h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"life's too short to read a book you don't like"

which are you?

I used to be the the person who had to finish a book no matter what, but over the last few years I've weaned myself off that. If it's not doing it for me, out it goes.

I've always been a serious biblioholic and, when I was younger, I saw it as a holy duty to finish any book I started. Caused me some agony, it did, forcing myself to read through stuff that didn't appeal to me at all.

But, as you get older, you get wiser (hopefully) and I no longer waste time on books that don't please me.

I think it can be compared to developing the attitude of 'I no longer take sh*t from ANYONE'

oh that's a good point, I'd never thought of it like that.

I have one book I got when I was in my teens. I can't remember how often I tried to read it, but I never made it past the first few sides.

(Ein Kampf um Rom, by Felix Dahn). I usually finish books, but this one I never read. Same goes for Sophie's World. I read a few chapters evenb, but it totally and utterly bored me.

sides? I mean pages.

I'm the first kind. Not just in books. Films too. Sometimes TV shows . Someone convinced me to start "Lost" for instance, and of course I had to finish it no matter how terrible everything after the first episode was. I still hold it against that person, but I don't think she knows that.

I think an interesting question for those who are of the "I've started so I'll finish" camp is- What book caused the most pain on the way down?

For me, it was Proust's Swann's Way. Beautifully written, but only about four things happen in the whole (very long) book. Luckily, my hyper-commitment issues don't force me to read the whole series of books.

I used to read everything I started, no matter how much I was hating it, as a sort of DUTY, with gritted teeth if necessary. And then, suddenly, in my early 30s, a switch flipped in my brain and now if I can't be bothered with a book, I can't be bothered with a book, and I DON'T CARE. It's actually quite liberating. Hurrah!

Am I noticing a pattern here? Is it a passing folly of youth to try and complete a book that you're getting nothing out of?

When I was 7 I was staying at my Grandmothers and I had no bookmark. She gave me a card with a picture of a Robin on it. I was very careful and for six months that was my book mark, I only read one book at a time, and I never moved onto the next one.

The next time I visited my grandmother the bookmark was stuck together with sellotap in five places. She laughed and save me five more Christmas cards to use as bookmarks. That was the start of the rot.

I now have so many books to read I find that I am overwhalmed so I try and finish one before moving on. Otherwise I end up with apile of half finished books, there is nothign wrong with them, I have just got distracted half way thorugh.

If it's more of a "meh" thing I usually try to finish (especially if I've paid for it). But if I really don't like it, I won't finish it.

I've finished a lot more books than I have given up on, though.

The most painful book I finished while I was in my youthful "Magnus Magnussun" phase was probably Digital Fortress.

It was also the book that made me decide never ever to suffer like that again

I can only think of a few books I started but didn't finish - LoTR being the main one. Sebastian Faulkes Birdsong is another, have never got past about page 5 but have no idea why as I really *want* to read it.

There have been books I've started on holiday, accidentally left behind, and didn't enjoy enough to buy again in order to finish them. There was a crime novel called I for...Iniquity? I have forgotten the title but it was part of a series A is for...etc etc. It was AWFUL, so badly written, adn the charaters so dull and two-dimensional that after the first two chapters I decided not to bother. Quite shocked myself, it wasn't hard going like LoTR, and I probably could have read the whole thing in an afternoon if I'd wanted...but I just didn't want to. Felt oddly liberating.

was it by Sue Grafton, Kelli? I've read the first three because a friend gave me them in a kind of Omnibus versin.

Birdsong. Leave it. If you want adultery, French stylee read Mme Bovary. If you want WW1 read All Quiet on the Western Front

It's a funny one, Birdsong. Everyone I heard mention it in the year or so after it came out said there's rarely been a book so good. Everyone I've heard since then has been notably unimpressed by it. Triumph of an initial marketing? A zeitgeist thing?

For what it's worth, I've tried to read it and I couldn't get very far. I became aware that I was pushing myself through words on a page that weren't giving me much back (so little that I can't remember a thing about the chunk at the start I did read).

I thought it started well, but it bored me very quickly. And then I realised that it was because the subject matter has been done to death.

although ther were some excellent descriptions of life in the trenches though

I can only think of a handful of books I couldn't finish myself. I tried "Anna Karenina" eight times, thinking I surely must be missing something, but nope. I managed to plow through the mashup version, "Android Karenina", and that's only saving grace was the novelty of the android character. The rest was all that he loves her/ she loves him/ he loves someone else entirely stuff I find so mind-numbing.

I also wasn't able to get into "And Another Thing", and try as I might, I have never been able to finish anything Neil Gaiman did except for "Good Omens", which was Pratchett-y.

Most recently I tried "The Help" and got a third of the way in before giving up in disgust.

*SPOILER ALERT*

That the black characters were the only ones written in the vernacular (and a very poor rendering of it as well) in spite of all the characters being from the Deep South, was bad enough, but the historical aspect was revisionist and quite offensive. And the character who's supposed to be the heroine is quite manipulative and self-serving.

I try and read Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn once a year, but find it far too depressing to finish. I've also been defeated by Don Quixote and War and Peace recently.

I usually only have two books on the go - one fiction, one non-fiction (usually a history book). I can settle in for hours with the fiction, and dabble with the other a chapter at a time.