1. Steve Taylor says:

    I’m with you all these excuses but number 4 is my biggest concern.
    In the last 15 to 20 years I have only had one book I could not finish and I have to thank online reviewers for that. I never read anything unless it is overwhelming loved. Too many books and too little time to read a bad book. 

  2. I think you pretty much covered it, Rick. 
     
    The only other thing I can think to add is “Unmet expectations”. If the book doesn’t deliver the type of story promised by the cover and marketing blurbs, then I might drop it.

  3. Julie D says:

    Number six shows up a lot when reading fanfics. 

    • notleia says:

      Fanfics are such a crapshoot. I’ve pretty well given up on them because I’ve had to wade through so much amateur awful before hitting on something even half decent. And it’s not just the typos. I can only take so much Mary Sue dross before my gag reflex kicks in. And then I hear about fanfic like the ones that are set in the Potterverse but are mostly original and rarely involve characters or even settings from the official books. And then I wail about never being able to find the cool stuff.

  4. Keanan Brand says:

    All the list, and Teddi’s addition, too. The longer I edit, the less impressionable I am, the harder a writer has to work to grab and maintain my attention.

    I imagine most editors are like me: They have an aptitude for and love of words and stories. However, one of the major downsides of this work is the increasing difficulty in merely reading a book without editing in one’s mind. I can overlook minor stuff if the writing and the storytelling excels. However, any of the items Rick listed is enough for me to ditch a book. Generally doesn’t take me very long to decide whether or not I want to keep soldiering on, or devote my efforts elsewhere.

    • notleia says:

      Yeah, a lot of it comes down to predictability. Editors and English majors and people who read too much TV Tropes can spot the patterns in the story, and so it becomes boring. Granted, a lot of popular lit is expressly about giving the audience exactly what they’re looking for, whether it be needlessly complicated murder mysteries or needlessly complicated conspiracies or needlessly complicated romantic relationships. But cripes, I’d like to see some originality, some EFFORT.

  5. dmdutcher says:

    These days length is a big issue for me. A lot of people assume a default length of 500-800 pages and sequels to tell a story that really should be in a single novel of that or less. I guess reading and writing kid lit has impressed on me that you can tell a story in far less space without losing a single thing, and a lot of the books that use that space don’t make good use of it. 
     
    A lot of typical or not-so-good stories actually do better when briefer, I think. A lot of old SF novels would be considered novellas now, and editors would ask them to bulk it up and could you make a trilogy so we could sell more books please?

  6. Kessie says:

    I think Rick covered it pretty well. Usually I’ll slog through a book, just making notes of the stuff I don’t like and mentally write my scathing Goodreads review. I filter heavily, though, and try to only read good books.
    I do have a problem with really long novels these days. 300 pages is my sweet spot. Any longer and I start skimming, hoping it’ll end soon. It’s like watching all the extended LOTR movies and getting wiggly in the middle of the Two Towers. Time to turn it off and do something else. In the case of a book, if I hit that “this is too long” spot, I put it down and seldom come back to it.

  7. Margaret says:

    If I encounter two or more of these things within the first 50-100 pages of a book, I won’t finish reading it:
    *sub-par writing skills
    *dumbed-down vocabulary
    *boring, confusing, or implausible storyline
    *lack of connection to or intense dislike of main character
    And once in a while I’ve been known to ditch a book simply because it had way too many people, places, and things I couldn’t pronounce.

What do you think?