Reader Friday: What Makes You Stop Reading?

imageAs a reader, what makes you stop reading a story? Is it a clunker first line? An unsympathetic main character? A “been there, seen that”, bland or generic premise?  Please share.

23 thoughts on “Reader Friday: What Makes You Stop Reading?

  1. Usually, it’s when nothing interesting is happening. I’ll skip a few paragraphs, or even pages, if I’m already into the book, but if the beginning doesn’t pull me in, I’m done.

    The other turn-off for me is a great opening followed by dull backstory. Just last week I gave up on a historical adventure. It started off with the hero clinging to the outside wall of a mountain fortress, but for some reason, the book then jerked me away from there to tell me all about who the character planned to rescue, how they met etc.

  2. Let me start by saying TKZ is a double edged sword~ I’m writing better because of what I’ve read here, BUT I’m also more critical (and intolerant?) of what I’m reading.

    Case in point, I just gave up on an acclaimed politico-spy thriller because:
    1. The author used short, choppy, three to four word sentences as dialogue, and one of the two protagonists was usually a smartaleck wise guy to boot;
    2. The characters rarely just “said” these things, but “queried”, “posited”, and at least two times in every chapter “informed” (I was so annoyed by it I went back and counted~ talk about being removed from the story);
    3. The final straw for this sway-backed camel came as an info-dump of the most belligerent sort~ pages of this type dialogue and attribution on the history of the protags’ destinatio,n, camouflaged as a “briefing” session prior to their deployment.

    I used to be able to stumble along with stuff like this and wonder what was wrong with the book (or me for not getting it), but now, I’ve realized life’s too short to suffer poor writing, (though I wonder now how it gets published and lauded -Please, “inform” me if you know.)

    So thanks…. And thanks…

    • It’s true that once you become a serious writer, you never read books in quite the same way ever again. Thanks for your kind words about TKZ, George–you brightened our day here!

  3. My real main suckers:

    1.) When I can name the book or movie it was copy-catted aka plagiarized from.

    2.) When the monotony of meaningless details, described with the enthusiasm of a dead dinosaur, makes me realize that doing the laundry or talking a walk is so much more preferable.

    3.) When I am finished. Because not everything out there is bad and stolen!

  4. Really? You’re gonna turn me loose on this topic? Below are my notes on books I’ve tried to read this year. Trust me, the language got cleaned up and pulled out identifiers as I really don’t believe in trolling other writers in public.

    WORTH IT?
    Duller’n dirt
    Really shallow for a book that has concentration camps in it
    Boooring
    Whatever
    Paint by number plotting
    Gag. Clumsy so called high fantasy.
    Just couldn’t get interested.
    OMG, it sucked. Lines like, I am not popular, you know.
    So freaking dated. When I got to the giggling whore, I quit.
    Convoluted language, run on sentences & funky near perverted attitudes.
    Ugh. What was amazing is now ghastly
    Disgusting big crayola plotting, writing
    1st chp ok, then amazing backstory dump
    Grade school stupid writing, plotting.
    Ugh. Attitude toward slavery
    Awkward beyond imagination. Childish writing
    Whatever
    From horse’s POV. Funny, but eventually, boring
    Bored out.

  5. I’m more forgiving on technique issues–the writing would have to be extremely bad for me to toss it aside due to stuff like backstory, etc.

    It’s very rare that I don’t finish a book I start. It just grinds on my nerves not to finish. However, I can think of a recent book I started that I will probably elect to take months to finish and it sums up the one reason, more than any other, that I will turn away from a book: AUTHOR DECEPTION. Intentional or not.

    Example #1:
    You start reading a book because you read the back cover blurb and they made it sound like a light suspense type novel (if there is such a category). But then you read it & find the suspense is so light it’s undetectable like invisible ink.

    Example #2:
    You want to read a historical fiction because the book cover and the back cover blurb sound like it’s going to be about a very interesting story of the male protag, but then you read it and find out it’s mostly about the heroine. That one REALLY grinds on my nerves and is the most likely to turn me away from reading an author ever again.

    I understand the cover art and back cover blurb are meant to be marketing tools, but do not deceive!

  6. I’m a one-page wonder reader–I read the first page, and if the story and style hasn’t grabbed me immediately, I’m on to the next sample download. Ebooks have made me worse in terms of abandoning books quickly, since one can download samples endlessly. It’s harder to give up on a printed book, for me.

    • Me too. I’m much less forgiving about an e-page than a printed book. There’s too much good stuff out there to waste time on a story I don’t love.

  7. When characters I love, and have invested hours in, change for no apparent reason in the second, third or however many installment. It feels like the author handed their work to someone else and said, “It’s a six series contract, so do whatever you want. I’m off to hawaii.” Then I’m left wondering why my favorite good-guy is kicking kittens all of a sudden. and all my trust in that author is gone and I’ll never even skim the first page of their future work.

    • Not to excuse anyone, ASP, but one possible factor causing that syndrome is production burnout. A writer may spend three or more years lovingly nurturing his first story. Then he gets a series contract and–Yikes!–suddenly he has to create the same quality book in approximately nine months. And then again. It can feel like being caught in a hamster wheel. We’re lucky to make it into that wheel, true, but staying there requires an enormous amount of energy and discipline.

  8. I recently had the experience of reading a friend’s book who had just self published and I tried, honestly tried to read through it all. Half way through, I gave up. I felt horrible because this is a friend and I wanted to support them. However, NOTHING HAPPENED. The characters were interesting, but there was so much exposition and not enough doing that I came to dread reading it and I found excuses NOT to read it.

    For another friend’s book, I stopped reading after the first page. I was bogged down by description. The first sentence should have been a clue for me. The first sentence was a paragraph all by itself.

  9. Derivative characters and plot. I’ve almost given up on American crime fiction because at least 90% of the villains are diabolically clever psychopaths who torture and maim till you’re ready to upchuck, and the heroes are normal people who defeat the bad guy despite being massively outclassed. Must be a million of these on the market currently. British stuff is a little more atmospheric and not nearly as gory, but the writing is starting to deteriorate.

    Bad writing will make do a Dorothy Parker every time (don’t lay it aside, throw it with great force). And there is a lot of it about these days.

  10. To me, it depends on who the writer is. I will, and love to, wade through the compound-complex sentences and intricate minutiae of Michener, Clancy, Balducci, our very own James Scott Bell, and other authors of heart-poundin’, often globe-encircling adventures. These authors are the Brian Wilsons of novels. On the other hand, Patterson, King–eh.

    Again, to me, back story provides me rich detail upon which to build on the present narrative. It enables me to see the angle and perspective in which a character is able to filter and interpret detail and opinion.

    There are things that make me skip paragraphs and pages.
    But I don’t dwell on those things. I just try to enjoy the story.

  11. Right now I am trying to finish reading a novel that seems like three novels stuck in one book. I am skipping around to find sections that have to do with the story line I like best.

  12. * If it takes too long for the first body to drop in a mystery.
    * If what comes before the body is without conflict and action.
    * If there are huge paragraphs of narration with lots of description.
    * Not enough dialogue when there are two or more characters in a scene.
    * Insipid dialogue.
    * Unlikeable, bland or pitiable main characters.

  13. A nod to setting is fine, but a plethora of description in the beginning pages makes my eyes glaze over. Unsympathetic characters, choppy dialogue, no conflict or even a promise of it to come, and too predictable, If I know who the murderer is right away, that is a deal breaker for me as a reader.

  14. If the first page isn’t a really tight read or fast paced, they might lose me. If i stay on to read the 2nd page, I’m looking for something to hook me. If it isn’t in that 2nd page, I feel like I’m wasting my time. At this point, I usually will jump into the middle of the book somewhere and try and get a glimpse to see if the writing pace improves or something exciting is going on. If I don’t find anything of interest on that random page, I put the book down.

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