Start book 1, then 2, then3, begin and finish 4, work backwards?

[Nate C.]

You guys ever do that? Start book #1 and for whatever reason (ADD, book is boring, it's not where you are) you start book #2, for similar reasons, you start #3, then #4 and so on, finally finishing #4, then finishing #3, then #2, then #1?

I've done this a lot. And it's a weird trait, and it annoys me, but I hate not finishing books, even bad ones.


Started The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt, but got bored more than half way through.

Began Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde but for some reason lost interest (timing more than anything; it's a good book).

Began Playing With Fire by Peter Robinson, and hate it. And am determined to finish it.

All the while, having started The Golden Helix, a book of short stories by Theodore Sturgeon,

Continuing to research Patience and Fortitude by Brasbanes,

and picking through The Neibelunginleid, translated from the German.

So my plan is to go backwards, finishing current book, then end up with Samurai.

You guys do this?

[Slam_Bradley]

You guys do this?


Somewhat. I go through periods of what I call, Reader's Block. There are just times that no matter what I can't seem to get interested in anything. Usually switching from non-fiction to fiction or vice-versa helps. Or reading an old standby (Bradbury, Burroughs).

[berk]

No, I usually keep hunting around, reading the first few paragraphs, or at most the first few pages of various books until I fond something I'm in the mood to stick with to the finish. Although I did put down the Travis Mcgee novel I was almost half-way through because i became dsitracted by something else I wanted to read (Tales of the Elders of Ireland) and couldn't keep my attention on the McGee book any more, which was a very good one. Then I read an interview with Herbert Marcuse in this States of Mind collection I mentioned in the Eco thread, and that put me in the mood to read Aldous Huxley's "Island' which I'd had laying around for the last couple years (and which turned out to be one of the best books I've read recently and I think one of the most important I've ever read). Sooner or later I know I'll be struck by the desire to read another Mcgee novel, so I'll get back to that one eventually.

[Paul McEnery]

Well, I just pulled a rookie move, getting all the way through a Stephen Baxter novel I found in a thrift store, only to get to the end where he writes "This is the last book in the Xeelee sequence. Oh, and btw, here are the chapters where I gave away the plot to the other books".

Grr.

Mind, Ring is still a damn good book.

[Gordon Smith]

You guys ever do that? Start book #1 and for whatever reason (ADD, book is boring, it's not where you are) you start book #2, for similar reasons, you start #3, then #4 and so on, finally finishing #4, then finishing #3, then #2, then #1?



I have been reading books in this manner throughout my entire life. I'm hopelessly addicted to reading multiple books at one time, in the most disorganized fashion possible.

[GremlinClr]

Never. My sister not only reads very quickly (say a 500 pager a day) but there's usually an open book in every room of the house. Drives me nuts. I start one book, I finish one book. Period. Hell, I don't even read comic mini's 1 at a time, I wait till I got em all then read usually.

If I ever put a book down for any length of time without finishing it, I have to reread because I can't remember what happened in the part I've already read.