How often do you read right to the end?

[SamScribble]

How much of what you start reading do you finish?

I admit that I am a slow reader. I like to savour every word, every sentence. And, perhaps because I am a slow reader, I am also a ‘picky’ reader. If a story doesn’t grab me in the first few paragraphs, it is more than likely that I will abandon it.

But I have also been known to abandon stories that I am enjoying. A little like when faced with a plate of delicious food, there sometimes comes a point at which I have had enough. It was beautiful, it was tasty, but now I have eaten all that I need to eat.

So far this year, I have started about a dozen books. A couple I abandoned after the first few pages, but that still leaves ten that I found - in some way - ‘rewarding’. Nevertheless, I have finished just three of them.

How often do you read right to the end?

 

[sr71plt]

If I start, I usually make it to the end (maybe 75 percent). I don't start, though, if it's over three Lit. pages or is part of a series that hasn't finished.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm a fast reader who has slowed down slightly with age.

It takes truly awful writing to make me stop reading a book once I have started. My project before this weekend is to re-read the whole of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Unless family or community matters intervene I should have finished the whole series by the end of Friday.

I tend to read to the end any Literotica story I look at - unless it is over 5 Lit pages and I haven't got interested by the end of Lit page 3.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I absorb books I bother to read. Most I abandon in chapter one, becuz the story is mired in the mud. Writers don't bother to make the bog interesting till youre out of it. Its like flying from Tokyo to Seattle, if the stew is hot and friendly fuck when we get to Seattle!

 

[sr71plt]

Its like flying from Tokyo to Seattle, if the stew is hot and friendly fuck when we get to Seattle!

Is there an English translation for this?

 

[Swilly]

I almost always finish a book I start. Lit stories....I will browse quickly first, then read if I like it.

 

[Aynmair]

I must be the world's slowest reader, in part because I am a compulsive editor ( pathologic even). I am very picky about what I finish - crappy grammar, clunky language, ho-hum plot or longwindedness can all derail me. I don't have a hard and fast threshold, however, and occasionally I revisit stories or books and even may like them better ( or worse) than when I left them off. I will also read several books and/or stories concurrently, and have to admit to being a bit ADD when it comes to reading.

IMO, a relatively small fraction of Lit stories over 3-4 pages can really carry the momentum. On the other hand, there are some I've wished were longer.

 

[lovecraft68]

This has changed as I've gotten older and life has gotten busier.

When I was younger I would finish everything I started even if it kind of sucked just as a "well I bought it may as well read it" or maybe just a challenge, but I read quickly so even a decent length book was only a couple of days.

Now though if it starts to drag I drop it quickly. Time is at a premium these days and I'm not going to waste it on something that is not entertaining me.

Last King novel I tried was Black House because it was the sequel to the Talisman with Peter Straub 100 pages in he is still introducing us to the cities population one character at a time and I said see ya later.

 

[Swilly]

This has changed as I've gotten older and life has gotten busier.

When I was younger I would finish everything I started even if it kind of sucked just as a "well I bought it may as well read it" or maybe just a challenge, but I read quickly so even a decent length book was only a couple of days.

Now though if it starts to drag I drop it quickly. Time is at a premium these days and I'm not going to waste it on something that is not entertaining me.

Last King novel I tried was Black House because it was the sequel to the Talisman with Peter Straub 100 pages in he is still introducing us to the cities population one character at a time and I said see ya later.

The Talisman is my all time favorite book.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I must be the world's slowest reader, in part because I am a compulsive editor ( pathologic even). I am very picky about what I finish - crappy grammar, clunky language, ho-hum plot or longwindedness can all derail me. I don't have a hard and fast threshold, however, and occasionally I revisit stories or books and even may like them better ( or worse) than when I left them off. I will also read several books and/or stories concurrently, and have to admit to being a bit ADD when it comes to reading.

IMO, a relatively small fraction of Lit stories over 3-4 pages can really carry the momentum. On the other hand, there are some I've wished were longer.

My longest is 3 pages. But I started a story that could go longer, and is tightly plotted.

 

[Aynmair]

My longest is 3 pages. But I started a story that could go longer, and is tightly plotted.

Put a link to it in your sig when it's done - we'll leave comments.

 

[HoneyFortune]

The older I get, the less time I have (or want to devote) to crap. For short stories, I am apt to move on quickly in search of a better writer and read, but only after page one. For books, I give it at least two chapters. I used to go much longer. My reading time is limited in the evening, I consider the books in my kindle a fun game of survivor. Crap writing gets it booted off the island fast.

 

[Hypoxia]

My ex-sis-in-law (still my daughter's aunt) is a fairly prominent F/SF author -- NYT BS-list, that sort of thing. We carried on a lively email correspondence for some years. (I had a FidoNet address; hers was on CompuServe. Yeah, it was a while back.) At first, we typically asked in each email, "Read anything good lately?" Then it became, "Finished anything good lately?" (And of course I'd ask, "Finish writing anything good lately?" Her awards answered that one.)

Finishing reading good stuff isn't too hard. Finishing other stuff... well, it depends on *how* not-good it is; and how 'good' is defined; and how impaired my attention span is at the moment.

Good stuff: I probably won't re-read Chip Delaney's long masterpiece DHALGREN anytime soon -- although when I first read it, I had a high fever and was bedridden for days, and since it ends where it starts, I cycled through it a couple times. Don't know if I could handle that again. TL;DR.

Pretty good stuff: Some series and standalones I read when I first found LIT totally engrossed me at the time, and some are worth re-reading -- and some faves just don't grab me any more.

Not-so-good stuff: If the first page doesn't grab me, it's Sayonara, Motherfucker! What turns me off? Obvious incompetence. Huge masses of charmless, tedious text. Untenable or absent setups, and trite or obnoxious gimmicks. (Oh fuck, not ANOTHER cheerleader!) Uninteresting categories.

Can't read *everything* anymore. Damn.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm a fast reader who has slowed down slightly with age.

It takes truly awful writing to make me stop reading a book once I have started. My project before this weekend is to re-read the whole of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Unless family or community matters intervene I should have finished the whole series by the end of Friday.

Damn, you must be a fast reader. Are you talking about the Foundation trilogy, or the whole seven-volume series? Either way, that's a hell of a feat.

Sidenote: Foundation and Empire is my favorite of all the books. Gotta love Magnifico.

As for my reading, I primarily only read non-fiction, and I'm pretty good about picking up books that I know I'll finish.

 

[Gunnlaug]

I would echo most of the other comments in this thread. I'm terrible at finishing books/Lit stories these days. With both of these there is a very short time frame for an author to grab me before I ditch the work and go an do something else instead. Usually a book has a couple of pages and a Lit story has a couple of paragraphs - if I'm not interested by that point then it's 'au revoir'. The same is true for newspaper items these days, as well.

Thinking about it, I can date this change (when I was younger I read avidly, almost anything - including the back of cornflakes' packets) to when I began to write. Writing has given me less patience, largely because there is always something I am writing that should really get my attention over what I am reading. Though I find the forums are perfect for procrastination.

 

[Hypoxia]

Thinking about it, I can date this change (when I was younger I read avidly, almost anything - including the back of cornflakes' packets) to when I began to write. Writing has given me less patience, largely because there is always something I am writing that should really get my attention over what I am reading. Though I find the forums are perfect for procrastination.

Ditto. I posted a thread recently asking if authors read less as they wrote more. I sure do. I read a little LIT, then go back to what I'm writing or editing. Or to wasting time on the forums, like here.

Over-committing helps me write. When I have a couple edit or review promises out, I write more. It's perverse. "Oh, I should finish THAT gal's work soon, but fuck it, I'm gonna write a couple more chapters of my own stuff first."

All of that keeps me from reading. Especially reading about how to write.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I read less crap and more good stuff.

MOST WRITING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRapSpA-dN0

SOME WRITING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNhUotdwTEA

OCCASIONAL WRITING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5p59ym0sw

 

[Handley_Page]

How much of what you start reading do you finish?

How often do you read right to the end?

Nine times out of ten.

 

[oggbashan]

Damn, you must be a fast reader. Are you talking about the Foundation trilogy, or the whole seven-volume series? Either way, that's a hell of a feat.

Sidenote: Foundation and Empire is my favorite of all the books. Gotta love Magnifico.

As for my reading, I primarily only read non-fiction, and I'm pretty good about picking up books that I know I'll finish.

All seven volumes. I've finished volume one since I posted last night.

 

[jomar]

Most books I read to the end. With Lit stories intend to skim to the juicy parts.

 

[MrFoxwood]

Off the top of my head the books I never finished are Moby Dick, Catch-22, The Serial Killers Club, and Great Expectations. Three of those I plan on finishing at some point. I feel compelled to finish the books that I start unless they are absolutely awful, and fortunately I have a fairly high tolerance for shit.

On Lit my tolerance is lower, I've got a pretty simple set of criteria when looking for something to read here and I'll abandon a story if it's boring me. Generally though if I make it through the first half page and its no longer than 4 I'll read to the end. Any more than four pages and it needs to be really entertaining to keep my attention.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm a fast reader who has slowed down slightly with age.

It takes truly awful writing to make me stop reading a book once I have started. My project before this weekend is to re-read the whole of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Unless family or community matters intervene I should have finished the whole series by the end of Friday.

...

Spoke too soon.

Grandchildren stayed for longer than usual and two community meetings at short notice.

I've only finished the first three volumes of the Foundation series. It might take another day for the next four.

 

[Acktion]

I guess I tend to read pretty fast, but never really thought about it. I took one of those speed reading courses once upon a time and it actually slowed down my reading speed. Go figure.

Back when I used to hit brick and mortar bookstores, I would stand there at the shelves and read the first ten or so pages. If I was at all curious about what was happening, I'd buy it and if I bought it, I finished it. (usually the same night)

Back in high school and college, literary course reading assignments used to make me nuts. Why the hell would anybody read only this much and then put the thing down and wait for a week before reading the next section? More often than I not, I read it through to the end while my classmates were doing the bare minimum which tended to get me into some trouble when I would bring up points during discussion for parts we weren't supposed to have read yet.

As far as here on Literotica.com, when I read what someone else has written, I pretty much read the first screen (roughly that ten pages in a paperback). If I'm at all curious at that point, I'll finish it and if I like it, I'll look at what else they've written. If I'm not curious, well, it took me about five to ten minutes, so I just back out and see if anything else catches my eye.

 

[oggbashan]

...
Back in high school and college, literary course reading assignments used to make me nuts. Why the hell would anybody read only this much and then put the thing down and wait for a week before reading the next section? More often than I not, I read it through to the end while my classmates were doing the bare minimum which tended to get me into some trouble when I would bring up points during discussion for parts we weren't supposed to have read yet.

...

I had the same problem.

For the last couple of years of schooling my family went from the UK to Australia. My intention was to take the Australian pre-university examinations and on my return to the UK take the similar UK ones. That didn't work out - a long story - but there were compensations.

Before leaving the UK I had acquired the reading lists for the Australian examinations due in eighteen months, and the UK lists for two years ahead.

My parents bought me EVERY book on both lists and I was able to take them with me on the month-long sea voyage from the UK to Australia. By the time we arrived in Sydney I had read every book at least once, and supplemented my reading from the ship's extensive library.

When I started my studies in Australia I was far better prepared than my fellow students. Their studies were restricted to the selected books from the whole reading lists, but I had read ALL of the complete lists, Australian and UK.

When answering essay questions I could quote books that my colleagues hadn't read, put a book in context of an author's complete works, and I spent most of my study time on critics, not the basic texts.

By the time of my Australian examinations I had read a thousand relevant books. It wasn't surprising that I passed with honours.