Thanks for this, David. I'm self-publishing my first novel this month and perused with interest the various reasons for people not to read it. Hopefully I've had good enough teachers to where it won't be a problem :), although "writerly self-indulgence" has me a little worried. Then again, isn't all writing a form of self-indulgence?
It's "self-indulgence" when you don't pull it off. When it doesn't add something. When it's an in-joke--that is, a side trip that only has relevance to you. When you "gild the lily"--that is, when lily-gilding isn't the motif of the passage. And, of course, the books I called self-indulgent sold LOTS of copies. I was about to type: You shouldn't have a problem with that . . . then I realized it wasn't the best thing, coming on the heels of "sold lots of copies" . . . Anyway, I wish you the best with the publishing project! [Believe it or not, I gotta cut this short because I have to sign into my twice-a-month Zoom meet-up with the Trollope Society. Not kidding!]
I am intrigued by the reasons behind why people stop reading books. Am I the only one who has a few left unfinished because I couldn't bear for them to end?
I didn't think of that one! I'm not sure it's ideal, since the writer's job is to keep you inside the bubble of the story. But in the best books--"best" in terms of our enthusiasm for the reading of them--there's always a push/pull--you race to the end but when you get there you feel cheated because there's no more text . . . also, when you come back to just the ending, you're not inside their aura, you may not feel the same enthrallment (is that a word?) as when you paused it. What d'you think?
A topic dear to my heart, as I weep inside in disappointment at a novel I had been saving for just the right time, that I bought as a gorgeous hardcover, by a writer (not you) whose Substack newsletter entrances me, but whose fiction is apparently a mismatch. 100 pages in, feeling like I was engaged in the literary equivalent of listening to fingernails scratching a blackboard, my hand wandered to a nonfiction book just within reach, which I had no intention to read right now, just to skim the contents... 45 pages later, it was clear that we were meant for each other at this time, while a certain hardcover will revert to its former role as a lovely shelf decoration.
Good post! I’ve forgotten novels, but seldom non fiction. Bad writing stops me every time….so hard to find well written novels that appeal to me. I loved Anne of Green Gables…have read it several times over the years. I totally agree about Stieg Larssons work…didn’t continue after he died. Housekeeping was the least compelling of Robinsons work. And I really liked Sister Carrie. never enjoyed 19th century novels. I taught Chronicles of Narnia for 30 years. I started Lessons in Chemistry, put it away for a year, and then kind of enjoyed it. But Walter Isaacson, Jon Meacham, Wendell Berry, Timothy Egan …never miss one of theirs.
Oh, David, I think this is my all-time favorite post. I read about 52 books each year and hate giving up on them. Sometimes I do, for all the reasons you list.
You know everyone was reading Blood Meridian when I was in the MFA program and insisting I had to read it. I read the Border trilogy and figured I'd put in my time, admired what he did well, and didn't need to read another. The recent—shall we say "embarrassment"?—did not surprise me at all. I always felt that in his stories women were not quite people.
My father loved No Highway and A Town Like Alice, and so did I, but when I got to Shute's casual racism in On the Beach, I just stopped. Maybe he made up for it. I had other things to read.
I recently managed to complete a Pulitzer Prize-winner, despite 60 pointless/unnecessary (and boring) pages and a character writing in the 1990s about a book review published in "The Atlantic" when it was still "The Atlantic Monthly" until 2003. The second half of the novel was worth finishing, but I nearly gave up a hundred pages in.
A friend recommended Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir(ish) Woman Warrior and I gave up on it. Later I read a wonderful book and when I arrived at the page where I'd previously quit, only then, I recognized that this was the same book that didn't speak to me at all ten years before. I taught Mr. Pip.
I've found books so awful that I managed to complete them specifically so that I could honestly post a bad review. I must come by that impose honestly. My mother opened Bridges in the grocery store, was horrified immediately, and came back to finish it because she didn't think it was right to dis a book she hadn't finished. She was a fast reader. I have never read it, but have a personal gripe with the author.
It's rare that I don't finish a book. Once I've really gotten it started, that is. I subject books to lots of testing before I commit -- read the first lines, read lines from here and there in the book, read the blurbs, the jacket copy, choose authors by reputation, etc.
I am rereading the Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson -- she contracted with L. Frank Baum's publisher to continue the series after Baum's death. Her writing has grown on me. Baum's writing is gentle, Thompson's frenetic. I don't think Thompson ever once uses a passive verb. Thompson's casual racism was about par for her times but can make a book hard to bear in ours. What I like about her is her relentless wordplay. Sometimes I don't even notice the silliness until I think about it afterward. I only read RPT after I'd deeply loved Baum and the difference between the authors was jarring. But, like I said, she's grown on me. I've also read some Oz fanfic that's painful. (L. Frank Baum's son, Frank J. Baum, wrote a bad one.)
When I wrote up a blog post promoting my Autobiography of a Book, my sister noted that I seemed to be assuming everyone would already want to read it. So I tried again, this time trying to entice: https://glenningersoll.substack.com/p/autobiography-of-a-book
Thanks for this, David. I'm self-publishing my first novel this month and perused with interest the various reasons for people not to read it. Hopefully I've had good enough teachers to where it won't be a problem :), although "writerly self-indulgence" has me a little worried. Then again, isn't all writing a form of self-indulgence?
It's "self-indulgence" when you don't pull it off. When it doesn't add something. When it's an in-joke--that is, a side trip that only has relevance to you. When you "gild the lily"--that is, when lily-gilding isn't the motif of the passage. And, of course, the books I called self-indulgent sold LOTS of copies. I was about to type: You shouldn't have a problem with that . . . then I realized it wasn't the best thing, coming on the heels of "sold lots of copies" . . . Anyway, I wish you the best with the publishing project! [Believe it or not, I gotta cut this short because I have to sign into my twice-a-month Zoom meet-up with the Trollope Society. Not kidding!]
Hi David,
I loved this post best of all.
And I only have to read 24 pages. Excellent.
xox
Mitzi
Yeah, in two days I'll only have to read 23. I'm beginning to think life has a design flaw.
I am intrigued by the reasons behind why people stop reading books. Am I the only one who has a few left unfinished because I couldn't bear for them to end?
I didn't think of that one! I'm not sure it's ideal, since the writer's job is to keep you inside the bubble of the story. But in the best books--"best" in terms of our enthusiasm for the reading of them--there's always a push/pull--you race to the end but when you get there you feel cheated because there's no more text . . . also, when you come back to just the ending, you're not inside their aura, you may not feel the same enthrallment (is that a word?) as when you paused it. What d'you think?
A topic dear to my heart, as I weep inside in disappointment at a novel I had been saving for just the right time, that I bought as a gorgeous hardcover, by a writer (not you) whose Substack newsletter entrances me, but whose fiction is apparently a mismatch. 100 pages in, feeling like I was engaged in the literary equivalent of listening to fingernails scratching a blackboard, my hand wandered to a nonfiction book just within reach, which I had no intention to read right now, just to skim the contents... 45 pages later, it was clear that we were meant for each other at this time, while a certain hardcover will revert to its former role as a lovely shelf decoration.
Good post! I’ve forgotten novels, but seldom non fiction. Bad writing stops me every time….so hard to find well written novels that appeal to me. I loved Anne of Green Gables…have read it several times over the years. I totally agree about Stieg Larssons work…didn’t continue after he died. Housekeeping was the least compelling of Robinsons work. And I really liked Sister Carrie. never enjoyed 19th century novels. I taught Chronicles of Narnia for 30 years. I started Lessons in Chemistry, put it away for a year, and then kind of enjoyed it. But Walter Isaacson, Jon Meacham, Wendell Berry, Timothy Egan …never miss one of theirs.
Oh, David, I think this is my all-time favorite post. I read about 52 books each year and hate giving up on them. Sometimes I do, for all the reasons you list.
You know everyone was reading Blood Meridian when I was in the MFA program and insisting I had to read it. I read the Border trilogy and figured I'd put in my time, admired what he did well, and didn't need to read another. The recent—shall we say "embarrassment"?—did not surprise me at all. I always felt that in his stories women were not quite people.
My father loved No Highway and A Town Like Alice, and so did I, but when I got to Shute's casual racism in On the Beach, I just stopped. Maybe he made up for it. I had other things to read.
I recently managed to complete a Pulitzer Prize-winner, despite 60 pointless/unnecessary (and boring) pages and a character writing in the 1990s about a book review published in "The Atlantic" when it was still "The Atlantic Monthly" until 2003. The second half of the novel was worth finishing, but I nearly gave up a hundred pages in.
A friend recommended Maxine Hong Kingston's memoir(ish) Woman Warrior and I gave up on it. Later I read a wonderful book and when I arrived at the page where I'd previously quit, only then, I recognized that this was the same book that didn't speak to me at all ten years before. I taught Mr. Pip.
I've found books so awful that I managed to complete them specifically so that I could honestly post a bad review. I must come by that impose honestly. My mother opened Bridges in the grocery store, was horrified immediately, and came back to finish it because she didn't think it was right to dis a book she hadn't finished. She was a fast reader. I have never read it, but have a personal gripe with the author.
I have no problem DNFing a book, but never really thought of why I’d put this or that book down. So thanks for describing the logic behind it.
It's rare that I don't finish a book. Once I've really gotten it started, that is. I subject books to lots of testing before I commit -- read the first lines, read lines from here and there in the book, read the blurbs, the jacket copy, choose authors by reputation, etc.
I am rereading the Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson -- she contracted with L. Frank Baum's publisher to continue the series after Baum's death. Her writing has grown on me. Baum's writing is gentle, Thompson's frenetic. I don't think Thompson ever once uses a passive verb. Thompson's casual racism was about par for her times but can make a book hard to bear in ours. What I like about her is her relentless wordplay. Sometimes I don't even notice the silliness until I think about it afterward. I only read RPT after I'd deeply loved Baum and the difference between the authors was jarring. But, like I said, she's grown on me. I've also read some Oz fanfic that's painful. (L. Frank Baum's son, Frank J. Baum, wrote a bad one.)
When I wrote up a blog post promoting my Autobiography of a Book, my sister noted that I seemed to be assuming everyone would already want to read it. So I tried again, this time trying to entice: https://glenningersoll.substack.com/p/autobiography-of-a-book