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Books you can't finish


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Have you ever had a book that you can't finish? Not as in you lose interest in the first 50 pages, but as in you get to the home stretch -- 50 pages to go -- and you can't bring yourself to wrap it up. No interest left to even find out what's going to happen.

 

I've been reading The Transcriptionist for what feels like an eternity. Normally, when I get to the last 100 pages of a book, I am racing to the end. With this book, I really don't care. I was enjoying it at first. I'm not sure where the line was crossed. 44 pages to go, and I don't think I can do it.

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Hmmm, like you I usually also read the last number of pages of a book pretty quickly (depending on the size of the book, 50 or 100 pages or such). Usually if I don't like a book, I tend to abandon it way before the last 50 pages. And if I got that far that I've only got a little bit left, I tend to just finish reading it. But I think I had trouble finishing Going Solo by Roald Dahl. I can't remember it anymore exactly but I think it was that one. I think I sort of skimmed the last part of the book.

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I don't think I have ever got that far into one and not finished.  I usually abandon a bad book much earlier.  So Wow that must be some dull book. Is it the characters you lost interest in?

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I don't normally get that far into a book and give up to be honest. Once I'm past a certain point I have to know how it ends, even if every word is an agony. Closest I ever got was a book called Calenture by Storm Constantine. I think by the last 50 pages or so, I was basically skim-reading.

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I have mentioned elsewhere on this forum,that I once made it to the last eighty pages or so of James Joyce' 'Ulysses' and suddenly realised that I no longer cared what happened to anyone in it! Nor have I ever returned to it,although I often read a few lines of 'Finnegans Wake' if I am feeling especially suicidal!

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I have mentioned elsewhere on this forum,that I once made it to the last eighty pages or so of James Joyce' 'Ulysses' and suddenly realised that I no longer cared what happened to anyone in it!

That's how I felt. It was fine at first, but then at some point I lost my connection with the characters. Once that happens, there's no hope.

 

 

If I don't like a book I abandon it way before the last 100 or 50 pages. I read it to the end no matter how much it bores me. I just try to finish it quickly to start a new, hopefully better one. :D

It wasn't horrible in the beginning -- not remarkable, but not horrible either. I finally managed to skim through to the end this morning. The book was put in a book swap before noon.

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Hey dtr!  :D  Nice to see you back!

 

Re the topic.....usually I hate to abandon a book.  However, the older I am, the more willing I become.  ;) 

 

Sometimes it's only 10 or 20 pages, and in one extreme case 2666 by Roberto Bolano, I actually read about half the book, aka 500 pages!  It depressed me so badly that I was in a foul mood, and my husband was extremely relieved when I decided to throw in the towel.  :D

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Hello, Kate! It's nice to be back. :) How are things in Louisiana? My family was just talking today about how much we miss it. All the pictures on FB of all the fun everyone is having and delicious food everyone is eating doesn't help!

 

On books, this one was an extreme case for me as well. I'm usually ruthless when it comes to dropping a dud, but this one really seemed like it might be interesting -- but the interest never materialized. Oh well. Can't win them all.

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I usually give up very quickly, but I did have a strange one last year.. I loved Mr Mercedes, by Stephen King, and read quite a bit of the 2nd book, Finders Keepers.. but I suddenly reached a point where I couldn't bring myself to pick it up and finish it! One of the characters was grating on me, there wasn't enough of another character, and it started to feel predictable. 

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Hello, Kate! It's nice to be back. :) How are things in Louisiana? My family was just talking today about how much we miss it. All the pictures on FB of all the fun everyone is having and delicious food everyone is eating doesn't help!

 

Oooh I hadn't noticed Kate is from/living in Louisiana! My new housemate is from New Orleans. She's struggling with the Irish weather :D

 

Regarding finishing books, I think once I hit the two-thirds mark, I'll keep going, but anything up to that point I'll stop. It usually doesn't get that far, though :P

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Oooh I hadn't noticed Kate is from/living in Louisiana! My new housemate is from New Orleans. She's struggling with the Irish weather :D

That's where I used to live! The weather is fantastic, so I bet she is having a hard time. There aren't a lot of gray days compared with up North, and it's pretty warm most of the year.

 

I remember my first year living in New Orleans, I giggled at everyone complaining about the cold on a day that was in the 60s. (Where I'm originally from, one doesn't start complaining about the cold until it's in the twenties or teens.) By the following year, I was every bit as bad as the natives, though, in terms of not being able to handle the cold!

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That's where I used to live! The weather is fantastic, so I bet she is having a hard time. There aren't a lot of gray days compared with up North, and it's pretty warm most of the year.

 

I remember my first year living in New Orleans, I giggled at everyone complaining about the cold on a day that was in the 60s. (Where I'm originally from, one doesn't start complaining about the cold until it's in the twenties or teens.) By the following year, I was every bit as bad as the natives, though, in terms of not being able to handle the cold!

 

I hate hot weather haha, it makes me very grumpy. Last week here it was incredibly humid and warm, so I was taking cold showers and wandering around in a t-shirt and shorts and my housemate was there with her electric blanket on. I said it feels like walking around in a bathroom after someone's had a shower in there, she said it does and it's amazing. I think she's mad, it's gross :P

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I usually give up very quickly, but I did have a strange one last year.. I loved Mr Mercedes, by Stephen King, and read quite a bit of the 2nd book, Finders Keepers.. but I suddenly reached a point where I couldn't bring myself to pick it up and finish it! One of the characters was grating on me, there wasn't enough of another character, and it started to feel predictable. 

 

Oh dear - this is on my TBR pile

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I usually give a book til about halfway through, although I ditched the Suspicions of Mr Whicher after about 120 pages as I was that bored :o   But if I was only about 50 pages from the end, I'd probably speed read last few dozen pages.

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Hello, Kate! It's nice to be back. :) How are things in Louisiana? My family was just talking today about how much we miss it. All the pictures on FB of all the fun everyone is having and delicious food everyone is eating doesn't help!

 

On books, this one was an extreme case for me as well. I'm usually ruthless when it comes to dropping a dud, but this one really seemed like it might be interesting -- but the interest never materialized. Oh well. Can't win them all.

 

Still humid, still raining a lot. :D  But absolutely gorgeous in-between! 

 

Oooh I hadn't noticed Kate is from/living in Louisiana! My new housemate is from New Orleans. She's struggling with the Irish weather :D

 

Regarding finishing books, I think once I hit the two-thirds mark, I'll keep going, but anything up to that point I'll stop. It usually doesn't get that far, though :P

 

 

Yup, lived here since birth. :)  I won't say all my life, as I'm not finished yet! Hah.

 

Ha ha! You would be dying in New Orleans. I still think of the little girl I saw bundled up with earmuffs and mittens the day it got in the lower 50s (nice springtime weather elsewhere in the States). Her parents were taking no chances!

 

I believe it. Many years ago, I worked with a guy that had just gotten  out of the Army.  He'd been stationed in Greenland, and then mustered out in Washington, D.C.  He said that it was about 45F in D.C. at the time, and he was walking around in short sleeves!  People just couldn't get over it...but he'd been so used to really cold weather, that 45F was literally comfortable for him. 

 

 

I usually give a book til about halfway through, although I ditched the Suspicions of Mr Whicher after about 120 pages as I was that bored :o   But if I was only about 50 pages from the end, I'd probably speed read last few dozen pages.

 

I can understand, I liked the book, but can admit that it was rather dry in places. 

 

I gave up on Lumen by Ben Pastor about halfway through.  I got to the point that I couldn't bother, or care about who did the murder.  It was just irritating!

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I usually give up very quickly, but I did have a strange one last year.. I loved Mr Mercedes, by Stephen King, and read quite a bit of the 2nd book, Finders Keepers.. but I suddenly reached a point where I couldn't bring myself to pick it up and finish it! One of the characters was grating on me, there wasn't enough of another character, and it started to feel predictable.

 

I felt the same about Revival. At one point, I felt like, who cares :D

 

I had a very hard time finishing the third book in The Maze Runner series, The Death Cure. By the time I got over half way through, ugh, it was a struggle. I just didn't care enough. Fortunately, I loved the first two. I felt the same with The Giver, predictable and unbelievable. Blah.

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I've had a few this year that I couldn't finish.

 

The Ice Twins was the last one.....that was just dire. I think I was around the halfway point before I threw in the towel. I flipped to the end and skimmed that last few chapters and was sure I made the right decision.
:D

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About 150 pages into A Man Called Ove.  Sooooo boring - writing and content.  I...can....go.....no......further.....!

 

Ah, I was looking at that very recently on GoodReads, and wondering if I should add it to my TBR or not.  :D  (I didn't, in the end.)

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I've had a few this year that I couldn't finish.

 

The Ice Twins was the last one.....that was just dire. I think I was around the halfway point before I threw in the towel. I flipped to the end and skimmed that last few chapters and was sure I made the right decision.

:D

 

This still amuses me :giggle:

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