I wanted to throw the book across the room...

[littlemissattitude]

I've got a question for you all. What makes you want to throw a book across a room? Or, more gently, what makes you put a book down partway through and not pick it back up?

I'll tell you what brings this question up. I was in the library the other day, and had picked up a book that looked good. I sat down in one of the comfortable chairs (love those comfy chairs in the library ) and started to read. It looked to be a good popcorn book, and I was in the mood for that. There was Egyptology and terrorists and looked like maybe ancient curses and all that good stuff. And then, a few pages in, one of the characters tells another character that he would not run a carbon dating test on an artifact for some lame reason that can't even remember now. But the implication was that in other circumstances he would run that test on that artifact. Except that it was a stone object and carbon dating is only used on organic samples. I threw the book down on the table and said, "I can't read this." I startled my mother, who was sitting there reading something else.

My mom asked me what was wrong. "Well," I said, "This author is an idiot and didn't even take the time to do his research." And that, more than anything, is what will make me put a book down faster than anything and not be able to pick it back up again. It was a simple thing, not highly technical. If he had bothered to read anything at all about carbon dating, that would have probably been about the first thing he would have read.

So, what makes you throw a book down in frustration?

[knivesout]

Basically, if I can't care for or believe in the characters, if I can't see or care where the story is going, or conversely, if I can see where it's heading only too clearly. Hopscotch by Kevin J Anderson stopped me in my tracks about half way through because the characters continued to be no more than cardboard cut-out cliches, the prose was terribly average and no effort was being made to explore the more interesting implications of a potentially awesome premise. Larry Niven's The Ringworld Engineers stopped halfway because the incessant sex (non-explicit, though, although that isn't why I hated it) and the rather directionless plot reached the point of terminal irritation. A couple of Tom Holt books had the same impact on me - I simply was not able to engage with the inane gags and conceits and the endlessly episodic plots.

[I, Brian]

If it seems like the writer is insulting my intelligence.

"The Reality Dysfunction" by Peter F Hamilton did that to myself - I bought it as a study of Third Person POV, but about a third of the way through the book he suddenly lobs in one big humongusly tacky cliche. Or that's how it read at the time. I can't remember whether I actually threw the book, or simply put it down in disgust. I did read the rest and it wasn't as bad as I thought - but I was generally highly critical of the book in general:

http://www.chronicles-network.com/bo...-reviews-1.php

EDIT - my review says I did throw the book.

[Lacedaemonian]

I agree with what you all have already said. I need to like the characters, and be gripped by the story. The last book that I read that was not finished, was The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I began to feel mentally ill reading this novel, and though it is a very interesting peice I had to stop for my well being.

[knivesout]

The Wasp Factory is a mighty disturbing book. I actually did finsh it, though. I found it morbidly compelling. In any case, it did achieve a very visible debut for Banks.

[I, Brian]

Wasp Factory was fine - didn't disturb at all - but it's really an extended short story that exists for the twist at the end.

[knivesout]

That's true. What unnerved me was that, to the protagonist (forgot name) the atrocities he commits are parts of some elaborate ritual he is constructing and performing, and so essentially reasonable by his own logic - and after a while I started actually sympathising to an extent. Not a pretty thought!

[I, Brian]

It was a bit twisted, but it was part of the character identity to receive and give sufferance. I think the empathic association is part of the overall scheme of creating a character who is human, but who suffers - in recongising that, we sympathise, even if we do not agree with what has happened. Ultimately, though, the worst was the father...

[dwndrgn]

Recently I've put down quite a few books, mostly because the characterization was so shallow - the characters so generic and underdeveloped that they were boring. I know I've gotten angry with others and wanted to throw them but forced myself to read them because I knew it was a flaw of mine that was making me angry. In one of those I was moderately happy that I continued reading - it was Mieville's Perdido Street Station. The notion that an insect physiognomy and a human physionogmy can coexist as one working, living organism (not a symbiotic relationship) is absolutely silly. I got past that by just ignoring it and then enjoyed the story. The other, The Man in the High Castle just annoyed the heck out of me but I continued because it was for the book club. I didn't enjoy it at all and only feel a moderate sense of satisfaction for finishing it.

There have been tons of others but those stick in my head at the moment.

[fallenstar]

I would want to throw a book across the room if it is really insulting my intelligence, which I would have done so if I have read your book, littlemissattitude. However, I haven't actually done so. many books I put down, simply because of the weird plot, or very cliche ones. Or the simple fact that I just can't find the fun out of things. I read Brian Jacques' Legend of Luke, his book is supposed to be those fun fantasy for teenagers. But it bored the heck out of me by the middle of the book, seeing the characters meeting new friends and dancing and singing....... Then it's the Treasure Island. It was quite fun until the point where the boy decides to slip back to the ship etc... Although I won't say Robert Louis Stevenson is a bad author. His work are far better than most of those authors on my library's shelves..........

[Foxbat]

Tedious and ponderous prose, cliches, and predictability are my pet hates. I've put a few books down (and thrown a few more) in my time. I definitely can't continue a book if I don't give a jot about the characters.

[rune]

I put a book down when I find the plot slow, boring and nothing much exciting or mysterious, or magical happening in the story. Also if all the author is telling me is that his characters, eat, drink, sleep and not much else

I have a rule, if i get to 100 pages into a book and nothing interesting as happened or the characters are boring with too much detail about the smallest things they do in their lives I wont waste my time continueing with the book.

I read a book once about how to write stories and one of the things it mentioned that I find important is that a story should start interesting and keep the reader hooked from page 1. If an author can't do that for me then I move onto something else.

After all there are plenty of books around that can achieve this

[kyektulu]

I cannot stand writers who dont do any research on the topics that they venture into and that really frustrates me because it makes you think 'hang on a minute, what are you waffling about?'.
Also predictability really annoys me when you know what is gonna happen in a book whats the point in reading the damn thing anyway?
And last but not least I really dont like people that go on for countless pages describing the pictures on the wall or something not really relevant like that. All these things make me put a book down.
xxxkyexxx

[Leto]

1- Insult to intelligence
2- Boredom
3- Gore cat killing. Cliché used too much IRL and in horror novels, sorry can't take it.

Drop the last K.W.Jeter I've tried for reason 2 and 3. And Da Vinci code for reason 1, 1 and 2.

[NSMike]

I generally put down books for a few reasons:

1. Cheesy dialogue. If it sounds like a bad B movie, like dubbed Japanese running through the streets, I can't take it seriously.
2. If it takes me more than two minutes and three re-reads to turn a page without general distractions. If I have to read something a third time because I just let my thought process run away from the book, that's usually a good indication that the book is worth returning to the shelf, to await sale to a used book store.
3. If something is poorly researched, like LMA's carbon dating run-in. If you're going to write a book, generally you're reaching an intelligent audience, and they'll spot most mistakes. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Especially on something as potentially complicated as carbon dating.