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What makes you give up on a book?

pmmg

Myth Weaver
The Belgariad has comical stupid fights? I dont remember that. And for that it was tossed across the room?

I seem to recall a dragon getting loose and all the adults doing nothing in the Harry Potter verse. That seemed pretty stupid to me.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
The Belgariad has comical stupid fights? I dont remember that. And for that it was tossed across the room?

I seem to recall a dragon getting loose and all the adults doing nothing in the Harry Potter verse. That seemed pretty stupid to me.
Then it must have been a long time since you read these books. The Angaraks are just comically incompetent and stupid beyond belief, at least in the Belgariad since they do shape up considerably in the Malloreon. They may have a flash of competence now and then but generally I get that they are more of a threat to themselves than to the good guys.

The big "epic" battle in the end of the Belgariad for exampel was the reason my book flew across the room and into a wall. Luckily it was a papperback or else my parents would not have been amused by the dent or mark in said wall.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Well...I managed to get through it without throwing anything against a wall. I dont think my adult self would do that either.

I hope little Garion was okay, though, If I recall, he was kind of a Giant in that final battle.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
Well...I managed to get through it without throwing anything against a wall. I dont think my adult self would do that either.

I hope little Garion was okay, though, If I recall, he was kind of a Giant in that final battle.

Garion was ok and on my adult re-read I don't take as much issue with Eddings' different take on how to make good villains than what I like to read about.

In my re-read I'm going along for a ride knowing that the driver and I have very different preferences and I leave it at that and enjoy what is good instead of getting bothered with that I don't like.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
The Belgariad is aimed at a younger audience. I think it would fade in luster as one gets older.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
All I remember about the Belgariad is... rrrrrr ummmmm, the series name! I doubt I could read them as an adult, but I at least made it through the first series as a youngster.
 

Mad Swede

Auror
It's nearly 40 years since I first read The Belgariad. I enjoyed it then, and I still enjoy reading it now. When I first read it I was young, a long way from home, and it had me hooked. I wasn't looking for realism at the time, I wanted escapism. These days I enjoy reading it for other reasons, many of which have to do with what I've learnt about storytelling. Those books have good pacing, good characterisation and good dialogue. The plot is good but not original. And the books use just about every fantasy story trope (or cliche) going without taking them terribly seriously. It isn't serious, realistic, grim fantasy. It's an example of well-written escapism. Which is of course what makes it popular.
 
It's rare I give up on a book. I was probably about 40 the first time it happened and it was really painful - but the book was even more painful than my existential angst so into the bin it went.

I should've known better. The cover featured a weird looking alien in a diving mask and snorkel dancing on a beach, but I must've been interested in the blurb notwithstanding my misgivings re the cover. It was farking dreadful - meandering all over the place and nothing happening beyond descriptions of featureless lagoons.

It was liberating though. Having killed once, I am far more ruthless when it comes to abandoning stories which aint worth wasting my time. I like to feel that I am in safe hands with an author and soon as I doubt that it's a slippery slope.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I'm pretty predictable. I'm not a forgiving reader. At least on my own time, of which there is very little, so when I actually find a moment to indulge myself I'm looking for quality. I've DNF'd books over rookie mistakes. Misspellings on the first few pages. Word salads. Illegible formatting. Bad covers won't even get a click out of me. I'm a terrible cover snob, but in my philosophy if a writer won't invest at least in a good cover, they don't have faith in their own work and their own professionalism OR they don't know how and don't care to find out. Oh! And we have my personal favorite: the wrong information. Writers do homework for a living, and if you show this old teacher you didn't do the assignment, you won't get another read from me.
 

jhmcmullen

Dreamer
I’m in a book club right now, and sadly there are a number of books I have not finished. Some of them I’m just hit or miss on the author — everyone else in the group loves all Becky Chambers, and I only like some — and sometimes there isn’t enough craft to overcome the eight deadly words (as spake by Dorothy Heydt: “I Don’t Care What Happens To These People!”).

Often I give up because of an accumulation of small mistakes: I lose faith in the author. I suppose I give up on some books where there’s a big reveal that, oh, things don’t act like they do in the mundane world because of thing x (”I call it a horse, but it has six legs and is made of steel!”) but that doesn’t get revealed until page 238.

I might give up because it’s a multi-book series and I discover that no storyline is going to be resolved in this book. Sure, Lord of the Rings got broken into three volumes because of publishing tech restrictions, but you can do better than that in 2024. (More often I check the back of the first book. If it says, “Yes, the so-and-so is defeated but we still have to deal with this,” that is more acceptable than, “Hanging upside down over the chasm, he knew that book two was inevitable.” Nope.)

I might give up because what the author thought was an interesting alternating viewpoint story is to me one interesting story intertwined with something boring, so I’m really getting only half the book I thought I was.]

I dislike prologues. If I see a prologue and it involves the main characters, I immediately wonder why it couldn’t be chapter 1 If it doesn’t involve the main characters, I wonder if the author couldn’t somehow work the information into the story proper. (There are valid reasons for prologues; providing backstory is almost never one. I think if I ever write a book with a prologue, it will have a subtitle like, “Skip this if you already know the world” Or “Yes, there’s magic in this. It won’t show up until page 238, so you get to see some now.”)

I might avoid a book entirely if the book seems to be the American Revolution In Space (very common in SF), or Part 1 of an unfinished series, or victim of Third Artist Syndrome. (I first encountered the idea in the critical writings of Jo Walton: it’s a trope gone wrong.)

In general: Does the work seem to be getting to the point, or do I have the feeling that the author knows what he or she is doing? If there’s what seems to be a digression, has the author done enough other stuff right that I’m reasonably confident the story will get back to the point?
 

JBCrowson

Inkling
I have tried hard to finish several Brandon Sanderson Books, but I have just found them unbearably dull. Julian May's Golden Torc was the other CNF. At least with that one I liked the idea, just the execution was a bit of a Rich Tea Biscuit.
 
I'm an illustrator who is self employed, so lots of long hours. Almost all my reading is done with audiobooks. I'm not finnicky about the recording quality, voices, or special effects. (I know some people who like them, and others who can't STAND them.)

I'm listening because I need something fun/interesting to keep me company and keep my ADHD ass in the damn chair. An audiobook has about 5 minutes or less to get me interested, or at least curious. If I start getting fidgety, I know the book ain't working and I have to change up. Incidentally, I like books that get to the point, and get there as quickly as possible. The story has to feel like it was already moving before I started reading. Then it has to give me a reason to care as soon as possible. I couldn't ever get through the first book in the Amber series because I was never given a reason to care.

Economy of words is super important to keep me listening. Excessive wordiness only works as the set up to a joke. P.G. Wodehouse is wordy as hell, but I know that there are a lot of small jokes packed in with a punchline at the end. Even so, I gotta be in the mood for that guy.

Robert E. Howard is pretty good at getting to the point, but sometimes even he takes too long.

Bernard Cornwell is the absolute best at getting to the point of any writer I can think of right off.

The first Dragonlance book and the first Elric book I had to put down at the end of the first chapter. Their trains were slow moving, and I was not given a reason to care about any of the characters or conflicts by the end of the chapter. I am going to try again in the near future.
 
I'm not finnicky about the recording quality, voices, or special effects.
I too am a huge believer in the audio book.

The BBC Terry Pratchett presentation was really fun, and there's a great multi-narrator performance of Plato's Republic out there somewhere, but typically I'd rather just be read the book, sans Foley.
curious, do you have a favorite book/narrator combo?
Mine might have to be John C. Riley doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Just... so good.
 

bproorda

Acolyte
I have only very rarely given up on a book or book series. Usually I am to obsessed with find out how the story ended. Even If I don't like a show any more, chances are at some point I will finish it just to find out how it ended. One time that comes to mind is when a book series just got so depressing. I don't know if it was the author or what, but there was a time jump between two of the books and everything went very very dark and depressing. Which is saying something give the books were about alien vampires that took over the planet.
 
Mine might have to be John C. Riley doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Just... so good.

That sounds absolutely incredible and I may have to spend my Audible credit for this month on this.

I really enjoyed Steve-o reading his autobiographic/self-help book A Hard Kick in the Nuts. (which I know sounds crazy getting self-help advice coming from... Steve-o)

I'm not finnicky about the recording quality, voices, or special effects. (I know some people who like them, and others who can't STAND them.)

Usually recording quality is the main reason I'll stop an audiobook. Special effects don't normally bother me unless they're just downright ridiculous, but if it sounds like you're recording audio for a best-selling novel on an old early 2000's webcam microphone I'm going to have a hard time getting through it.
 
I lose interest primarily if:
A.) the story is set in an overused, real-world location like New York City.
B.) Primarily focuses on character architypes I don't personally enjoy.
C.) An overly contrived deus ex machina without sufficient set up.
 
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