I'm not the type of person who finishes every book (or thing) I start. In fact, there have been some rather popular books that I decided just weren't for me. For example, I thought Gone Girl was pretty much torture to read. I didn't like the characters or the writing or the plot, so no matter how many people told me it was great, I stopped reading that. And there was a very graphic scene at the beginning of The Kite Runner that helped me decide I never need to finish that book. But I have started, stopped, restarted, stopped, restarted, and finally finished books that I have loved, most notably The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I had to start four or five times over the span of a few years before I finally finished it and started recommending to everyone because I ended up loving it that much. So long ago, I decided to give myself a cut-off point: if after 100 pages, I'm still bored, hating it, or horrified, I quit. Just recently, I quit reading The Dinner. I should have know not to start it with the comparisons to Gone Girl, but it came recommended by my mom. So I tried...but I really didn't like the characters or the writing or the plot. I found that I would rather play Plants vs. Zombies on my phone for hours than open up the book again, and that isn't normally my MO, so after giving it 112 pages, I quit, and started reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (recommended by NPR, my friend Emily ((who finished The Kite Runner)), and A Beautiful Mess), which is very interesting so far and has me excited to open up iBooks every night.
Also, I keep hearing how amazing The Goldfinch is. Has anyone started (and finished all 784 pages of) that one yet?
*Another Addendum: Even though I didn't like her book recommendation this time, I still trust my mom's opinion more than NPR, Emily, and A Beautiful Mess combined.
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