crazy. It seemed as if she just learned a new word and used the heck out of it, whether or not it was used correctly. If the storyline wasn't interesting I would definitely have scrapped then one without finishing it. It wasn't a bad book overall and it was relatively short.

Offline GloryAndCrumpets

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 296
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2018, 03:01:00 pm »
I've learnt that it's perfectly OK to put down a rubbish book; there is no great Cosmic Law saying I must finish every piece of trash I pick up - it's really liberating. ;D

Amen! The most liberating thing I ever did was give myself permission to stop reading a book I didn't like. Life is too short to read bad books!
Agree Agree x 2 Funny Funny x 1 View List

Offline Morrigan

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 99
  • Location: Canada
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2018, 03:15:03 pm »
I tried reading 'Seduced by a Highlander' by Paula Quinn. I had to stop reading the book because I couldn't stop laughing while reading. It was supposed to be a romance, but it was so bad.  One of my friends has relatives in Scotland, and she read a few pages and said "Even my Scottish relatives don't talk like that.'

Offline STiG

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 359
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2018, 03:31:14 pm »
I've learnt that it's perfectly OK to put down a rubbish book; there is no great Cosmic Law saying I must finish every piece of trash I pick up - it's really liberating. ;D

It's perfectly OK to put down any book!  I have tossed aside so-called classics because I thought they were awful.  And it's not the old-fashioned language turning my off as I've read Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings and a few others.  But one book that was still describing the titular house over 50 pages in?  Yeah, I'm done.
Like Like x 1 View List

Offline Winterlight

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 190
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2018, 12:00:11 am »
My rule is that if I'm not reading it for work purposes, the book generally gets fifty pages to hook me. If it hasn't, back on the shelf it goes, or back to the library- it's rare these days that I buy something I haven't already read and want to reread.

My other rule is that if I put it down for more than two days, I'm done with it.
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
Caroline Lake Ingalls
Agree Agree x 2 View List

Offline QueenFaninCA

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2018, 01:46:40 pm »
I couldn't finish "42" by Thomas Lehr (it's in German). Apart from the ridiculous plot and it being boring as hell, it's set in an area where I have lived four years of my life around the time the books is set in. The name of a town is mis-spelled repeatedly. The description of the area does not match reality (and having the right description wouldn't have changed the plot). Example: Description of a group of people walking from real existing place A to real existing place B. On the way they pass single family houses with well-kept gardens (longish description). Unfortunately if you walk that route in real life, it's big apartment buildings with mostly low income tenants. That stuff was really grating.

Offline corgiqueen

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 113
    • View Profile
Re: Silly reasons you didn't finish a book
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2018, 03:02:51 pm »
I've learnt that it's perfectly OK to put down a rubbish book; there is no great Cosmic Law saying I must finish every piece of trash I pick up - it's really liberating. ;D

It's perfectly OK to put down any book!  I have tossed aside so-called classics because I thought they were awful.  And it's not the old-fashioned language turning my off as I've read Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings and a few others.  But one book that was still describing the titular house over 50 pages in?  Yeah, I'm done.

Me as well. That goes for bestsellers as well. One that comes to mind is The Book Thief. My former neighbor, who read a ton, loved it. I could not get into it
Nope, not at all. Yawn>

Also books by authors who's stuff I've loved, but seems to have gotten worse, the more they write.