Monday, December 1, 2014

The Bird Box Review And Musing Monday

This is a combination book review and Musing Monday. Musing Monday is hosted by MizB at Should be Reading where we have bookish rants or talk about our reading habits. Anyone can play along!


The book I am reviewing is The Bird Box by K.J. Steele.  I received this ARC in exchange for a review. The publication date is scheduled for February of 2015. I tried really hard to like this book. I have a Master's in Counseling so I was intrigued by the premise of two people in an asylum. I know things were different back then in terms of how people were committed and for what reasons and of course what life was like in one. My issue started from the beginning with Dr. Davidson, the doctor at the hospital. His tone with the patients was not one that counselors would have with patients; his tone was more impatient than nurturing. And I suppose this could have been a reflection 0f the times. But the book was also a bit scattered and boring. One creed of a writer is generally, "show, don't tell." This author did a lot of showing. He spent so much time on inane details, like the doctor's history. The first chapter from the doctor's POV basically told his life story and the story of the hospital in the first couple of pages. It was too much, too soon. I also feel like the editor should have cut the book down a bit. This book is supposedly about the relationship between two of the patients in the asylum. But I was on Chapter 5 and these patients had still never met! I don't believe they met until I was a quarter of the way into the book. So eventually I had to just quit reading. I was not getting anything out of the book. I don't really have a zero star on my rating scale, but I think that's what I have to give it: 0/5.

This leads me to my musing for the day: when is it okay to give up on a book? Up until six months ago, I was the type who finished every single book I started, no matter what. I was at a point where I was reading way too many books that I only gave one star. Then I had an epiphany: why was I killing myself to finish books that I absolutely hated? What good was coming from it? I have over a hundred books on my Kindle and about two hundred more on my TBR list that I have yet to read. So with all of those books just waiting to be read (and many of which I am sure are four or five star worthy), what is the point of wasting time on a book that I hate? It's not like I get some kind of reward for it.

I remember the very first book I quit before reading the whole thing. It was Slaughterhouse-Five. It is supposed to be a classic, but I just found it very dry and boring. I don't remember how long I pushed myself, maybe two or three chapters. I just knew I was done.

Don't get me wrong; I still finish books that end up with a one star rating. The last book of the Fifty Shades trilogy comes to mind. Usually though, the reason I completely give up on the book is because it is the type of book I dread reading. Usually when I am reading, I get so invested that I cannot put it down. So if I would rather do laundry or the dishes than pick up the book I am reading, it is a pretty good sign that I shouldn't be reading it. Now I do have a system: I will give the book at least fifty pages or three chapters, whichever is longer. Since I didn't stop reading this book until 25% of the way through it, I can honestly say I gave it a fair chance.

Do you feel the need to finish every book? Do you have a system for how long you read before giving up?



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24 comments :

  1. I sometimes feel bad when I find myself losing interest in a book and try very hard to get through it... but eventually, when I start skimming and I find myself not looking forward to the act of reading, I know i'm in trouble. That's when I quit. Still feel bad about it though but there's way too much goodness out there to waste time on something I am not enjoying.

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    1. You are so right Verushka! There are just too many good books out there waiting to be read. :)

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  2. I've read tons of reviews for The Bird Box, and although none of them were quite so negative as yours, I still have absolutely no desire whatsoever to add it to my TBR. I still finish every novel I start, but good on you for changing your ways. I'll get there someday...

    Carmel @ Rabid Reads.

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    1. Really? You have read other reviews? I can't even find any review for it on Amazon. It does take a lot of practice to get to the point of putting a book down . . . it's so hard.

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  3. Once I finished every book I started but as time passed I quit doing that. If a book does not catch me in the first few chapters it is closed and forgotten. Unless of course I agreed to review and then I send a Did Not Finish with my thanks for the copy.

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  4. I am just like you - I used to feel the need to finish a book no matter what. But I totally agree that if housework is higher on my list than reading, I have a real problem. I now give up on books more easily, but I still usually pretend (to myself) that I'm going to pick them up again later. Especially classics - I never finished the Dune series. Or 1984. But I tell myself I will. Someday. (In another life, perhaps?)

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. I have done that with classics also. I actually did put Wuthering Heights down for a few months before finishing. 1984 was a great book, but it did take some time to get through it. Parts of it were very dry.

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  5. I don't like giving up on books, but if, after 50-100 pages, I'm still not "feeling the love," it goes on the DNF stack.

    Because I hate giving up, I try really hard not to accept review books that aren't "my cup of tea." The time to go out on a limb and try something new works best with a library book, IMO.

    Thanks for sharing, and here's my post about my current read: “THE NIGHTINGALE”

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    1. You are right about that. I try my best to only accept reviews for books I think I would enjoy. The premise of this one sounded promising, but the writing just wasn't there. So sad when that happens.

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  6. Like you I used to have a problem in giving up on a book and to be honest I still don't do it very often but when I do I give myself 20% and there is no improvement then I do put it down. My most usual gripe is with historical books that aren't properly researched although sometimes it is because the language is clunky or too much telling and not enough showing.

    http://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com

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  7. I used to be so impatient with books. Before, I'd give a book a couple of chapters and would give up on it if I didn't like it without any hesitation. I'm a different reader nowadays, but it also means that I've been reading a lot of 1 and 2 starred books. :/ I still want to read Slaughterhouse Five for sure. And I'm sorry you didn't enjoy The Bird Box.

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    1. Thanks Joyous Reads. And let me know if you end up enjoying Slaughterhouse Five. Maybe you will like it a bit more. :)

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  8. On giving up on a book... I give up after 50 pages (usually). Unless it's a book club pick which I will then power through just to be done with it.

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  9. I agree with you--there are simply too many books out there to spend time reading something you just don't like. I figure that if it's not assigned reading for a class, then I'm really under no obligation to finish a book that I'm not enjoying. So many books, so little time!

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    1. My thoughts exactly! I have way too many on my TBR right now!

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  10. I have the opposite habit. I always have to finish a book when I start it. There's no going back. Once I start a novel,I have to endure until the end of the book. (At least then, I can rant about it after.)

    Thanks for sharing! Here's my MM post: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

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    1. http://characterized.blogspot.com/2014/12/musing-mondays-currently-reading.html

      (oops!)

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    2. Thanks Matilda. I used to be like that as well. Now I just have to many books on my TBR to waste my time. :)

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  11. Aww...I'm sorry you had such a negative reading experience with this one! :( I hadn't heard of it prior to your review, but I have a feeling it's probably not something that will be at the top of my wishlist after reading your thoughts.

    And I completely agree. If you know you're not liking a book, why put yourself through the pain of having to finish it, when most likely your thoughts won't change?

    Thanks for sharing, and great review / discussion!

    ~ Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

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  12. I agree, I try to give a book at least 25%, usually I will even try to make it to 33%. But, there have been a couple of cases where I simply couldn't do it (though I don't ever review those, because I don't think I gave it enough of a chance). Sometimes I tell myself I will "come back to it", but I know I won't, it's just a fancy way of saying I didn't finish it! Hope the next book works out better for you :)

    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

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  13. I used to try to finish every book to, but now I'm trying within the first hundred or so pages. And if I really don't like it then I just DNF so I don't feel like I've wasted too much time on a book I don't like when I could have read one I did like.

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  14. I like your combination of book review and book meme! Great idea!

    As for finishing every single book I start, I don't do that anymore. I used to, as Breana says, but heck, time is valuable. Why spend it reading a book that's sheer torture to wade through? So now I do what you do -- I will read at least the first three chapters, or the first 50 pages. If the book hasn't won me over by then, then it's curtains!

    A few minutes ago, it was even faster than that! I was going to buy "Dash & Lily's Book of Dares", by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Good thing I sampled it first on Amazon! I read 6 pages. That was more than enough for me. The first of the two narrators, Dash, is a 16-year-old boy. He started off by totally trashing the Christmas season, which is my FAVORITE time of year. Also, his tone was very cynical, sarcastic, and jaded. I thought....wait a minute, where have I encountered this sort of tone before? Of course.....Holden Caulfield, from "A Catcher In The Rye", by J.D. Salinger. This was a book I had to read in high school, and TOTALLY HATED. So I wasn't going to be reading a book in which one of the characters was a Caulfield clone. Nope!!

    Well, there's my two cent's worth. (Or more like a dollar, right? Lol.)

    Thanks for your recent visit and comment!! : )

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    1. Haha, that's funny Maria. Sounds like a book I would have hated too. I do not like Holden Caulfield at all. And I love Christmas too. :) I LOVE that you can sample Kindle books first on Amazon. That has saved me a lot of money. But then some books fool you for the first few pages, you buy it and then realize those were the only good pages in the book. Haha

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  15. What a great question! In the past year or so, I've also given up the "must read" habit, even if I didn't enjoy the book. I now give it 50 pages or 5 chapters, whichever comes first.

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