How many pages do you read of a book until you decide its worth reading or not?

[Gravityqueen4life]

50 pages? 80 pages? How many?

 

[Spud]

The cover. It's there for a reason.

 

[TheSaltySpitoon]

Probably 2-3 reading sessions. I found can’t get into it by then, I probably won’t.

 

[Yours Truly 2095]

Depends how long of a book it is. If you can't set up interesting characters or a premise within the first two or three chapters (unless they're oddly short chapters) I'm probably going to stop wasting my time on it. I don't have the time, hell I mostly listen to books now because there's more time for that than reading one. That said there have been times I've gotten over the hump of a slow introduction and it pays off.

Non fiction is a different beast. It really comes down to how well it's written and the information is presented.

 

[Farsided]

50 pages is about right. Also if I don't see any improvement in the flow, I'll usually stop wasting my time.
Perdido Streets Station by Mieville was a good read, but the first 50pages were a fucking chore to get past.

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

I like to give everything a fair shot, because somethings are just slow builds, so if im like ~50 pages in and its still not going anywhere, thats when i call it quits.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

i read through a bit over 1/4 of ana karinina before i decided it wasnt worth reading. so that was what, 300 pages or so?

 

[Hweeks]

Lol, I used to have a rule - if I'm not interested by the first 100 pages I'm out. But, I rarely followed it, today I only pick good books and if a bad one slips by I suffer.

 

[dick brain]

The back.

 

[Axiom.]

Until you zone out and fall asleep.

 

[jimbo.]

40-50 but sometimes i just power through it because i already wasted my fucking money on the damn thing

 

[Chadikus Maximus]

None of them reading is for Nerds

 

[Nicholas Gur]

You read the whole fucking thing, then if it sucks you review it poorly so I don't have to relive your mistake.

 

[Steve Martin Short]

Depends on the book. One time I noped out after working my way through a paragraph-long first sentence. Another time it took me halfway into the book before I finally realized the plot was only happening because every character was an idiot, reprehensible, or both. Since there seemed to be little chance they would all die in a fire, I was done.

 

[DankSmoker]

I've been reading this Chuck Palahniuk book full of short stories, every other one makes me want to whip the book across the room because he's a retard.

 

[Endless Torment]

If I'm not interested after character introductions and the inciting incident or hook of the story I'll stop reading.
This is honestly very generous as you have to be an extremely bad writer to fail at this.

 

[Rock hard as a Flintstone]

I just like to look at the pictures because I can't read.