Monday 12 December 2016

How fast do you give up on a series?

Me and Terry Pratchett's Discworld definitely don't get along. But hey, at least now I know!

I tried to start with the first book in the series a few years ago, but was told that it's not the best starting point. I decided to read Guards! Guards! next and whilst I didn't dislike it, I simply didn't find it all that funny or original. I blogged about it here.

Since then I read Mort and Equal Rites. And now I can drop this series without feeling bad about it. I gave it a proper try. I'd say reading 4 books of a series I don't enjoy is almost trying too hard?

I preferred Mort to the other books. Death is a funny guy. But whilst Pratchett is witty and clever, I miss an actual story. The humour is what matters in these books, but I'm not that interested in humour. I'd like to read an actual story.

Usually I give a book about a hundred pages before giving up on it. I sometimes check Goodreads and Amazon for reviews and decide whether or not I should stick with it. With Pratchett there are so many fans that adore him that I thought I have to stick with it.

But in the end I think life is too short for us to try and spend our free time with books or TV or movies that we don't enjoy.

How do you decide how many books to read before giving up on a series? Or how many pages to read before giving up on a book?

I hope everyone's December is going well. I'm approaching my goal of reading 104 books. I've got eleven to go. And I'm working on my 2017 list! 

6 comments:

  1. I hear so much about Discworld and yet it's never really appealed to me? I don't know why, but I've kinda resisted trying it. Maybe I need to follow my gut and just accept it's not for me. Anyway I totally get it, and trying 4 books- you definitely gave it a go! Thanks for sharing! :)

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    1. To be honest I thought the idea of a world that is a disc on top of 4 elephants, resting on a turtle, travelling through space, quite intriguing. But I don't tend to read many humorous books. Possibly just not my genre. Thanks for stopping by :)

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  2. I think it's absolutely fine to give up a series at any point. I know I have...I have even given up after a single book. I say life's too short to read books you don't enjoy :) 4 is a lot! You tried and you should be real proud of that but sometimes some books aren't meant for us :) It feels better to accept that :)

    Actually December kinda sucks for me..two days ago a cyclone hit here and we're having power outages and network problems. I'm most sad about the fact that the cyclone fell so many trees..The community is working to help each other! I'll be glad when 2017 starts!

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    1. Oh no. A cyclone? Is everyone okay? Is your house okay? That is really sad and stressful.

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  3. If I read a book and dislike it it may be enough for me to give up on a series... Unless I'm told to push through. If someone whose tastes are similar to mine or if they are a reader that I respect I will definitely keep trying or try again. But it's still acceptable to give up after one book (or in the most horrid of cases less!!!)

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    1. I've been told to push through the first few books of the Dresden Files for example and I'll definitely do that. But yeah, you're right, I guess it's acceptable to give up earlier. Thank you for commenting.

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