Are there any books you're actively putting off? Is that even something other people do?

Submitted by adam4231 t3_11c9v9l in books

Occasionally I'll have a book that I've bought or received as a gift, and, although I really want to read it, either the length or type of book is putting me off starting it. I'll only ever have one book like that at a time, but at the moment it's Anna Karenina. I've had it since last Christmas, but I now have a nine-month old son and fitting it between parenting and a nine-to-five job seems kind of daunting. I feel like a book like that deserves a bigger commitment of time and focus.

The book before that was The Brothers Karamazov. Took me ages to start because the size was putting me off, but damn was it worth it.

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jonny_mtown7 t1_ja2dyaf wrote

This is normal. Parenting has huge responsibilities. I'm trying to read a book about Game Theory and I've had little time. I have a 15 and 10 year old. It's a lot of work. Throw in laundry, food prep, and your job and because we need sleep it becomes hard to read at great lengths.

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adam4231 OP t1_ja2eiyg wrote

Can't imagine handling two 😂. But yeah, with the sleep and everything I often can't bring myself to read or do anything productive when he's gone to bed

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InvisibleSpaceVamp t1_ja2pxzr wrote

Sure. Sometimes a book just isn't a good fit at the moment. And there can be all sorts of reasons for that. Like, I'm a seasonal reader when it comes to horror. I usually collect a few spooky novels on my TBR throughout the year and wait for Halloween season to read them.

And like you, I also feel that classic literature requires a bit more time and focus. There are times when I'm just not in the mood for it.

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adam4231 OP t1_ja3rjfa wrote

Yeah I know what you mean. I need a break between reading classics - I usually have a couple of easy reads that I can blitz through to keep me reading

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imsosleepyyyyyy t1_ja2p9fc wrote

I have so many classics that I want to read but have been putting off too. Anna Karenina, Master & Margarita, Jane Eyre, etc. I love classics but it feels like such a commitment to start one. It’s much easier for me to just blow through a romance book in a couple sittings lol

Sometimes I prefer listening to Audiobooks of classics to get started. Audible has some celebrity narrated classics that I think are pretty cool

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_ja2txb7 wrote

We just finished the Master and Margarita in r/classicbookclub with discussions one chapter at a time. You could start and read our commentary.

Also the Master and Margarita is a 20th century book. It reads faster. The prose is more efficient. The book is somewhat surreal.

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mikarala t1_ja347tc wrote

I'm halfway through and maybe it's my translation, but I find the prose difficult. Or rather, so dull and lifeless that I'm constantly zoning out and missing what's happened.

Kinda annoying because I looked up the most recommended translation and this is the one people seemed to recommend the most.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_ja351b5 wrote

Different books work better for different people. I did find the chapter by chapter discussion helpful. The Soviet context is important and there is religious content and echoes of Faust.

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adam4231 OP t1_ja3rz4y wrote

Master & Margarita reads quite well I found. A fairly quicker one to get through, and it has a lot of re-read value

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HazelMotes1 t1_ja2elcw wrote

I have a couple at the moment, the third volume of Proust, and War and Peace. Im only putting them off because I'm got 50+ hours of flying coming up later in the year and I think it'll make for a good opportunity to get lost in those books

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adam4231 OP t1_ja2f295 wrote

In Search of Lost Time is likely to be my retirement book 😂 that's a commitment. I'm jealous of your fly time

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HazelMotes1 t1_ja2fg0g wrote

Retirement is probably the perfect time to read that series!

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demilitarizdsm t1_ja2jq6v wrote

I have a spreadsheet that tracks the genres so I'm always cycling through and getting a taste for each and organizing when in the year I generally plan to read something. I want to finish all some books before I start others. This year I have brothers Karamozov waiting for Oct-Dec.

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eregis t1_ja2nq16 wrote

I put off reading series until they are finished, unless it's an author that's known for delivering (like Sanderson). I have been burned in the past and I will not do this to myself again, since there are hundreds of other books I could be reading instead of investing time and money into a story that will never be completed.

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WritingJedi t1_ja49puu wrote

I've been putting off Moore's JERUSALEM for a year

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books_throw_away t1_ja4lypn wrote

I am reading Anna Karenina right now and it has very small chapters. If you just read a couple of chapters every day then it would be a breeze. So far it is very engaging and I am in love with it already. I think if you just start it you will find it to be pretty easy to finish. Also there is a reddit read along subreddit for it /r/yearofannakarenina/

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Grace_Alcock t1_ja57h4t wrote

It took me years to read Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table. I knew I’d love it; he’s my favorite author. I knew that once I’d finished it, there wouldn’t be this treasure of an unread Ondaatje book out there.

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tabs_jt t1_ja7o2xt wrote

11/22/63: A Novel from Stephen King is on my tbr since my 16th Birthday (i`m 25 now). I really want to read it but its just so thick and i cant get me to pick it up and start reading.

But this year will be the year i wanna read it.

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Ineffable7980x t1_ja2j7h1 wrote

I think this is normal. I had been putting off book 10 of Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Crippled God, for months because it's the last book of a great series and it's also 1200 pages. However two weeks ago I bit the bullet in dove in. I'm now 800 pages in and I'm glad I took the plunge.

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lowlevelpoet t1_ja2qpwi wrote

Speaking Bones by Ken Liu. It’s the last book in the series and I don’t want it to end 😭😭😭

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Dappershield t1_ja2smcv wrote

I have all twenty spots on KU taken. Some of them have been put off over a year. I've read, returned, and replaced hundreds of books since slotting them, but never replaced these. They're constantly in "I'll read it soon" territory.

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KittyPrincessSally t1_ja3gru2 wrote

I am putting off starting the Wheel of Time series, not because I don't want to or because I think the books are too big, but because of how many there are. I feel like it would be hard for me to maintain focus to read all of them and I imagine it will take a while and that's time I am not spending reading other authors that I want to delve into. I really want to read them but there are shorter fantasy series that I trying to knock out first.

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Robozoto t1_ja5lh5a wrote

Currently putting off the first book of Malazan

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brith89 t1_ja84s1m wrote

Yup. I was psyched for Middlegame by Seanen McGuire...but when the author of a book tells her Twitter audience "If you've been assaulted you might want to wait to read this". ((Not the direct direct quote but damn* close to it)).

I took that at face value. Not ready to read it so it's on my TBR pile until further notice.

*minor edit

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cgee t1_ja9tzgs wrote

The Wheel of Time series. I bought the first 4 books in the series and got like a quarter or a third through the first book and stopped. It was a bit slow and I kind of fell out of reading in general for years. Recently I started reading a bunch of different books but have been put off of restarting the series because of how many books are in it.

Funny backstory, I wanted to read a specific series that I knew was highly rated but I couldn't remember the name of it except that it had something "round" in its name. After some searching I came to the conclusion it was The Wheel of Time series with the "round" thing being the "wheel" in the name. As I got a few pages in I thought to myself that this was not what I was expecting and started to suspect I made a mistake in what series I originally wanted to read. I did some more searching and then remembered that it was Disc World that I wanted to get into.

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iNeedScissorsSixty7 t1_jaaywuc wrote

Us Against You, the sequel to Beartown, because I know it's going to be an emotionally exhausting read.

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Baconsommh t1_jab7z07 wrote

I keep meaning to carry on reading Wheel of Time volume 1 (of 14 - the whole thing is 11,937 pages long), but I am stuck at page 374 of 816. WoT is not for the faint-hearted.

I am also somewhere early in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which has 922 pages. He has a weird habit - so far anyway - of telling his story in the present tense; after a while it gets tiresome, not vivid.

I am a very slow reader. I had the Penguin Classics Anna Karenina, but never got round to reading it.

OTOH, I read Jane Eyre and three other Brontë novels in a big fat omnibus edition hardback, so I can say I have read Wuthering Heights. All the characters are horrible people, as far as I remember.

I would consider reading ASOIAF, if only George R. R. Martin would finish the wretched thing.

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