What do you do when a book is boring?

[shelly blomker]

The last few books I've tried to read have been so boring that I didn't even finish them. I can't write reviews on books that I don't finish. I don't think it would be fair to my readers if I did.

 

So, what do you do when a book is so boring?

[Jennifer A Donnelly]

I finish the book, write the review I promised to write and spend the rest of the night feeling like the biggest jerk on the earth. That said I just wrote a review tonight that makes me look like said jerk, and I resigned from the review group after fulfilling my end of the agreement. I usually post everything to all my profiles, I've decided I'm only posting this one to goodreads and my blog, the requirement was I pick a book and post a review to one of the sites within 30 days along with my blog. Currently no one else has reviewed the particular title I picked that looked so very interesting in the group catalog on any of my the book social networking sites I belong to or any purchasing sites. So either I am the very first person to read a title that has been out almost two months or no one else wanted to review it either. My bio outright says I'm an extremely critical reader who does my best to write an honest review and to be completely honest I gave it a slightly higher rating than I really feel I should have and I only gave the book 2 stars, but my review was just so mean that I just couldn't give that book 1 star on top of being the horrible person who wrote the nasty review. I spent hours debating what to do, I put off writing the review all day, it was a question of do I follow through with the promised review including a brutally honest opinion of the work or do I renig on my end of an agreement on a book I promised to review. If I did that it would look like I scammed the company to get a free book. I figured given the choice of appearing to be a con-artist or appearing to be a jerk, the latter was probably the better option. That said I really need some ice cream now and a break from reading for at least a few hours.

[Dana Bee2012]

I get bored, I can't focus on a boring book. Eventually I have to put it down and I will give it a 2nd chance; wait a few days and try again and if it's still boring I have to contact the person I'm doing the review for (if it was asked of me) and tell them I cannot finish it at this time. If it was a personal pick, then I just move on to the next and post that the book was unfinished, ask what others thought, etc. :-) Dana

[Mindy Herbert]

Stop reading! There are too many fabulous books out there that I would not waste my time!  Life is too short!

 

www.magicalurbanfantasyreads.com

[Urban Sprite]

Don't give up on a book that's boring.  I'd still be inclined to write a review. Remember, your readers want to know your opinion of the book, so even if you don't like it, you can still write a review.  It may not be positive, but it can still be constructive criticism.  Just say what you didn't like about it and if you gave up, why.  Invite your readers to tell you what they thought of the book, if they've read it.  Some may agree and others may not, but it could get an interesting debate going!?!

 

I've reviewed books where there have been things about them that I didn't like and I've just explained why.  I've also made the author aware that I'm going to make those comments beforehand and I've never received negative feedback.  Most authors will tell you that even the negative comments (if worded politely and as constructively as possible), will help them to develop as writers.

[Sherry Soule]

That sounds like the most professional way to handle it. :-)

[Marian Perera]

I usually flip through the book just to get an idea where the plot is headed - who knows, perhaps it will surprise me, though that's usually not the case. There is only one novel where I genuinely haven't cared how it ended (or even whether it ended), and that book was Cold Mountain. It took me a week just to get to the halfway point and by then I was sick to death of it.

 

Marian

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