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The key is to just put it down and move on to another book if you’re not enjoying it. Many people have a completist attitude towards reading - they continue to

The key is to just put it down and move on to another book if you’re not enjoying it. Many people have a completist attitude towards reading - they continue to slog through to the end of a book once they’ve started, even if they don’t like it. They’ll make slow progress, and it blocks them from picking up a new book. Cut your losses early - your total reading throughput will be much higher, and most nonfiction books aren’t worth reading all the way to the end anyway.

celticninja 7y ago
I used to power through books I didn't like, just to finish them in case they were redeemed somehow. Then I realized, too many books too little time. I dropped Neal Stephenson's Anathem because of this, although I have read every other one of his books and cover to cover. It just didn't click and I didn't fancy re-reading it when it did finally click.
- TheGallopedHigh 7y ago
  I did this with the much lauded sci-fi “Three body problem”. First half was good, then it took a dive for me and haven’t picked up up 3/4s of the way through.
bigred100 7y ago
Books aren’t about enjoyment. They’re about suffering and talking about Montaigne at a party. That’s why I forced myself to read 800 pages of Babur complaining about melons.
- _nalply 7y ago
  You live only once.
_nalply 7y ago
A trick if I decide that a book is not worth my time: I open Wikipedia and read the summary. However once it happened that I changed my mind and continued the book because I found a part of the summary interesting. Usually I take care not to read a lot about a book before starting, because it would be a pity if I learnt about an explanation before figuring it out by myself. So it is a real switch for me, and then I read Wikipedia slowly, ready to stop midsentence if I want to resume the book.
khalilravanna 7y ago
Interesting. I’m actually heartily in favor of the “completionist” mindset. I adopted it from playing videogames. With videogames at times I would end up hopping from game to game to game, never really finishing many of them. And in a weird sense it felt less fun and it definitely felt less worthwhile. I couldn’t have more than surface level conversations about the content and I never felt like my opinions were holistic enough of that content either. Now I only play one game at a time and I really try to finish it unless it straight up is just not fun for me. I’ve slogged through parts of games where I’ve become bored after X number of hours and ultimately been much happier for it as I witnessed everything the game had to offer (especially with regards to story). Final Fantasy XV comes to mind here. The gameplay had become tired after 30 hours or whatever but getting the whole story arc (for all its flaws) was extremely worth it. I’ve carried this over to books. Unless I’m really not interested I will stick with the slow parts and generally I’ve been happy with the results. The Stand by Stephen King comes to mind here. It’s like 1,200 pages of tiny font and is pretty slow in the middle but has some stupendous moments and is really an epic tale I’m happy to have under my belt. I do have to pair this with a conscious “required” reading time, e.g. an hour before bed so that I’m always hitting a minimum rate so I don’t slow to a snails-pace and read a book a quarter or something.
- 1_player 7y ago
  Probably because for you just the act of completing something is _fun_. Personally I'm reading or playing a video game because of the entertainment it provides. If it's not interesting or doesn't hold my attention, it's not worth slogging through it. Life's too short. That's one big plus of digital entertainment: I can refund what I don't like in a single click, I don't feel like I _have_ to finish it nor I have to justify my reasons to anybody. Though I have to admit I've bought for the second time some video games or books I had previously refunded, because I finally understood what's the correct mindset to have to enjoy them fully.

celticninja 7y ago

I used to power through books I didn't like, just to finish them in case they were redeemed somehow. Then I realized, too many books too little time. I dropped Neal Stephenson's Anathem because of this, although I have read every other one of his books and cover to cover. It just didn't click and I didn't fancy re-reading it when it did finally click.

TheGallopedHigh 7y ago
I did this with the much lauded sci-fi “Three body problem”. First half was good, then it took a dive for me and haven’t picked up up 3/4s of the way through.

bigred100 7y ago

Books aren’t about enjoyment. They’re about suffering and talking about Montaigne at a party. That’s why I forced myself to read 800 pages of Babur complaining about melons.

_nalply 7y ago
You live only once.

_nalply 7y ago

A trick if I decide that a book is not worth my time: I open Wikipedia and read the summary. However once it happened that I changed my mind and continued the book because I found a part of the summary interesting. Usually I take care not to read a lot about a book before starting, because it would be a pity if I learnt about an explanation before figuring it out by myself. So it is a real switch for me, and then I read Wikipedia slowly, ready to stop midsentence if I want to resume the book.

khalilravanna 7y ago

Interesting. I’m actually heartily in favor of the “completionist” mindset. I adopted it from playing videogames. With videogames at times I would end up hopping from game to game to game, never really finishing many of them. And in a weird sense it felt less fun and it definitely felt less worthwhile. I couldn’t have more than surface level conversations about the content and I never felt like my opinions were holistic enough of that content either. Now I only play one game at a time and I really try to finish it unless it straight up is just not fun for me. I’ve slogged through parts of games where I’ve become bored after X number of hours and ultimately been much happier for it as I witnessed everything the game had to offer (especially with regards to story). Final Fantasy XV comes to mind here. The gameplay had become tired after 30 hours or whatever but getting the whole story arc (for all its flaws) was extremely worth it. I’ve carried this over to books. Unless I’m really not interested I will stick with the slow parts and generally I’ve been happy with the results. The Stand by Stephen King comes to mind here. It’s like 1,200 pages of tiny font and is pretty slow in the middle but has some stupendous moments and is really an epic tale I’m happy to have under my belt. I do have to pair this with a conscious “required” reading time, e.g. an hour before bed so that I’m always hitting a minimum rate so I don’t slow to a snails-pace and read a book a quarter or something.

1_player 7y ago
Probably because for you just the act of completing something is _fun_. Personally I'm reading or playing a video game because of the entertainment it provides. If it's not interesting or doesn't hold my attention, it's not worth slogging through it. Life's too short. That's one big plus of digital entertainment: I can refund what I don't like in a single click, I don't feel like I _have_ to finish it nor I have to justify my reasons to anybody. Though I have to admit I've bought for the second time some video games or books I had previously refunded, because I finally understood what's the correct mindset to have to enjoy them fully.