What’s Made You Drop a Book?

[L1aei]

A lot of times, I'll drop books by accident. I don't even mean that in the "haha, I physically dropped the book" either. I'll be partway through a book but have to put reading on pause due to life stuff, then when I finally get around to where I can read again, I won't know wtf is going on where I left off and won't feel like starting over again.

Other times, there were books I wish I could've dropped, but they were assigned reading at school. Most of those were some of the most boring things out there and one of them actually made me so physically sick that I had to vomit.

And recently, I've been considering dropping a webtoon because the current chapter just feels like a crappy crossover fanfic. Literally, between the previous and current chapters, MC1 has given up on the main plot and went off to date some random no-face guy, and MC2 who has been in love with MC1, has started summoning a character from an entirely different webtoon to hang out with. You can't tell me that isn't something a fanfic writer would do to make their ship work. The creators are even monetizing the anxiety and confusion because they've literally said that if you're worried about what's going on, you can donate $40 for a recording of their talks about future plans and where it's all leading.

Okay, that genuinely made me cringe at the end.

 

[Anonjohn20]

What’s Made You Drop a Book?

A month and a half ago I dropped a smut story because the author had no interest in following through with the promises made in her tags and synopsis.

 

[whitesculptor]

Ngl when I read, I simulate myself into the writers world. I invest. As soon as I get a fleeting whiff of stretching chapters out, fillers, purple prose, world building that has nothing to do with the story, narrative betrayal or any kind of gimmick or tom foolery I stop drop and roll away…

What are you reasons for dropping a book?

What's purple prose?

 

[KidBuu699]

So there is one author on this site who I was reading a couple of his stories. Each of his stories has a black mc. Decent writing and story idea but the mc would constantly bring up his race. Any time any sort of conflict arose the mc would suddenly start bringing up racism. "Oh you say your mad that I scuffed your shoe? You really mean you are mad that a person of my color did it aren't you." I ended up dropping all his stories.

Moving on though usually when I drop a story its either surprise NTR, a constant stream of the mc getting dumber, or the story just becomes a chore to read. If I see the story is updated in my follow list and the feeling comes up of not really wanting to read the new chapter, but I should; then the story doesn't have that much time left.

Oh, also smut stories that suddenly decide that the smut is too much so they put it on their patreon. (either the website doesn't like it or the whole excuse of "extra smut chapters here").

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Ngl when I read, I simulate myself into the writers world. I invest. As soon as I get a fleeting whiff of stretching chapters out, fillers, purple prose, world building that has nothing to do with the story, narrative betrayal or any kind of gimmick or tom foolery I stop drop and roll away…

What are you reasons for dropping a book?

That time when I had arthritis on my right hand. Picked up books, dropped them like a rapper dropping a mic.

 

[Golden_Hyde]

It's a lot of personal preference, but I'd instantly drop it when in the first chapter, the character's dialogue was written in such an immature way that whatever seen in that chapter alone instantly will potentially cheapen the rest of the story itself. And I'm talking about swearing machine gun. Lots of F-bombs and manure-showering and "the wish to have sex with a mother", and for what exactly?

 

[TheEvilDuckLord]

I drop loads of novels that contain yuri. I dont have a problem with yuri on its own, but I dont like them in wish-fullfilment harem stories, kinda feels like light-ntr. Other than that, also drop a lot of stories that decide that to write emotional stories, you need lots of tragedies. Feels like you dont know how to write and need to lean on the tragedy low hanging fruit. Also if the story is too slow. Doesn't mean it always need to be massive plot points and fights all the time, but either in plot or relationships, I like there to be some movement. If the story feels like rambling in the slower parts, it gets boring.

 

[PancakesWitch]

Mostly small annoyances. I recently dropped a story that had the MC pushing pronouns on a character that obviously didn't give 2 fucks about it and them making offhanded comments about being patient with CiS people like they were stupid or something.

that was definitely written by a trans person lol

It's a lot of personal preference, but I'd instantly drop it when in the first chapter, the character's dialogue was written in such an immature way that whatever seen in that chapter alone instantly will potentially cheapen the rest of the story itself. And I'm talking about swearing machine gun. Lots of F-bombs and manure-showering and "the wish to have sex with a mother", and for what exactly?

I dont know, it seems unrealistic that characters wouldnt swear when they're seriously angry and offended, not everyone was raised like a goody boy that cannot say swearing words
for example, if someone get stabbed are you going to complain they scream "FUCK!!!" because it hurts? are you going to say "hey I know you're agonizing because you were stabbed but nuh-huh! language! please don't say the f word sweetie."
think about it for a second

 

[HouseOfUkiro]

A month and a half ago I dropped a smut story because the author had no interest in following through with the promises made in her tags and synopsis.

Hahahaha classic ? bait and switch

What's purple prose?

Using excessive adjectives, adverbs, and elaborate metaphors, flowery language.

Too much icing on the cake. Too much sugar in the coffee. Too much pineapple on the pizza.

That time when I had arthritis on my right hand. Picked up books, dropped them like a rapper dropping a mic.

Nobody deserves arthritis ?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Most of the time when I drop a book it's due to gravity and clumsiness (and usually means I need a new Kindle or phone).
Some books I've stopped reading, though would be:

• The Blind Clockmaker - interesting premise but just kind of dense. That and, before I could get to the second section, I had to return it to the library.
• A book by Isaac Asimov about lasers - same as above but denser. Also same library issue as above.
• The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddings - In four tries, made it to chapter seven I think, but then the book suffered water damage and I never made a fifth try. The author's attempt to bring the reader INTO the story as an immaterial observer just fell flat for me, and created a level of separation between me and his MC that I could not breach.
• A book on nuclear war that was part of the suggested reading for a high school project. Had barely made it through the first chapter when I realized it would take more time to read than I had available to write - and that the exact comment I needed for the paper was on the dust jacket and may never actually appear in the book. My teacher and I spent an hour trying to find the right format for that footnote, and I never touched that book again afterwards.
• Had two books that moved into graphic sex scenes in early chapters and just drove me away as well, but I was pretty young when I read that first one and the second was also badly written in general. Might be able to get through either one or both if I could remember the names now but... eh...
• Starship Troopers - tried to read it when I was expecting it to be more like Heinlein's Young Adult stuff and not like his more Adult stuff and just could not get into it.
• Dropped one series (Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series) when it went from wild YA adventure with superpowers to preaching about climate change in book three or four.

There were a few I read a chapter or two on and may eventually go back to, but didn't feel compelled to continue across multiple websites as well.

One of the few I can think of that I actively decided to stop instead of slowly petering off is in Wheel of Time. I found the setting more interesting than the characters already, but then we came to a segment in which a guy is getting sexually harassed by a powerful woman repeatedly and is clearly distressed about it. 95% of the cast, including most of the narration, treats it as a joke.

Exactly one character I can remember called that out as pretty fucked up, and thankfully the response wasn’t further justification, but by that point I had such an overwhelming level of ick that I had no interest in picking up the next book. (Yes I finished the book itself, but this is the closest example I could think of)

Ah forgot that series - yeah I dropped it because I hit a point where I'd have to go back and reread the first six to make sense of it and, as much as I loved the first two, it got to be a slog around four (and went on, to, what 14, with three written entirely by Sanderson, one about half and half Jordan and Sanderson, and one based on notes and extensive conversations between the two prior to Jordan's death, but without him actually writing anything).
Also dropped Thieves' World because I'd just picked up book five when book 9 came out and I just couldn't keep up... And there are a few series that continued after I stopped paying attention to them so I didn't exactly DROP them, just didn't bother to keep up...
And a few that I've never actually found every book for, even though they were four or more books long (Lawheed's Arthur series - owned the first two, read three from a library, never bothered continuing it; Courtway Jones Arthurian series - only ever found book TWO anywhere)
The Destroyer novel series - read about forty of them. About ten books after one of the two creators left the series, it started to fall apart, and then became a house organ, with new writers assigned and the one remaining creator acting as editor, when he could be bothered, but keeping his name on it; around book 100 Remo and Chiun seem to reverse personalities and it's just not as much fun.

 

[HouseOfUkiro]

“Dropped one series (Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series) when it went from wild YA adventure with superpowers to preaching about climate change in book three or four”

Damn. Didn’t you get mad that the book wasted your time?

 

[Anonjohn20]

Hahahaha classic ? bait and switch

 

[HungrySheep]

AI.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

“Dropped one series (Patterson's "Maximum Ride" series) when it went from wild YA adventure with superpowers to preaching about climate change in book three or four”

Damn. Didn’t you get mad that the book wasted your time?

No, just a little disappointed that (his stable of writers) chose to follow a popular trend rather than keep up the "coming of age with avian powers" adventure series it had been (and a little relief to not have to shell out the ever-increasing cover price or wait to find the books used).