How much of a book do you read before you decide to give up on it? Lets say you got it for free or dirt cheap...

how much of a book do you read before you decide to give up on it? Lets say you got it for free or dirt cheap, so "just finish it for my moneys worth" doesn't apply.

For pure quality issues: about a third of the way in. Maybe 40% of the way, max, but that's it. If the book is still trash by that point, it's unlikely it'll improve by the end.

On the other hand, if quality isn't the issue so much as tedium/difficulty is, then I'll just give up whenever I feel like it.

I always give any book at least 100 pages. If it still sucks by then, then I might give up, but it happens rarely.

It took me 400 pages of the Grapes of Wrath to realise Steinbeck can't write proper characters. I seriously did not care if they made it to California or not.

5 pages

I like to say 50-100 pages, but honestly, just whenever I hit a wall of "I'm not enjoying this, at all, I'm going to just give up and go read something better.

You should always try to give it at least that much though, because one of my favorite books started off seeming just horrible for literally no good reason, I was just having a hell of time actually getting into it, but when I did, I really did.

>just finish it for my moneys worth

Somebody doesn't know what a sunk cost is.

Probably around 50-100. If I don't enjoy it, it can fuck right off after that point.

For instance house of leaves. I don't think I have to read it all to decide it's shit.

I've never not finished a book I've started. I slog through it even if it's excruciatingly painfu. For instance, I read an entire Echos in Death novel, an idiotic trope-ridden police procedural, because I wanted to read the #1 bestseller of the retail store nearby - a truly horrific experience. Don't even know why I do it.

I gave up on this fucking garbage after 50 pages. And I'm so glad I did it, cause after that I've read a super great book.

10 pages max. If it is too patrician for me and I don't get anything or the terminology is too hard, then I give up. Or if the story is extra boring. Otherwise I always finish it, no matter what.
I read 99% classics, so I don't think reading any of the books completely would be useless.
I don't read because of enjoyment, I see reading as a chore.
I refrain from dropping, because if I start to drop and it escalates into a habit I'll never finish any book probably.
If I really can't stand it I begin a second book and maybe read them intermittently, but I never go beyond 2 at once.
Oliver Twist in English (not my native) was fucking tedious, and hard and almost completely boring at times, but I still finished it after few months, and I read few other books during that time.

I've noticed is generally not liked on Veeky Forums. I've read East of Eden and I liked it, characters and all. I'll read Grapes of Wrath and Mice and Man after that if I like it, and maybe then decide whether he writes proper characters.

you should give london bridge a try. it is so much better.

...

I usually keep reading even if I'm completely confused as to what is going on. But I rarely ever read a book that's over 600 pages. Maybe if I was reading a book of that length and I wasn't understanding it, then I would be more likely to quit it.

I'll have to try East of Eden because I've heard many good things. I only picked out GoW because it was the only Steinbeck in my library's collection.

The issue I had with it is that the characters are too... clean, if that makes sense. I know Steinbeck was a socialist, so go figure, but they can't seem to do any wrong (not that I remember anyway). I thought some sections of prose were phenomenal though.

>they can't seem to do any wrong
If you mean by this that they don't do anything unexpected/bad, then the case is completely the opposite with EoE I think. Looks like we'll have to try the other books indeed.

I give it 100 pages.

paul ryan is such a fag

PWned

It's mostly adjusted depending on the book's length

It's never a percentage for me. Usually, I'll be on the fence for a while and I'll get to an awfully hammy sentence or bs dialogue that gels the whole thing into a lost cause. It will throw the whole book into a negative, and profoundly lame, light and I put it down