Quit Reading That!

[Rowan]

Ha ha! Now that I have your attention...

What's the least little thing you've ever quit reading a book for? A book that is otherwise well-written.

I just started reading a book about Catherine of Aragon, given to me for my birthday (months ago) and the author is jumping back and forth along the time line of Catherine's life and I don't understand why.

[Divia]

too many characters introduced in a short span of time (20 pages).

The title escapes me now but I was reading one book that just kept on loading up the characters. It seemed like every page had someone new. Finally it got so bad that I needed notes to keep them separate. I decided not worth my time.

[Telynor]

Using modern idiom in dialogue, or really outrageous anachronisms. That will send a book flying to wall right quick.

[Chatterbox]

Implausibility. Anything that interrupts the story and makes me go WTF?? Hard to get involved in a novel that forces you to do that.
(In contrast, I love it when a NF book makes me stop and think. I still want coherence & plausibility, but...)

Oh, and basic errors. I read one of Laurien Gardner's novels where Sir Francis Bryant (Bryan) was referred to about 2/3 of the time as "Sir Bryan" instead of Sir Francis. Sigh. If she had to make such a basic error, why not at least be consistent about the error????

[boswellbaxter]

What will get me to stop reading an otherwise well-written historical novel is when the author deliberately distorts known historical facts, when the research is sloppy (especially when the author claims to have done sound research), or when the characters are either too good or too bad to be true. "Mary Sue" heroines especially stop me in my tracks.

[Ash]

too many characters introduced in a short span of time (20 pages).
.

I can sometimes handle many characters, but when their names are similar and their descriptons are pretty generic, out it goes. A complete change in character (see Captain Corelli, towards the end) or something totally implausible to time/place/character (unless its a fantasy) will at least give me pause, tho unless its a really bad book anyway, won't by itself keep me from going back.

Too many unexplained foriegn phrases is another.

Then there was Kite Runner; I was so upset by the actions (inaction) of the narrator early on, that I had to put the book aside. When I got it through my head that it was a kid we were talking about, I was able to go back to it. Ended up liking it, but that incident was a doozy.

[Ash]

What will get me to stop reading an otherwise well-written historical novel is when the author deliberately distorts known historical facts, when the research is sloppy (especially when the author claims to have done sound research), or when the characters are either too good or too bad to be true. "Mary Sue" heroines especially stop me in my tracks.

Ayup. Phillipa Gregory, anyone?

[boswellbaxter]

Also, I will stop reading a novel where the heroine (for some reason it's almost always a heroine in these cases) is simply unlikable. I gave up in disgust on one novel where the heroine, who was the narrator, kept telling the reader how clever and irresistible she was--I found her very resistible.

[Chatterbox]

Shades of real life, anyone? You'd think that writers would figure out that just as they don't like listening to the most beautiful and clever kid in school brag about the fact, their readers might not like the same attitudes coming from the heroine of t heir books!
But, no.....

[Veronica]

Yeah too many characters that and jumps between them very often (like haf a page each sometimes). Too bloody confusing for me.

[Miss Moppet]

I stopped reading Margaret George's novel about Mary Queen of Scots after getting to a sex scene which I found distasteful and also seemed to be superfluous to the plot. I took such a dislike to the book that I recycled it instead of passing it on. A disappointment as I'd loved her Henry VIII novel.

OTT gratuituous sex scenes were also a factor in my not finishing Karleen Koen's Through A Glass Darkly, although also I couldn't muster much interest in the heroine - and even though KK obviously done a lot of research and had her facts right, I didn't feel she'd got into the C18 mindset.

Veronica, I agree with you about the POV. I need to engage with at least one character in order to get to the end of a book, and if the point of view keeps changing, it's difficult.

[Celia Hayes]

What will stop me dead in my tracks in reading a book? It's a toss-up between Mary Sue heroines, and serious historical anacronisms, of the sort that make me say to myself, "Self, go do a quick google-search and see if such-and-such a thing had been invented then..."

[TinneyH]

If it's in present tense, I give it 1-3 chapters, depending on how long they are. If by the time I reach the designated point I've forgotten that it's in present tense, I keep reading. If I am still aware of it, I stop.

[Ludmilla]

I'm pretty tolerant, but one-dimensional characters combined with formulaic plots will make me fling a book. I don't like Mary Sues, unless they charm me; a few authors can pull this off, but many cannot. I also hate it when a main character thinks s/he is clever but s/he's not (usually due to the author's inability to show what being clever is and forcing the reader to just take their word for it).

[Ash]

If it's in present tense, I give it 1-3 chapters, depending on how long they are. If by the time I reach the designated point I've forgotten that it's in present tense, I keep reading. If I am still aware of it, I stop.

Hee, actually, any book that I start that makes me forget my own surroundings by about page 15 is a keeper. If it takes longer than 25 pages, it had better be damned good otherwise.

[Veronica]

I stopped reading Margaret George's novel about Mary Queen of Scots after getting to a sex scene which I found distasteful

Veronica, I agree with you about the POV. I need to engage with at least one character in order to get to the end of a book, and if the point of view keeps changing, it's difficult.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. :)

Oh no! I bought that book the other week! But on the other hand I'm curious about that sex scene now... :p

[Margaret]

The two things I find unforgivable are (1) if a novel is unrelievedly boring and (2) if I feel it's using violence in an exploitive way with the expectation that readers will find the explicit violence entertaining and pleasurable. Of course, #1 covers a multitude of sins, such as introducing too many characters to keep track of or care about, or having them think and act in ways I can't believe any human being would. And there's nothing more boring than pages and pages of repetitive violence by characters I don't care about against characters I don't care about.

[MLE]

Unless I have a very good reason to keep reading, I will chuck a book by the second 'veterinary manual' sex scene. That's my term for the pieces that have no sufficient character development and/or give blow-by-blow mechanical description, much like the instruction on using artificial insemination capsules for cows.

I will chuck a book if the writer's cause-and-effect lack a coherent logic. It drives me nuts.

As a trainer who must teach others how to handle their animals responsibly, misinformation on my specialty makes me cringe. My short-speak for that is 'Bambi Syndrome'.

[Veronica]

I usually don't like leaving a book unfinished. Feel that if I have started I might as well continue. My excuse is that it's a good way to keep my english up (since english is my second language.)

[Madeleine]

I think boredom and repetition are my main bugbears - I recently had to review a book that suffered from both! I rarely don't finish a book, but if I hadn't been reviewing this one, then I would have abandoned it.

[Misfit]

I think boredom and repetition are my main bugbears - I recently had to review a book that suffered from both! I rarely don't finish a book, but if I hadn't been reviewing this one, then I would have abandoned it.

I know some people have strong feelings about not writing a review for a book they didn't finish, but I like reading them - especially if the review notes the reasons/problems in the book.

[Miss Moppet]

Oh no! I bought that book the other week! But on the other hand I'm curious about that sex scene now... :p

Well, nothing's more subjective - so you may not be as offended as me! It's years since I read it, but I think apart from that the book was OK. You may have a keeper there!

[Ash]

I know some people have strong feelings about not writing a review for a book they didn't finish, but I like reading them - especially if the review notes the reasons/problems in the book.

Im the same way. Often if I'm having trouble finishing a book I'll go to the reviews to see if I am off, or if its really something I should continue. And when I wallbang it, I go back and revel in just how bad other people thought it was.

[Madeleine]

Im the same way. Often if I'm having trouble finishing a book I'll go to the reviews to see if I am off, or if its really something I should continue. And when I wallbang it, I go back and revel in just how bad other people thought it was.

I do this too, it's nice to know we're not alone!:)

[Misfit]

I do this too, it's nice to know we're not alone!:)

Welcome to my world :p;)

[LoveHistory]

If it's well-written I'll read at least half the book. If I'm still bored that far into it, I'll quit. But some books do start slowly (Tolkien anyone?).

If, on the other hand it is badly written, I won't go far past the first chapter.

[MLE]

I just dropped one on the spot. The main character, a woman stuck on a cattle ranch out west, having been raised on a dairy farm, decides she wants milk. so she has one of the ranch hands bring in a range heifer and just sits down to milk it.

Egad, this writer has never been around animals. Does she think cows just stand around to let humans help themselves to what nature intended for their calves?

completely ruined her credibility. The book went in the garbage.

[Celia Hayes]

"I just dropped one on the spot. The main character, a woman stuck on a cattle ranch out west, having been raised on a dairy farm, decides she wants milk. so she has one of the ranch hands bring in a range heifer and just sits down to milk it." :rolleyes:

Giggle... I had a scenario something like that, in Adelsverein - The Gathering, wherein a couple of the ranch hands rounded up a wild longhorn heifer with a calf, as a kind of wedding present for the new wife of the rancher. The rancher remarks optimistically that the heifer kicked her stall to pieces three times, but the pieces were not quite so small the third time, so he considered that progress was being made in taming her to be a milk producer...

[chuck]

Matthew Pearl's "Dante's Club"....Well written mystery....But the description of the first victim and the nasty flesh eating flies that are involved with his death.....Enough of this...Way too much information.....