Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
When so many readers are also so busy in real life, the question is, “How long do I give a book to interest me before I give it up?”
Even retired people who have time to read may question if the time is being used wisely and put a book down forever.
Considering that I may be in a bad mood or just too tired to appreciate a book, I will sometimes continue on for a hundred pages. If the book is well-recommended, I will go even longer. If a book is horrible, I will often quit by fifty pages and say, “Enough. I don’t need this in my head.”
If a book is difficult, I will read a few pages each night and keep on because it is good, but just hard to read, emotionally or mentally.
If a book is boring, but has some redemptive values, I will often finish it, but it may put me to sleep and take longer.
Several times, I have not been enchanted by the first book of a series, but decided to give the second book a try to see if it got better. For example, the first book in the Barbara Hambly mysteries set in the 1830’s in New Orleans with Benjamin January was one that I thought crammed too much back story, too much description and too many characters into one book. But if you read my earlier Bookflurries, you know that I came to love the series.
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I am glad I kept trying. I am learning so much about New Orleans.
I am really happiest, though, when a book grabs me on the first page and never lets go. That is so satisfying! I like it, too, if the book gives me the urge to find out more or makes me ask questions and I have to read more to find answers.
Some people have said they only give a book five pages or a few paragraphs scattered inside the book as they leaf through. I guess I have done that in a bookstore or when looking at the first chapter offered at Barnes & Noble. Sometimes just the synopsis turns me off which is too bad. I must miss many good books because of that.
Sometimes I understand a book is going to take a lot of concentration and I gear up for that and then feel pleasantly surprised when the book is more interesting than I thought it would be.
David McCullough’s book, John Adams, looked like a tome to put off. I was afraid to try it for months, but people kept saying how wonderful it was and sure enough, it was. I was ashamed of myself for waiting so long and just because it looked like a long slog. It was anything but that.
One reason I read several books at a time is because when one gets too exciting or too tedious, I can take a break and read something else. What? Too exciting? Well, I am not good at putting it down at the end, but in the beginning or middle when I see trouble coming, I am sometimes too tired to face it with a character I like and I take a break.
How long do you give a book to grab your interest?
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Your VOTE can help us win a grant to send people of color to Providence for Netroots Nation 2012
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NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early.