What Makes You Put Down A Book?

As title depicts. Pretty interesting how the chief sin is for it to be "slow, boring", followed by "weak writing" - even compared to "ridiculous plot" or "I don't like the main character".

Also, Pip is coming slow because I've been spending all my time with the girlfriend. That, and I needed to take a couple of days off to actually plan the silly thing. Here's to hoping I get somewhere before 31st July though!

Comments

[Csquared08]

Sleep.
The book makes me think. So I start thinking. Then it's an hour later.
More sleep.
End of a chapter --> Go do something else for a while.

Oh.
They meant stop reading and give up on reading the thing? With a physical book? I don't think that's actually happened yet.

[Casca]

1203110
You probably have a better reading ethic than I do, heh. I had David Sedaris' Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, a collection of shorts, and only finished the last two with a few months between it and the start. I've somehow tapered off my planned re-read of Lolita, and after lending Nourishment by Gerard Woodward to the girlfriend and getting it back after 2 weeks, I have yet to continue. I was maybe 50 pages in at the time of lending. While I am aware of an inner need to finish what I start, I lack the drive to carry it out. It's rather worrying, though, reflecting on it - I've been reading so much manga in proportion to proper lit that it's inevitably going to harm my writing. =\

[Csquared08]

1203180
I generally make sure I read things that I'm 90% sure will have content that interests me. It's the same strategy I've applied to fic reading here. The only times I've stopped reading things on this site are two romance fics a friend of mine insisted were brilliant (they weren't; they sucked) and a written version of a video series I really enjoyed that ended up not making the transition well at all. Other than those three, I haven't really stopped reading anything. Or, at least, there's nothing else I have no intention of ever reading again.

So, because of that, I tend to enjoy what I read.

[Casca]

1203188

I generally make sure I read things that I'm 90% sure will have content that interests me.

Hmm... I guess that's where you and I differ, then.

These days, the only books I read are the ones I buy, and I only buy books on cheap. I don't just get anything; I select based on a decided impulse - there's this one sitting on my shelf, The Female Man which looks absolutely wacky - I got that one because I wanted a reference on how to write from a female perspective. I have no idea if it's going to turn out to be hyper-feminist dreck (but it was only 99 cents a dollar!). ;_; So it's stuff that I'm only maybe 50% sure will interest me, either in content or in style. Which explains the difference in success, so to say.

That much being said, I don't mind being a fic skipper. It makes the few I stay to the end for that much more satisfying. .___.