How do you get through the first 100 pages of a book that you really don’t like, but have to finish? For the first time in about a week and a 110 pages read, I picked back up the book and forced myself to continue reading it. After I got eighty pages down, I realized that the book isn’t so bad after all, and I found myself laughing out loud.
I’m reading this very well-known author’s first book, which I thought might be some kind of inspiration for continuing the journey of publishing mine. The author instantly hooked me in the beginning, but as we all know, a back story is always nice. Well, in this particular book, there were pages and pages of that, too much I think, which began to get boring. Now that the book moving along, at a very well pace, I’m thoroughly enjoying the book.
What do you do when you need to read a book that you’re not really into?
Hi Isabella!
Just wanted to say thanks for the like!
Funny you should post the above because I’m in the same boat having started a book that just didn’t grab my interest. On goodreads, it’s been sitting there on my currently-reading list for about 4 or 5 months now. I always feel like I can’t give up after I’ve started a book. And if I do give up, I’ve somehow failed.
Normally, (and this may be neurotic) if I’ve started a book that I’m not digging, I bribe myself to finish it. So, I’ll say like, “okay, if I get to page 100, I can go buy a coffee from Starbucks!” Thankfully, my experience turned out much like yours where once I gave it a chance, I got really into it and it turned out to be really interesting by the end. In fact, I just finished it today. 🙂
Looking forward to future posts!
What a great question. I recently read a book that took me on a rollercoaster ride. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts I though, ugh and wanted to give up. I had met and really liked the author, so I felt obligated to finish it, and learned something.
As writers, we are a little different from the average reader because when we read a book we are not just trying to enjoy the story and characters. We (I do) look sentence structure, the flow of the story, reveals, how the author utilized tags and other things that normal readers don’t look at. I think it’s important to finish the books we start, even if we don’t like them. There are lessons as writers we can learn.
Great post, as always. 🙂
I was working as a book researcher for an author’s health book, and a few of the books I had to read were pretty dry. But it was work and I had to report to the writer–so that was incentive enough to push me to read it, understand it, and explain it. After all it was work related.
Thankfully, I haven’t come across any books that I picked up for leisure that I wasn’t in to. But as someone commented here, I think I’d have to bribe myself with a treat to get me through. Or connect with other writers who may have read it or are reading it…like a support group 🙂
I know it’s probably not that serious. But I think it would help if you actually have to read the book.