How do you push through a book you aren't enjoying?

jordanlund , 5 months ago

It depends. There have been books that I have HAD to read and I survived by making notes in the margins about how everything they are saying is wrong. :)

For stuff I didn’t HAVE to read? Fuck that, life is too short. I might consider going back some day, but in most cases, never have.

I got 100 pages into Dune and walked away, that was probably 40 years ago now.

Nougat , 5 months ago

Okay real answer here, not just "don't."

You can read it with the goal of having a solid understanding of why you think it's bad, in a way that can be communicated to other people. Having that kind of understanding is better than not, and it'll make it so that you have a better perspective on what you do like, and why you like it.

carl_dungeon , 5 months ago

Audiobooks help me there sometimes. Most of the time I enjoy them for the performance and because I can “read” while driving or working on projects, but it also helps with slow spots in some books that are otherwise worth reading.

That said, I would not suffer through 40 hours of dislike, it’s more for that occasional 2 hour lull that might have caused me to put the paperback down and not pick it up again.

EntropicalVacation , 5 months ago

Enjoy what you enjoy—life’s too short and there are too many other books out there to waste time on what you don’t enjoy! I have no qualms about not finishing a book, no matter how far along I’ve gotten. I’ve been known to skip to the last chapter or last few pages just to see how it ends, then move on.

On the other hand, for books that you have to read (for school, e.g.) set a goal of X pages per day, and reward yourself when you make the goal. I also find it helps to read more interactively: take notes, argue with the author, think about what you read and whether it’s total b.s. or whether there was anything, however small, of value in it.

squiblet , 5 months ago

I skip to the last chapter, and if I don't understand it, keep skipping back until I do. Or just put it down for a couple of weeks.

karashta , 5 months ago

I don't.

I've even read philosophical works that go against what I think and feel and spend the entire time arguing with someone who has probably been dead for hundreds of years.

But I enjoy that from time to time to keep my mind sharp.

No point in reading something that doesn't grab you and resonate with you. Life is too short to put myself through that.

s0ckpuppet , 5 months ago

I have a hard time making time for reading, so I want that time to count. I don't let myself get caught up in a sunk cost fallacy and will just move onto another book.

Gammaray333 , 5 months ago

If it’s fiction, you are basically murdering all your head space imaginings of the charactors, carelessly cutting them down mid stride before their time. Only a pure psychopath could do this.

state_electrician , 5 months ago

Not every book will be enjoyed by every reader. I DNF once I realize the book is just not my cup of tea. I just checked and of the 15 books I started this year, I dropped 4 at some point. Sometimes I hate-read a book. That happens when I find the book annoying, but it still has something to keep me going on. I am enjoying it to some degree, while also being angry at it.

In any case, if reading the book feels like a drag, close it and open another book. Maybe you abandon the book forever, maybe you pick it up a year from now and plow through it. Both are fine.

BustinJiber , 5 months ago

Pushing through a book that is not working is detrimental to every party involved - the author, the book itself, and primarily to yourself and your time. You should never do that.

Engywuck , 5 months ago

You don’t. Just pick something else. Reading should be pleasant, not a torture.

BoBTFish , 5 months ago

Not exclusively, I have occasionally finished things that were challenging more than enjoyable. But I'm thinking about the content, not that they were just poorly written. Eg books on fgm, holocaust, etc.

GeekFTW , 5 months ago

I don't. DNF that bitch and move on!

ModernRisk , 5 months ago

I don’t. There way to many books that I want to read and oh so little time.

If it doesn’t grab you and you are truly not enjoying it, just DNF the book and move on.

If that doesn’t work for you, you could try to make a “goal”. Like “read 60-70 pages before DNF”.

FuckyWucky , 5 months ago

Skip the chapter.

frightful_hobgoblin , 5 months ago

Why would you read a book you don’t want to?

li10 , 5 months ago

Personally, because I’ve spent long enough reading it and I want to just finish it if I’m like two thirds of the way through.

In reality, I spend a week thinking “I need to finish that” and then forget about it completely.

tiramichu , 5 months ago

If I’m in that situation where I really hate the book but also really want to finish, then it’s usually because there’s that nagging mental thread of something left undone.

But I don’t want to read it. I just want to be done with it.

What I need is closure, which means knowing how the key points wrap up and what happens at the end.

And so knowing that, I commit a crime against literature - I skim.

Normally I’d never skim, but it’s far preferable to never finishing at all, and it ties off that unpleasant dangling thread, letting me be free and move on to something I might actually enjoy.