I read a lot of books, so there’s bound to be some I don’t truly enjoy. But what do I do when I realize– “I don’t like this book.”?

Try 1 More Chapter

I’m usually a fan of trying to get through a rough patch in a book by pushing on. Maybe its just a bad chapter. Maybe I’m in a bad mood and it’s not the author’s fault.

Try Again Tomorrow

Let’s face it… even avid readers aren’t always in the mood to read. I know, I know. This is rare but it does happen. I’ll usually give a book another try the next day if I’m just not feeling it right now. Sometimes I’ll even come back a week later to give it a second chance.

Stop Reading Immediately

Sometimes a book will be so unreadable that I just need to stop immediately. It’s not worth my time to continue.

Close the book. Put it down. Never touch it again.

This is pretty rare that I won’t even give it a shot, but sometimes when ya know, ya know. Ya know?

Give It to a Friend

Just because I don’t like a book, doesn’t mean it’s bad. It means it’s not for me. Ok, sometimes books really are just bad though.

I’m always willing to give away a book that I decided I don’t like. This has worked for me in the past and my friends have happily accepted books that I want to part with. Usually, they wonder what’s wrong with me when I say I didn’t like it because they really enjoyed the book.

Finish It Anyway

I believe in personal growth. That means that I’m willing to go out of my comfort zone in order to learn and grow as a human. Perseverance and grit are two characteristics that I think make a good person. So sometimes I’ll power through a book I don’t like.

I do expect that I will at least learn something from completing the book. The information or experience must still be worth my time.

Write About It

I run a book blog. That clearly means I write about books.

If I spend time reading a book, usually I want to write about it. To be fair, I don’t write a review for every book because some just don’t really need much more to be said about them. Or I don’t feel like writing about that particular book for whatever reason comes to mind that week.

But sometimes it’s good to write a book review for a bad book to justify why I didn’t like it. And then I never, ever publish that review because the book probably was really fine… just not the book for me.

So What Do You Do When You Don’t Like a Book?

Do you try again tomorrow, throw it away, or give it to a friend?

I hope you don’t find yourself stuck with too many books that you don’t enjoy. But that’s the risk bibliophiles must take on our never-ending quest to read every book every written.