Lately it seems like I’ve been abandoning books at a higher rate. It’s hard to tell exactly as marking a book “unfinished” on Goodreads clears out the date started, and I got out of the habit of resetting it. But it’s at least 5 since the beginning of the year, plus I have a 6th in a time out (and honestly, books rarely come out of time out).

Abandoning a book is a part of being a reader, whether you’re someone who reads a book or more a week, or someone who’s lucky to finish a couple in a year. Either way, your reading time is precious and you shouldn’t spend it on books you’re not into. I always think of the third law of library science, “Every book its reader.” Every book is for someone, but no book is for everyone. You’re bound to encounter books that aren’t for you. This can mean a lot of different things:

• Sometimes the story is too complex and you Cannot Even, no matter how much you want to: Nona the Ninth
• Other times you just bounce right off: Witches
• Maybe you’re sick, or it’s allergy season: The Employees
• Or some quirk of the writing jumps out at you, and maybe you just can’t unsee it: Point Roberts

There are also circumstantial reasons that you might not finish a book:

• The audiobook was longer than your road trip: The Last Human
• Your library ebook expired before you finished it: The Drunken Botanist

So why do we sometimes feel like we should finish a book we’re not enjoying?

• It won a prize, so it must be particularly good: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022 Booker Prize)
• Your book club is reading it: To Paradise
• A friend read it and loved it: The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book
• You’ve loved some of the author’s previous work: Dead Astronauts

There are also aspirational reads:

• Did you used to be someone who would have read it? Index, A History of the
• Do you want to be someone who has read it? The Secret Life of Pronouns

Just stop! Don’t get too wrapped up in reading at least a certain amount before abandoning something: Infinite Jest (20% of this one is itself a short novel! Spare yourself the attempt and read one of these instead.)

If you’re not ready to commit to abandoning it, put it in a time out. I’ve paused books I wasn’t enjoying to see what my book club thought, and then decided whether to finish based on the discussion. I’ve also paused books to see if I feel compelled to pick them back up after I read something else.

As you abandon and pause books, try to form a sense of why, as it’ll help you avoid books you’re unlikely to be into. It could be something stylistic, or it could be situational. Understanding that can also help you figure out if it’s something to come back to in the future.

You can of course decide to plow through anyway, skimming your way through the remainder. But before you do that with an ebook, check the page count first. It could be 800+ pages: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars