One of my more perverse habits is occasionally to go to the review section on Amazon of a book I’ve just particularly enjoyed, to read the one-star reviews!
Yes, I know …
There was one I read recently of a long novel in which the reviewer admitted to having “skipped pages”
I was flabbergasted. I can understand admbwndining ship. Maybe even the odd fast-forward with a mind to return, tho it’s something I’ve never done.
So the question is: would you? Could you? Have you ever?
Missed a bit of a novel (not a reference work of course) and carried on?
No, but I have sometimes started to read a book only to realise part way through that I will not finish it (sometimes due to bad writing or for brain related reasons) and have gone online and have read the plot or summary.
Jim, that is more interesting than I thought it was going to be.
On a slightly related note, I find it funny to watch people in casinos take note of previous winning numbers in roulette, as if the ball remembers where it landed up before.
Back to OP, if a book is boring me enough to want to skip pages it’s not going to get any better so I give up.
I read a book recently with a decent plot - I wanted to know how it finished.
I did skip pages that described in too much detail the fight scenes that went on when the many police arrested the gangsters. Apart from stretching credulity, I found those passages tedious.
I couldn’t skip a page even of the worst novel in the world tho I’d gladly abandon.
It’s probably just me.
I can only think of four off the top of my head where I have given up and I think one of those was just that I lost interest. The other three were books I simply didn’t understand and one of those wasn’t a novel. There may well be others. It’s the sort of thing you’d probably try to forget
No point in skipping a bit, if it's that bad just abandon altogether. TBF I'm pretty brutal with books, I use the Magnus Magnusson approach but occasionally I have abandoned a book.
Yes, I've done this from time to time, but I've still enjoyed the rest of the book. It's because one of my favourite authors does go on a bit sometimes when explaining or describing something and I get bored !
It's never spoiled the plot for me.