When do you give up on a book?

[zoco]

Reasons why people put a book down

Oddly enough, I've just read Don Quixote and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Normally I like a book to have a plot with a beginning a middle and an end & DQ certainly doesn't fit that description being a chronicle of the various adventures that befall our intrepid hero. A bit like Dickens' Pickwick Papers, which I also enjoyed.

The books I've found that I don't enjoy are the type of pretentious Booker Prize winner type novels where you feel you are reading the book to just admire the prose of the writer rather than enjoying a good yarn. I recently attempted 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - that certainly fits in that bracket (though I don't think it won a Booker Prize). Catcher in the Rye is another one I'll probably give a wide berth.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed White Teeth by Zadie Smith. That was a Booker winner and I didn't find that at all challenging or heavy going. In fact, I like it so much I've read it twice

[cojak]

Kidnapped.

One of the few books I just couldn't get into.

I tried when I was 11 and gave up - this was a stunning realisation as I was a voracious reader at that age and it never occurred to me that I'd put a book away until I got to the last page. I tried again when I was 40, thinking that my youthful self didn't fully appreciate the tale.

My youthful self was right the first time...

[mudskipper]

I've enjoyed most of the Booker shortlist books I've read. White Teeth was a great read. One I really couldn't be bothered with was Damon Galgut "In a strange room" He kept switching from first to third person - sometimes within the same sentence. As a 'literary device' it was damned irritating!

Hobbit is one I gave up on as a kid.

[northernladuk]

The bible. for more reasons than I can type.

[TheFaQQer]

Life of Pi - didn't even get as far as them being on the boat / raft thing. I knew there was something about a tiger, and I found myself hoping that the tiger ate him to put the reader out of their misery.

Sun Tzu's Art of War - got 2/3 of the way through and wasn't interested in it any more.

When I'm not enjoying a book, I stop reading it. Those are the only two that I can really think of that I haven't completed.

[northernladuk]

Hobbit is one I gave up on as a kid.

No way lol. As soon as I read the title of the thread I remembered giving up on The Lord of The Rings but wasn't going to admit it as surely no one gave up this series. I was a hardened Dungeons & Dragons player and reader at the time and it didn't quite fit in to the standard genre so went to read something else instead.

[pjclarke]

I like a book to have a plot with a beginning a middle and an end

I think it was William Burroughs who pointed out that life doesn't come tidily packaged like that so why expect literature to do so?

With your tastes - steer clear of Burroughs

[northernladuk]

Sun Tzu's Art of War - got 2/3 of the way through and wasn't interested in it any more..

We studied excerpts of this as part of professional development at my last permie gig. I couldn't image reading it cover to cover.

[mudskipper]

Yep, was an avid reader as a kid (grew up without telly!) - used to borrow six books a week from the library and then often needed an extra trip. I read all sorts - hobbit is the only one I remember not getting into at all.

More recently gave up on Les Mis, although I might return to it. Haven't seen the movie - that might be a less painful route to enlightenment.

[TheFaQQer]

might be a less painful route to enlightenment.

Have you heard Russell Crowe sing????