Fun Fact Friday is a meme that I started last year in an attempt to get to know my followers with a quick fun fact. In return, they get to know me. With the new year, I decided to start with one that I have seen a lot of people discussing on their blogs: Read a book in it’s entirety even if you don’t like it or drop it and move on?
For me, that question has changed in the past year. I used to be the devoted reader that would finish a book with the hope that by the end it would redeem itself. Then for my Modern Library Book Club, where we are reading through the Modern Library’s Top 100 Classics list, we had to read to “The Ginger Man”.
Halfway through the book, I was bored to death and didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of it. But I persisted. It was a Top 100 Classic. It had to be good. WRONG! The ending was the same as the beginning and I felt I had just wasted a week of my life on drudgery. You can read my scathing review of this classic here but honestly, ever since then, I have taken the approach that if I am not enjoying it I should just move on to something better. After all, there is nothing to say that I can’t return to it years from now. Right?
What do you think?
Book Admirer 
I’m the exact same. If I’m not feeling the book, I don’t feel bad about dropping it. I just don’t want to waste my time on something that I don’t enjoy…
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I have far too many books on my TBR to finish any that don’t grab me within the first few chapters!
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Reading is about enjoying, so if you’re not enjoying it, it might be good to just not finish it! There are so many other great books you can read. It’s up to each individual, of course, but if it works for you, then full steam ahead. I take those 100 best book lists with a pinch of salt… there will always be a couple of books in there that are just not for you.
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A thought-provoking question. I agree that if you are not enjoying a book there is no need for you to continue. However, I think sometimes it still makes it worthwhile to read something to the end even if you do not like the book. That way you can judge a book as a whole and consider what exactly did not work. I believe it still broadens your horizons because if we only read to the end books which we love I guess we would only have a one-sided view of the world and what exists in it.
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I totally agree, especially with classics. They were written in a time where we may think that the writing is outdated or dense and thus I know many who have given up on them before giving them a chance. There have been many books that I have read to the end that I wasn’t sure of but ended up loving. However, I have come to realize, since I read so much, that if you don’t like a book at that moment, there is nothing stopping you from putting it to the side to perhaps pick up later. I feel that with some books, we are not ready to read that at the time and if try to continue, we may lose what the author had intended for us to see or feel.
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