If you’re 25 chapters into a book ‘hanging on until it gets better’ is some silly dork advice. Nah, my darling, it’s just not for you. Set it aside and read what you enjoy. Dragging yourself through a book you don’t vibe with is silliness. Time for reading isn’t always plentiful! Read what you love!
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Pick a book. Sit down and read the first 10 pages. If you don't care what happens on page 11, put it back and try another.
Reading is a joy, not a chore.
I love messing around with the English language.
Even more fun: I was born in the Canadian province of Québec to an English mother and a German father.
Favourite expression as a small child? "Ne touche pas my Dreirad." (Don't touch my tricyle.)
I live near Toronto and occasionally get asked by my LGS if I'm interested in helping them at a convention. Anime North is this weekend, guess what I'll be doing :) Pretty sure there'll be plenty of manga there! :D
CAUSE THEN THEY hAVE TO READ THE WHOLE THING!
Whahahahah!
Also someone did read mine and they said it's like a 'play' for how I name chapters
It's annoying when a book is not for me in the middle of it.
... I'd be too invested to put it down. Might as well finish it! :)
Also, try going in with an open mind. It's amazing how much more you'll enjoy the story if you let it tell the story it's trying to tell! Learned this about movies, and it applies to books too!
I am reviewing a trilogy. The first 2 books were good. They started slow but got good enough through the volume to be worth the reading, and at the end of the second book, I wanted to read the third. Number 3 started fast, slowed some, shifted gears, and then
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Sometimes, you have to hide the ending to get the message to the reader.
it’s helped us watch a lot more different kinds of movies bc there’s no pressure!
In 10 years, we have chosen some awful books that felt like a punishment.
When faced with one of those books, then I just skim through it to get the meaning and read the last chapter.
I’ve been on a quixotic quest to read that book for 30 years.
I thought using an online chapter-digest tool would help me appreciate it - during this 3rd attempt.
But I was still dreading reading it.
I’ve read 3 great books since I put it down.
My reading journey took me from a place of feeling like I needed to read every book in existence to recognizing that I can enjoy a few books by a few authors and that's perfectly ok.
I read Anthem in HS and later thought I should read The Fountainhead — so bad I started skipping pages and pages of boring exposition till I just realized I hated everything about the book and didn’t care what happened to anyone in it. Put it down and don’t regret it
I read for the prose, for the song, for the story.
Even when I'm SERIOUS. I can't slog, I can't vibe.
Seems a familiar topic, no?
Being stubborn about reading through books has rewarded me greatly in the past. That’s my problem more than anything. A book can turn around into something hugely amusing halfway through the book. If books stopped doing that it’d be an easier decision.
🇦🇺👊🏽💪🏾
“Ulysses “ . I got to page 700 or something and I just said “I can’t do this anymore “ I know I only had another 100 pages left but I didn’t care. It felt like drinking poison.
“Books I’ve never finished” list.
There’s The Bell Jar, Confederacy of Dunces
and I couldn’t even finish the first chapter of
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
I didn’t think my own heart could take it.
I did inform my teacher. She’s still a bestie after all these years. Only student she ever failed who volunteered to take her class again lol. I hated that book that much and still do.
For audiobooks, the test is if I zone out while driving, and can't be bothered to rewind, that's a DNF.
I’ve gone back to books to continue, and it’s removed so much of the guilt/shame that has stopped my reading for years.
I hated Beowulf the first time I read it. The next time, 10 years later, I loved it
Here’s a list of banned classics, available as free e-books: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/336
Ty, but No ty. I am good in reading my horrible books w/o any tips in how to improve as a human.
I would like to think, I got it by now :)
It was a book that I got about 100 pages in and just couldn't get into... I'd read the author's previous book, that's why I kept going & I've read a later one, but that one just wasn't for me!
If you're not enjoying a book, there's no sense in forcing yourself to finish it!