Learning when to give up on a book is a lesson I learned the hard way. I've forced myself to finish too many books I didn't enjoy. It's a waste of time. Just give up on it and move on.

Put it on the bottom of your TBR pile. Carry on with your next of a dozen books for this year. (Personally, I would sneak it off to a resale shop and replace it with some other book. 😁) Good luck

Set aside the advice that isn't working for you and let you do you.

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There's too many great books out there to spend a lot of time struggling through one that doesn't grab you, imo.

If you dont like it and dont have fun with the book, just give up. You dont have to force yourself reading a book you dont like and you wont be reading more if you dont like it. Put it aside choose another book and if you really wanna read that book try again at the end of the year.

My advice for reading more: Just have fun reading if you dont have fun it is not the right book.

As a librarian, I officially give anyone permission to give up on books they’re not clicking with.

Do you know how many books are published each year? Over 300,000! That’s like 800-ish a day. Even if only 1% of those are great, that’s eight great books per day. Not even counting the ones that are already out there! There are too many amazing books out there that will light you up and connect you with why reading is amazing. Give books a chance, whether that’s 50 pages or two chapters, or whatever your metric is. But after that? Ditch it.

I don't believe reading books that don't interest you is giving up. The only time I will push myself to read a book I'm not enjoying is when I have decided that specific book has value in my reading it.

If you are trying to respark your joy in reading, I recommend reading books that you enjoy. I had a goal last year of reading outside of my comfort zone, I pushed myself to read a couple of books early in the year but after slogging through a couple of horrible books I joyfully DNF'd other books and just looked for another book to fill that slot in my challenge.

Thank you! So many times in the past, I powered through books I wasn't impressed with. Because I was a "Finish every book you start!" weirdo. I used to finish-a-book-in-1-sitting as well. Now, I might read a paragraph or a page & have no problem putting it down. (Auto accident in 2009)

I would have loved hearing, "You don't Have To Finish any book you don't Click with."

Yep. Ditch it. If you want to try again, it will always still exist later.

Your goal is to get back into reading. Would continuing to read this book help or hinder that goal? To me, it sounds more likely to make you quit reading.

If you don't want to quit it just yet, put it on hold. Read a third book. Once you finish thay one, you could pick this one back up, or move onto the next. You don't have to make a forever decision right now.

I do 75 pages and then ditch. I never go back to it.

I think it's ok to put it away and move on to your next pick. Maybe at the end of your list, you'll try again and will enjoy it. Or you'll realize that it just wasn't for you, and that's ok. Good luck!

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Set it aside, you can come back to it later if you want. Or you can start another book as your main book and read this one slowly and see if you ever get into it.

I sometimes only read 1-2 pages of a book and give up. Sometimes the way a writer writes grates on my brain. I can’t put my finger on what it might be, but I read for enjoyment, so feel no qualms quitting.

Mods need to do something about these posts

Life is too short to force yourself to read a book, when there are so many out there you might actually enjoy.

If it's a book that you think normally you'd have liked maybe give a bit of time to thinking about why you pulled back from reading. Plus check eyesight, posture, general wellbeing, change of interests. Hope you find what helps.

I think it is better if you do, because I was in your position a two years ago and then I became fixated on this book that didn’t interest me and instead I picked up a book I knew would be intriguing to me and so after I read that, I felt I had my urges for reading back again. I figured if reading this would be more of a deterrent to my reading habit then it is better if I pause it momentarily then to deaden my reading urges.

So, I picked that book again knowing that I can read it because it has literary pleasure as a value for me and completed it without any problem.

So leave that book and read something that interests you and when you feel you have your reading habit back, pick it up again

Please post 'Should I keep reading' questions, in our Weekly Recommendation Thread.

My rule is 100, but I've broken it two books in a row. Still ditched and don't regret ditching. It's never too late to ditch a book.

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Me neither! Life is too short to read crap! 😉