Why readers stop reading...

[deborahjross]

Check out Nathan Bransford's blog on why (and at what point) readers give up on a book. It's fascinating -- and instructive to us writers.

The people posting fall into several categories. Some, a minority I think, are compulsive finishers. Others are either so critical or so stressed for time, they give a book only a few pages, a chapter at most, to hook them. Most seem to be somewhere in between -- they'll hang in there for 30-100 pages.

Many commented that if a book has been recommended (or they've enjoyed other books by the same author), they will give it more time. Others mentioned specific turn-offs, ranging from content (I just put down a book which combined glorification of the military, a dystopic world, and killing a dog, all in the first chapter -- I would probably read on if it were only one, not all 3) to prose technique (telling not showing, weird tenses).

The single most cited reason for giving up on a book? "IT'S BORING." Granted, one reader's "boring" is another reader's "brilliant," but I am struck by how many bloggers used the same word.

When and why do you give up on a book? What makes a book boring to you?

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

What constitutes boring has changed considerably over the years. But one thing: if the view point characters are consistently awful, and do awful things, I'm outa there.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Do you mean, boring to you as a reader? As in, your tastes have changed? I know that many subtleties that I used to miss entirely, I now find delightful.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yep--boring to me as a reader. Generally, predictable patterns will lose my interest.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Here's a phrase that knocked me right out of a book (on p. 4):

"Wildness surrounded him, oozing out of his pores like the sweet musk that covered his body. The man was magnificent in his rugged beauty."

Even for a romance, I'm outta there.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yep, that would toss me right out as well.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Whaaat...? I have been writing romance for thirty-some years, I know how it works; and, y'know. That is beyond bad. I was just going to say that I almost never quit a book once I've started, but that? Urk...

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Yes, quite amazing. Do you suppose there are night classes in how to write like that?

Some editor paid money for this.

The book, which came in a box of SFWA Circulating Plan books, is new, with a cover painting mostly in hot reds and lots of bare skin. I think it's paranormal romance. It's already in the box-to-go.