

When to Stop Reading a Book - mhb
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/24/edge-closing-the-book-on-a-bad-read/

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wanderingstan
Our tendency to keep reading even bad books is also (to some degree) a
manifestation of the "endowment effect" documented in Dan Ariely's
"Predictable Irrational": Once you've forked over money for a book, you value
it more simply because it's now yours. Even if it sucks, you'll have an easier
time convincing yourself that it is an Important Book.

That said, I think there are cases where you should plow through a book you
don't (at first) enjoy. E.g. when a book comes highly recommended by people
you trust, or from an author who has delivered in the past. This is especially
true for older books that were written for less attention-sapped audiences and
have cultural gaps that take getting used to. I'm thinking of Dostoevsky's
"The Brothers Karamazov." It was highly reccomended by friends with good
taste, and I had enjoyed some of his shorter works. Still, it was _incredibly_
slow getting started. But once I had ingested the multi-layered background and
got a grip on Russian peasant culture, was one of the more amazing books I've
ever read. And could not have been otherwise if not for the investment
required to get into it.

~~~
Radix
Another example is Les Miserables. That book is fantastic. I'm at a loss for
adjectives. I haven't really read anything since, but I loved that book, and I
loved Jean Valjean, and hated Thenardier.

But the the book takes a little while to start, then just when it does it
changes characters, and Hugo takes forever to describe things which have very
little to do with the story or characters. So I bored reading when Hugo
suddenly began building a new story arc at the height of the last one. Even
still the ending was tearful.

Haaah, I wish I loved reading as I did when I was a boy.

~~~
bentoner
I agree Les Miserables is worth finishing, and I eventually did finish it,
about two years after starting.

It was my "gym book." I'd read it while on the cardio machines at the gym, and
only allowed myself to read it there, so as to provide encouragement to go and
to stay longer.

(This was at Caltech where reading at the gym is normal: holders for books are
provided.)

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mhb
Interesting ebook effect: _Having an e-book reader has made Ms. Wendell more
ruthless. "I'm holding 100+ books on one device. If one isn't floating my
boat, I can move on to something else by pressing one button," she points
out._

~~~
DougBTX
The reddit of books? Start reading one article, but if it doesn't suit, or has
too many pages, skip right on to the next article.

The fun bit is that she has paid for said 100 books. Amazon, on a financial
level, could be quite happy for her to not read them - it saves time before
she buys another.

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pmichaud
I do this ruthlessly. I skim the first part of many articles, and do the same
for books, which I have in almost constant supply from amazon.

I wrote a system for myself (called Mnemo) that I used to catalog and cross
reference stuff. I can tag things, and search by author, keyword, whatever.
This is useful not only for going back through a topic I'm interested in, but
also because while I'm reading I can ask myself constantly: would I put this
in Mnemo or am I spinning my wheels?

Maybe I'll release Mnemo and see if it works for other people.

~~~
pingu
_Maybe I'll release Mnemo and see if it works for other people._

Please do that ... It sounds pretty interesting.

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balding_n_tired
From Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, entry for April 19, 1773 (Courtesy of
gutenberg.org):

Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr.
Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON. '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_?

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vollmond
What to do for the situation of actively liking a book, but getting bogged
down because it's (for example) huge.

With a series, you can take a break between installments. I read the first
Otherland book several months ago, and I'm just now feeling ready to pick up
book 2. What about this situation in the middle of a book? Put it back on the
shelf to finish later, or cut your losses and move on?

~~~
yan
If I'm reading something huge that is seeming to go on forever, I usually put
it away for a few days to a week and read a smaller, lighter book in between.

~~~
scott_s
I did something similar when I read "The Powerbroker," which is 1300 dense
pages. I was fascinated by it, and I learned an enormous amount of
information, but I knew from the beginning that it was at least a four month
commitment. (Most of my reading gets done in short intervals at breakfast and
lunch.)

The last time I had read a book of similar size, density and importance, I had
dropped it for six months - and that book ended up becoming one of my
favorites. (For the record, it was "The Powers That Be.") I wanted to avoid
doing that, so I just had a policy where I read a lighter book at home, and
read the denser book when I was out. It worked great.

~~~
yan
Ha ha, that's the book I'm reading now, and exactly the book I had in mind
when I made my original post.

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edw519
We go to Border's or Barnes & Noble once a week, have coffee and dessert and
bring a pile of books into the cafe. I read Chapter One of each book. If I
like it, I buy it. If not, I put it back.

~~~
yan
As much as I like Amazon, I still end up going back to B&N and Borders. It's
really hard to replicate the feeling of browsing through a bookshelf of new
books on a topic that interests you and flipping through some of them. Even
though the Borders recent web interface facelift try to come closer to this,
anything on a monitor is just not the same.

~~~
scott_s
That's my feeling, but after not finding the books I want for several months
of casually going to stores, I just ordered them on Amazon.

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ghiotion
When to stop reading a Web page. When there's a next button at the bottom.

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jodrellblank
"Don't eat your greens, just move straight on to dessert. Only read books you
find easy and enjoyable. What could possibly be wrong with that?"

~~~
timwiseman
When it comes to technical books, I agree with you. I have pored over more
than one dreadfully boring technical/scientific book because I needed the
information.

When it comes to fiction, I cannot disagree more with your implied sentiment.
The primary point of fiction is to entertain, and if I do not enjoy the book,
then I am certainly not being entertained.

Some books come with side effects. Some fiction books push an agenda or try to
make a political point (1984 comes to mind), but then it is the author's task
to both convince me their point is right and keep me sufficiently entertained
to keep me reading. Also, some books are supposed to help expand your
"cultural horizons" and can increase your vocabulary or introduce you to
interesting ideas.

But I find that a bad reason to read fiction. If entertaining fiction comes
with a good side effect, then that is an added bonus. If it is the side effect
itself that I am truly looking for then I am better off taking it in its
concentrated form. If I want interesting new ideas, I will sit down with a
book purely on the subject I am looking into.

In short, it is little problem if nonfiction is boring, but fiction which is
boring has failed its primary purpose entirely.

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seasoup
Just read your book quickly, before Amazon makes the choice to stop reading it
for you!

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mrlebowski
Which book did you guys stop reading recently ?

I was reading "Fooled by randomness" and just could not make myself go beyond
the ~25% mark..!

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TheSOB88
Excellent quote: "If I'm reading a truly, actively bad book, I'll throw it
out," he says. His wife will protest, but he points out that he's doing a
public service: "If I don't throw it out, someone else might read it."

I think people should do stuff like this more often. Like YAGNI with real-life
objects. You just ain't gonna need most of the crap in your house.

~~~
mahmud
"Bad" in what sense and according to whom?

Chernyshevsky's "What's To Be Done" is easily one of the worst pieces of
literature in history, but that didn't stop Lenin from being _inspired_ by it.
The book's major claim to fame is the infamous list of influential people who
_loved_ it, and not in that ironic "so bad it's good" way either.

~~~
TheSOB88
According to the reader. People seem to feel guilty if they don't want to read
some book. They shouldn't.

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terpua
I stopped on page 1.

