Abandoning Books. An American Tragedy.

Hello. It is me, a very problematic person. I’m going to confess that I am guilty of abandoning books. At least for me, I just have s-o many books that I want to read so I can’t bog myself down reading books that I don’t enjoy. So here’s a discussion post for you guys so you can either publicly shame me or agree with my problematic ways.

PROS OF ABANDONING A BOOK

• You don’t waste time reading a book that will a. only disappoint you and b. make you regret spending time on it while you could’ve been reading other books.
  • Wow this is the actually story of my life (and the Serpent King). There are so many books that I’ve read because my friends have pressured me into it #peerpressure and while good books (that I haven’t read 12 times….) were sitting only an arms length away and I’ve suffered. (And wasted my time 😉  )

    

    Do you want that? Do you really?

• Many of us have massive tbr and why would we stall our tbr progress to read a book that’s pretty disappointing
  • I’m talking to all of you people out here with like thousand books tbr’s. I mean really?? Really???
• Some books are just so problematic or so uncomfortable to us as readers that we have to/should stop reading them for our own mental health
  • There are books that I’ve seen reviews for, had friends tell me what they were like and these books just caused people a state of agony (wow I’m never overdramatic) because they were reading things that were making them very uncomfortable but they were ignoring that in order to finish the book.
• Sometimes the writing style is just disagreeable or not well done that we physically can not actually read the book to finish it
  • And I’m going to get some #opinions on this but I personally didn’t enjoy the style of This Savage Song. V.E Schwab is a remarkable author I just wasn’t able to get into her writing. I tried and tried and tried but I constantly was just distracted and after maybe two hours trying to get through the book I was only on page 23 or something. At that point it was more of a waste for me to try to continue the book that just mark it as a dnf.
• Okay so this isn’t really not finishing a book for forever and ever and ever, but when you’re in a reading slump: put books aside.
  • Whenever I’m in a reading slump, I tend to dislike anything and everything no matter how much the book may seem like it should appeal to me. I often will set aside books when I’m in a really bad reading slump because I don’t want books to be ruined by it. This happened to me with the Miseducation of Cameron Post. I started the book during a slump and haaaaaaaaated it. I restarted it recently and it’s one of my favorites.
  • Word of advice kids: Put the book away when you’re not in the mood.

The true question is can you tell I never actually finish books????

I lied to you guys. I’m not actually a person (or a scary pear). I’m just a dnf rating with some pretty nice lipstick (which I’ve never shown or talked about. But it’s still there.)

PROS OF FINISHING BOOKS

aka the actually sane option that most normal people do.

• Everything is neat and resolved in a package. (Or like not. Depending on the book.) But usually there is some type of ending scenario (or cliff-hanger leading to the sequel) that gives you a little bit of closure or desire to buy the next book.
  • And if you FINISH the book you’ll know that ending yourself!!! Or not have to stalk goodreads and blogs and beg your friends……. or other vaguely stalker-ish things that I have never done in my entire life. I sort of promise……

Me, casually stalking

• Your “friends” don’t call you out for never finishing books. (This isn’t even really a pro it’s just a way to call out May for her always finishing books ways. Fight me.)
• Books that you didn’t expect to enjoy may end up surprising you!
  • This happened to me with two books pretty recently actually. The more memorable one was When the Moon was Ours. In the beginning I disliked the characters and the writing style. But by the end of the book I actually enjoyed it!!! (I still didn’t like the writing style though…) and it went from a one star book to a four stars!!
    
  • The other one was during a #reading slump or aka when I hate every book that touches my hands for an extended period of time.
• It allows you to fully realize and assess your opinions on books. For example if a book is really hyped or something (I’m an amazing writer who is very detailed) and you start reading and are like:

“Dang this book sucks, bro” – Amelie while reading a book that sucked

• Finishing the book allows you to have more evidence for your opinions (and if                     you’re into that sort of thing) allows you to have a better well-done review

• You don’t wake up thirty years later from a nightmare because you never finished that one book.
  • You don’t want that. Trust me.
• I mean really it’s just common sense??? Finish what you’ve started???? I think you need to have a long introspective look at yourself if you aren’t finishing most of the books you read???

Okay I can’t really pretend that this wasn’t just a callout post for myself and I have really weird reading opinions.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut

I can ask you guys for your opinions (Mostly so you guys can publicly shame me….) 

(Also thanks to May for letting me rip off her featured image 🙂 Love you!!!!)

Do you chronically not finish books? Are there any books you just couldn’t finish? Are you going to publicly shame me? Do you have any #controversial booky opinions? How has your day been?