Hey! Look at this! A second post up in less than a week! (I'm praying I keep it that way. ;P)
Okay, so I thought I would write down some reasons why I have STOPPED reading a book. Yes, you read that right. Stopped. Even when I'm halfway through, and as an avid reader it kills my little OCD heart to not completely finish a book, I have decided to walk away from some.
If you're above the age of 12 and have starting branching out into more uncharted reading waters, then you probably know what I'm talking about. Here are some reasons why I stop reading books:
Language:
I have grown old enough that language does not bother me as much as it might have before, even large amounts of it. But there have come points in several books where the language was simply overwhelming and making the book completely unenjoyable. Most secular authors probably don't realize how distracting it is, or, if they do, they don't care. They assume everyone talks like this. But curse words can act like an attention-magnet. Instead of carrying the story, the characters, and the characters' speech forward, when they're used, they suck all of the attention away from the sentence to fixate on that one word.
Adult Scenes:
I've stopped trying with YA novels. Anything remotely romantic-related turns out to be all romance. When that happens, the authors usually feel the need to spell out every detail, something I personally do not care to read. You can have adult-content without describing every detail of that. Imagine how much more appropriate books would be if that were the case. But since authors assume you DO want to read all about it, they do write it.
Now, I can overlook those two things usually, IF it has at least one, sometimes two (depending on how bad the language and content is) of the following:
Good/Interesting Characters:
There have actually been few books--nowadays, at any rate--where the characters are compelling and interesting and deep enough to make me want to keep reading. I tried to get into The Raven Boys Trilogy, finding the characters well done, but ultimately not interesting enough to carry the weight of the boring/weird plot, the amount of language, and the complete lack of any sort of moral values. (Now, I know by using this as an example, I've possibly opened a can of worms. I know that the Raven Boys is a pretty big deal for some people, but, sorry, this is my opinion.)
The Throne of Glass is another example I could use. The language I could take, the occasional adult content I could take, but I couldn't stand Celaena after the second book in the series. She wouldn't stop whining. While the first book kept me interested, and the second book I read for the romance, there was nothing left for me to gain from Celaena's character after that. She was all dried up. And, by taking away the intrigue of the plot of the previous books and the other, more interesting characters, I found that she had been just as whiny and annoying throughout whole series.
Intriguing Plot:
The plot is supposed to be what keeps you reading. You can get away with stupid characters and badly written prose if you have an exceptionally amazing plot. Now "exceptionally amazing" varies due to peoples different tastes. I read a book a while back about the idea that souls are used again and again, but in different bodies throughout time, and boy who could remember his "past lives." He was in love with a girl he kept meeting during those various lives who couldn't remember. (By the way, I DO NOT recommend this book.) The writing style was fairly good, if vague, but otherwise is was an awful book. The only thing that kept me reading was the plot. I wanted to know how it ended. I wouldn't say it was an "exceptionally amazing" plot, but it was intriguing enough that I overlooked all the flaws.
Good Writing Style:
The City of Bones is a good example for this one. It was one of the few books I've read that I read solely for the writing style of the author, and nothing else. I picked it up, intending to enjoy it because I had heard good things about it. Instead, I found the characters dry and devoid of any real standards or morals, the plot predictable, slow, and typical, and the language distracting. I kept reading it doggedly, because I decided that even if it ended terribly, the author was a good writer and I maybe I could pick up on how she did it.
Enders Game is an amazing book. Great plot, well developed characters, and nicely done writing, but after reading it, I felt like I needed to take a shower. There was a lot language. But, ultimately, it was worth the language for everything else the book gave me. I gained more than I lost. Faerie Wars on the other hand, I put down because it wasn't worth my time. While there wasn't a whole lot of language, the characters, the plot, and the writing were nothing spectacular, there was nothing I could gain as a writer or as a person, and I eventually just decided to put it down. There are better books out there for me to spend my time on.
The older I've gotten, the more books I've put down. One, because I've started to realize that time is precious and I need to use my reading time to its fullest extent. And secondly, because, as I branch out into stranger territories in search of new and exciting things to read, the more flak I have to wade through to get the really good stuff.
Do you stop reading many books? Do you have a hard time like I do not finishing something simply for the sake of finishing? What makes you stop reading? What makes you keep reading?
Have a lovely afternoon,
~The Scribbler in the Attic
