If you’ve ever googled a question such as “How many pages before it’s okay to stop reading?” you’ll likely have encountered what seems to be the consensus advice these days, which is to stop reading whenever you want or whenever you feel like you’ve given the book enough of a chance. And I agree with all that – i.e., not pushing yourself to keep reading a book beyond the time that you feel like you have a sense of what it’s like and about and beyond when you are enjoying it – and not feeling guilty about that. I find it completely bizarre that anyone would suggest that it’s disrespectful to an author to abandon their book (unless you tell them, they’ll never know!) or that it could be more important to respect the author than to respect your own reading preferences and time. Being okay with quitting a book is especially important if you’re trying to establish or rebuild a book-reading habit, because making reading into a chore will take you in the opposite direction.

Then there’s the problem of the “meh” books – the in-betweens. They’re not lighting you up, but neither are they decidedly turning you off. Not every book can be a favourite, the best, or life-changing. While it’s important to have realistic expectations, there’s also the effect that reading books that don’t make you want to read more has on your reading habits and routines. 

I recently read three novels in a row that ended up falling into this category and it certainly quelled my reading thirst. I continued to read my one paragraph almost every day, and still usually many more – at least a few pages. But the difference between this and reading books I was excited about was significant and had negative ripple effects. I didn’t strive to find time to read before bed or at other times of the day. Or if I missed reading in the morning, I found it a chore to fit in at other times. Reading these novels didn’t give me much pleasure while I was reading, nor did I enjoy their presence at the back of my mind while I wasn’t reading them. They didn’t make me excited about reading other books. I found each of them somewhat depressing, both in subject matter and just in how they felt like they were dragging on and not offering me much. 

I won’t name these novels because taste is so personal – I’m not trying to say I think they were poorly written or that they wouldn’t be worth reading for others. There were aspects or moments of each that I did enjoy and I had high hopes for each when starting them. I consider myself quite picky and careful about choosing what to read, because I know from personal experience how reading uninspiring books can squelch the desire to read. Each of these books was either the subject of some kind of buzz or acclaim or the winner of an award. In two cases, I had very much enjoyed other books written by the same author. That’s all part of why I continued reading these books even though I wasn’t really enjoying them

Am I sorry now that I kept reading any of these novels? In retrospect yes, at least a bit and more so for two of them. One was quite long and took me 39 days to get through, mainly because I kept turning to other books that I was more interested in. That’s too long to cast a pall over my reading life. Another was one of those that I felt I should be interested in, due to the subject matter and background of the author, but it just didn’t grab me. That one was quite short though, and if it hadn’t been sandwiched in between two other books that left me cold, I don’t think I’d regret reading it. I’m probably most disappointed in the long book that was the debut effort by an author who wrote one of my all-time favourite novels. That can certainly happen – disappointment in a book written by the same author as one you’ve tremendously enjoyed. I still think reading multiple books by the author of one you already like is a solid strategy for choosing what to read, though. You just have to lower your expectations a bit, and be willing to quit despite having a positive experience and association with them. And, incidentally, this strategy has been paying dividends for me this year with Gabrielle Zevin, whose Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a recent addition to my all-time favourites list. 

I guess when it comes to those difficult in-between meh books, my streak of three disappointing novels in a row is leading me ever more strongly to stopping reading when you’re not really enjoying a book. And certainly, if you’ve just finished a book that was somewhat disappointing, I’d counsel that even more strongly. This is to protect your enjoyment and habit of book-reading, as well as whatever other benefits that has in your life. 

My three-book blah streak lasted about six weeks. That’s enough time for the beginnings of reading discouragement to set in. Fortunately, I read a couple non-fiction books that I found more compelling during this time as well, which helped offset it, but I did notice the negative effects on other aspects of my life. For example, one of my goals with book reading is to have it be my default at-home leisure and relaxation activity – instead of turning to other things like streaming TV series or movies. During this blah streak, I found I turned more often to these easier and less constructive activities. When my book-reading routines feel firm and well-established, I have a better foundation for the other healthy and growth-promoting activities I want to be a big part of my life, like exercise and eating well. My sleep routines are a bit better too. Conversely, when reading books has a less prominent role in my life, I find this has a corrosive effect on my other healthy routines and aspirations.

Again, though, the tricky thing with a meh book is that it’s not awful. I didn’t hate any of these books, except the long one for a short while when I was pretty close to finishing. It’s easy to decide to quit a book when you don’t like it from the start and have to force yourself to get through the first few pages. That’s a no-brainer for me and I feel no guilt. But what to do when a book is just okay and you’ve already made it halfway or more through? I find that starting too many books that I don’t finish contributes to a somewhat fragmented mental state….I have a lot of books in this category already. I consider them still on the go and would like to finish them sometime – but I haven’t yet, because books that excite me more keep coming up as available from my holds list. I’m not eager to add to my total of in-progress books and hope to wrap up at least a few of them before the end of the year.

From now on though, I’m going to be even more discerning when it comes to continuing to read a book that I’m not truly enjoying even if I’m already more than 25 percent through it – and especially if the last book I read didn’t do much for me.

A test I think will work for me, and perhaps for you, is to notice while reading whether I want to tell friends about the book or not. I may not think it’s the best book ever or a must-read for a particular friend or type of person, but if I don’t at least want to mention that I’ve been enjoying or learning from a book, I think that’s a good sign that it’s not worth investing still more of my time in. To underline the point that it’s absolutely fine to stop reading a book if you’ve given it a chance and for whatever reason, it’s not for you, here’s a (somewhat dated) graph from GoodReads summarizing results of a survey they conducted to find out what makes their members put down a book