What percentage of the books you begin reading don't get completed?
As a semi-compulsive bookworm, my percentage is very low. And though I don't feel obligated to finish every book I begin - or to complete every book club selection - it seems to work out that way most of the time. In addition, more than once I've been later pleased to have resisted an initial impulse to stop reading something that ultimately captivated me.
So, here's my hot-off-the-presses question - Exactly how do you decide which books will not get finished? Moments ago, I stopped at page one thirty five of a four hundred sixty nine page historical novel selected by one of my book clubs. The prose is serviceable and the story - about the wife of a well known 19th century author - has some intrinsic interest to me. Also, the chapters are episodic and short enough to sustain the interest of any reader; the book can be digested in morsel-size pieces.
OK, coy exposition over - I need an assist here. If you completed "Under The Wide And Starry Sky" (2013), should I continue? Either way you answer, please tell me your rationale. And, don't delay - too many other books await these hungry eyes.
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- Pat Barton
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You exhaust me, Pat. I didn't read Sky but my decisive page number is 77. The rational for that number is tied in with my targeted death age. Don't ask me to explain that one. If I've read through page 77 and the book hasn't grabbed me yet - no matter the length - it probably won't. Plodding through a novel as if it were an assignment is old school. As for your first question, I abandon about one in ten of the books that I start. Thank you for your recommendation of Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf. Excellent choice. I'll be leading a discussion on that one later this month.
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