Why readers stop reading...
Aug. 12th, 2009 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossCheck 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?
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?
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Date: 2009-08-14 02:54 am (UTC)I probably will never read another medieval fantasy novel again in my life. Been there, done that. Read the masters and read many retreads. That particular corner of the genre is just played out. For me, at least. To some newcomer or some reader who hasn't been reading the field for forty years it may be a different experience.
Other than that, boring characters probably rates right up there, too. Some writers spend so much time developing interesting and complex worlds and never get around to interesting and complex characters.
Two things I don't require: humor and a happy ending. I like my sf&f dark sometimes. Not always, but sometimes when the story warrants it.