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Wednesday, July 20, 2016

On Not Finishing Books

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In general, when I start a book, I finish it.

In eighth grade, I read War and Peace. This was perhaps a bit ambitious (not to mention pretentious) of me, but I ended up legitimately enjoying the story so much (Tolstoy is a master) and had no problem plowing through the thousand plus pages over the course of several months. That is, until the story ended. Because here's the thing about War and Peace. Tolstoy wraps up the characters' story-lines, all neat and happy, several chapters before the book actually ends. So what's the point of those final few chapters? I don't even know. Philosophizing about war, philosophizing about peace, random thoughts, whatever. All I knew is that story was over, and my interest level in finishing these chapters was hovering close to zero. But I was not going to come 1,000 pages just to give up on the last few chapters! Oh, no! Not me! So I dutifully plowed through those last few chapters, even though it was a bit painful, and I finished War and Peace.

I'm a finisher. I like finishing things. Especially books.

But lately?

Lately I've been allowing myself the privilege of not finishing books that aren't holding my interest. My time is precious, I don't want to waste it on books I'm not enjoying. I always try to give books a fair go, but sometimes it becomes obvious to me that I will get very little out of finishing some books. So I've been letting myself stop and move on. By and large, I feel like this has been a liberating, positive development in my reading life.

Except for one little thing.

Not finishing books is wreaking havoc on the goal-setting-Goodreads-tracking-book-counting part of my reading life, and I don't know what to do about it.

What do I do with the handful of books on my To-Read Shelf that I started but never finished? I can't move them to my Read Shelf, because technically I didn't "read" them, at least not all the way. But do I just delete them from my shelves all together? Keep them on my To-Read Shelf indefinitely? Write a review explaining why I never finished it?

Also, there's a part of me that really wants to count, if not the book itself, at least the pages and time I put into reading those books in some way in my end of year totals. So maybe I only finished 50 books (or whatever), I started at least half a dozen more. Do those pages count for nothing?

Should I ditch Goodreads tracking all together and start tracking my reading in a spreadsheet or reading journal so I can track all these pages of unfinished books in my yearly totals?

Should I just let it go and stop obsessing over this? Probably.

But I'm curious, what do you guys do with books you don't finish? Move on and not think about them again? Track them in some way? Or do you obsessively finish all the books you start?

10 comments:

  1. I definitely don't make myself finish books I'm not into. There just isn't enough time in the rest of my life (although that time is still decades long, likely) to read all I'd like to read.

    I also use Goodreads to track my reading and I use it quite diligently. I also want to know WHY I didn't finish a book in case it comes up in the future and I wonder what happened. What I do is I add a shelf on Goodreads called "didn't finish." Then you can click the edit button next to "bookshelves" and make your new unfinished book shelf "exclusive." That means the books don't have to be counted towards your "read" books, but it's also not hanging out on your "to-read" shelf. Tada! I can also put comments about why I didn't finish the book and often I'll add private comments instead of comments in the review portion if my reason isn't really relevant to anyone else. This won't count for you the pages that you did read, but it works for me. :-)

    I have several extra "exclusive" shelves that help me sort my books. I've also added a "to listen" shelf so I can keep track of books I'm planning on listening to vs. eye-reading. I also have a "paused" shelf for books that seem to be hibernating and I just can't get to them, even though I do intend to finish them someday. This might be good for books that have to be returned to the library before they can be finished, for example.

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    1. Thank you so much! I had a did-not-finish shelf, but I was totally missing the mark exclusive part of it, which is why Goodreads didn't seem to be working for me. This is a game-changer!

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  2. It can be painful to give up on a book! Right now I'm just two hours away from finishing an audiobook, but the narrator has become so annoying I'm wondering if I'll be able to stick with it until the end.

    I have an unfinished/on hold shelf in Goodreads. I write a short note about why I've chosen not to finish the book and then mark it Read, Unfinished, and 2016. I like to add my unfinished books to my 2016 (or appropriate year) shelf because I include unfinished books in my blog post of quarterly books read. Yes, my total number of books read includes books I didn't actually finish, but I'm not working toward any specific numerical goal, so it doesn't matter to me.

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    1. No! It's the worst when the problem with an audio book is the narrator, and not necessarily the book itself.

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  3. You create an "unfinished" bookshelf. That's what I did, and it totally liberated me because now I have a place for all those books.

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    1. I wrote a post last year about how I use Goodreads to track my reading and I talk about how to make an unfinished shelf.

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    2. But I totally get what you're saying because I'm a finisher too, and I think if I ever get that far in War and Peace, I will definitely suffer through to the end.

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  4. Yep, I did the same thing--made an "unfinished" bookshelf on Goodreads. That way I can remember what it was that made me put it down in the first place.

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  5. I not only have an abandoned shelf on Goodreads but a skimmed one, cause sometimes I just skim.

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    1. Haha, that's brilliant! Some books just need skimming.

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