I read often. Less than a lot of you, but more than the general population. I read a book-book once a month, and a few manga/graphic novels a month.
Though I’ve read a lot, I only have a handful of books that I love enough to recommend, The Road, Story of Your Life, American Psycho and some Isaac Asimov shorts.
I’m really picky and usually don’t walk away from books thinking, “wow that was a great book.”
I was asking myself recently, why do you read so much? You don’t like most of what you consume. I realized I like the completion aspect of reading.
Whatever that “thing” is, makes up for my often disappointed feelings regarding what I read.
I just wanted to share this realization and see if anyone else feels this way.
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It raises an interesting question. Why do you enjoy completing books?
Bragging rights? Do you like telling people how many books you’ve read?
Knowing you’ve absorbed something in its totality, start to finish?
Does reading sometimes feel tedious and finishing something you start in spite of the tedium give you satisfaction?
Do you measure self-worth or quality of life against a metric that finished books bolster?
I, for one, experience all of these haha
why dont you try asking in r/suggestmeabook for book recommendations like the ones you liked so you can actually read books you might enjoy so its not all about completing the books
Maybe I will try that. I haven’t heard of that sub before.
I am all about completing books. But I do have books I love and I do go back to them just to enjoy them.
I’m the opposite I like making lists of books I want to read more than I like reading them sometimes.
I like the completion aspect too, especially when I haven’t liked a book.
I’d say I’m picky as well, and I don’t especially like a lot of what I read. But conversely there’s not a lot of books I think were an outright waste of my time to read either. Even when unsatisfying, there’s usually at least one interesting idea or insight or even just scene that makes it worth it for me on some level.
I’m the opposite in a way, I love reading books way more than finishing them.
I’m going through The Vaster Wilds right now, and parts are really quite good but I hit a part where it’s starting to feel like it’s really repeating itself and I can see I still have a third of the book left, and my brain just goes “you can just go to a different book, you enjoyed most of this, you don’t need to finish”
I get that feeling with collections or long series. Currently reading all of Philip K Dick’s short stories. I’ve just past the 100th short and I’ve definitely been feeling for a while I’m just pushing through for the sake of completing more than anything else.
I like completing, setting a goal (this year 52) and tracking books too, but even if I didn’t I don’t think I would like more of the books I read.
In my experience only like 10% of books are 5 stars. 20ish% are DNFs and the vast majority is somewhere in between. I don’t think reading less or slower would change those ratios much. I either like a book or I don’t.
Completing something gives us a dopamine hit, which can cause pleasure and motivation. We often seek out ways to get that dopamine hit, and I think reading is an amazing way to achieve the feeling of accomplishment.
I’m a retired Life Coach and when my clients would get stuck I would help them find what I’d call “little wins” these were simple short tasks that they could finish and get that dopamine hit and it would often motivate them to start working on a more challenging task. This is also why it is very effective to break a large project into smaller tasks so you can get multiple “wins” or “finishes” during a project to motivate you to continue.
I’m retired and I’m struggling with finding things to get that feeling from, housework never feels completed. Although I read a lot, completing books doesn’t often give me that feeling of completion. I’m currently using puzzles to fill that role.
I feel the same way about writing. I really enjoy the feeling of having written, but writing…