I never finish a book if it's poorly written and I'm not enjoying it.  What would be the point? Life is too short to spend irretrievable hours on the self-punishing exercise of reading bad books!
Alas, many "Gothics" written in recent years are the worst type of hackwork: trite, predictable, amateurish, written without skill and with shockingly poor mechanics, and (my pet peeve) often trying to make up for it with cringe-inducing sex scenes that are neither sensual, nor erotic, nor even interesting.  Moreover many of them lack atmosphere and a convincing sense of the time period, obvious where the author has failed to do proper research and commits anachronistic blunder after blunder.
Usually, I can tell I'm not going to like a book within the first couple of pages -- indeed often within the first paragraph. Â If it doesn't give me a reason to continue or if I find the author's ineptitude invites my contempt, I'll cheerfully toss it aside.
Paige, I heartily recommend this practice to you. Â You can't imagine how liberating it is to throw a terrible book over your shoulder and say to yourself, "I just saved myself quite a few hours of disappointment and boredom!"Â Then you can spend that freed-up time on *good* books, which (thankfully) are not rare. Â
Alas, many "Gothics" written in recent years are the worst type of hackwork: trite, predictable, amateurish, written without skill and with shockingly poor mechanics, and (my pet peeve) often trying to make up for it with cringe-inducing sex scenes that are neither sensual, nor erotic, nor even interesting.  Moreover many of them lack atmosphere and a convincing sense of the time period, obvious where the author has failed to do proper research and commits anachronistic blunder after blunder.
Usually, I can tell I'm not going to like a book within the first couple of pages -- indeed often within the first paragraph. Â If it doesn't give me a reason to continue or if I find the author's ineptitude invites my contempt, I'll cheerfully toss it aside.
Paige, I heartily recommend this practice to you. Â You can't imagine how liberating it is to throw a terrible book over your shoulder and say to yourself, "I just saved myself quite a few hours of disappointment and boredom!"Â Then you can spend that freed-up time on *good* books, which (thankfully) are not rare. Â