Books and skipping

[Dwarfman]

This question is entirely inspired by my first reading of the Wheel of Time (which I never read before because of the sheer length of the series was daunting.)

The minute I saw this thread the first thing that sprung to mind was Wheel of Time. I have a friend of mine - big fan by the way of the series - who used to skip entire novels within the series because he "...wasn't missing anything important".

Back when I was young I will confess I used to skip the song and dance routines in Lord of the Rings. Had no interest in them at the time alas. Don't mind them now though.

 

[mew4ever23]

If Harry Potter and Eragon taught me anything, it's that the most seemingly inconsequential details can come back later and be important. So no, I never skip chapters. If I'm not enjoying something, I'll try and suffer through. But if I get fed up, I'll stop reading the series all together.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Never. I'd rather stop reading it altogether before skipping a beat.

 

[GabeZhul]

-snip-

That's an odd fum fix then, for I have to this date never encountered that in any of the segmented narratives I've had to read.
Heck all I can think of now Is I should go read working god's mischief, (the series being known for this sort of structure).
Even then I wonder what the gain is to read only half the novel, even the worst most boring segment has some merit but that's the Kater Murr in me.
I mean from what I got from you're response at the very least it is not uninteresting
Either-way it seems like a waste to me, of time, paper and ink.
Also will you ever know of the characters change, if the writer gets better at writing them or even come to appreciate the parts that don't suck more.
but I think this is a series specific problem, I again have never found a novel that worked like that.

Yeah, it's series-specific and at this point I am just venting. WoT is weird because of Jordan's infamous issues when it comes to gender-politics (half the reason behind the horrible female characters is that his idea of a strong female character is "sassy, demeaning, constantly bitching smug snake".) It is also apparently going to get even worse from where I am in the series, whereas men and women not being able to understand each other goes from a running joke to a literally hard-wired law of the universe.

On a different note; I am surprised that most of you guys are complaining about/skipping boring parts of books. When I skip something (IF I skip something) in a book, it usually falls into three distinct categories: it's either cringe-humor, something involving annoying/unlikable characters or violence-porn. Boring parts, on the other hand, I never had any problem with.

 

[lacktheknack]

The only time I've skipped a paragraph was in A Series of Unfortunate Events book 2 where more than a page was just the word "ever" over and over again.

 

[maninahat]

A question to all: do you skip paragraphs/chapters/volumes in novels/series when you like the content but dislike or get bored with only certain parts of it?

Sure. If we are talking a JRR Tolkien or a Brian Jacques, I always skip the fucking songs. Also, when reading Worm, I got into a habit of skimming through action scenes, as some of the fights go on for multiple chapters and consist largely of Ikea instructions: "So and so punched this and that. This and that teleported away in anger. So and so chased this and that." etc.

I also have a habit of skipping prologues in most books. Sometimes that's out of carelessness, though other times I just feel that if you've got something important to say at the beginning of your story, put it in chapter one.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't think I've ever read a book I felt parts were worth skipping that was still worth reading.

The only time I've skipped a paragraph was in A Series of Unfortunate Events book 2 where more than a page was just the word "ever" over and over again.

But how do you KNOW unless you read it????

 

[Treeberry]

With most books, no. If I've read it before I may skim through parts. I remember when I younger I admitted to someone when I was re-reading Black Beauty that I'd start at random chapters and was told I shouldn't do that. I remember being baffled because as far as I was concerned I could start at any point because everything still felt fresh in my brain.

I will admit to skipping or skimming through a bit of A Song of Ice and Fire. In fact I got so bored with A Feast For Crows that I even gave up on skimming and just read a detailed synopsis on Wikipedia which in my opinion was much better than the actual book. Sadly. It's hard not to get impatient with that series, the author tends to waffle with little progress. /heretical opinion.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Yes, sometimes. Mostly I do it when I've read the book before and I get bored with one particular part or don't want to re-read it with my full attention.

I don't so much skip pages as just skim through them very very fast. That way I know when I can keep reading as normal.

Exactly what I do. A favorite series of mine is the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Most of the books are split between the pov of Tavi the main character and Bernard and Amara. Now while the Bernard and Amara stuff is fine the first time it was never as exciting as what it happening to Tavi. After the second time I read the series I don't think I have ever read their parts.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

No. Never even considered it. I'll give up on a book if it's bad, but I'll never skip any parts.

Totally with you here... I wouldn't dare miss a part... especially in a book where minute details could point to a plot twist later. I like the little red herrings and analysing the goings on.

If there is a character that I don't like that is probably because the writer didn't want me to like them... i'd expect something suitable to happen to them later.

 

[Risingblade]

I know exactly how you feel, I dreaded the female chapters in WOT. The only enjoyable female for me was Moraine.

 

[FPLOON]

The only time I skip anything in a book is if the book club I'm theoretically apart of does the same for some reason... Otherwise, every word, every picture, and every prologue, epilogue, interlude, and introduction is going to be read cheek to cheek... No exceptions...

Other than that, those pick-your-path novels seem to be the only exception in terms of skipping for me...

 

[GabeZhul]

I know exactly how you feel, I dreaded the female chapters in WOT. The only enjoyable female for me was Moraine.

Moiraine is... okay, for the most part. She suffers from the same tropes as other Aes Sedai, but she thankfully rapidly lost a lot of her over-the-top smugness once she began to realize she is not half as much in control as she would have liked to think.

If there is a character that I don't like that is probably because the writer didn't want me to like them... i'd expect something suitable to happen to them later.

That is a pretty big assumption. I have already complained about the female characters of WoT, but there are others I could bring up (Polgara from David Edding's Belgariad comes to mind from the top of my head) where the author genuinely wanted to make the reader think the character in question is wise or clever or gentle, but when you look at their actions and behavior they are anything but that. Sometimes things like that can blindside a writer, other times they just don't have the right skillset or experience to get what they want through, or they just labor under a misconception (Robert Jordan allegedly based all of his female characters on his wife, which makes me think he never realized that being smug and irritating is not a universal kink).

Also, to all of you going about how you "wouldn't miss a part of a book" or "there is no way I would skip anything", here's another morsel as food for thought: The much-mentioned WoT series is pretty big, and when I mean "pretty big", I mean "effin huge". The count says the entire series is somewhere around 4.2M words long (I couldn't find an official word count for the entire series, but the first eleven books were 3.3M, so I extrapolated from there). For comparison, the LotR trilogy is 473k words long while the entire released Song of Ice and Fire series is somewhere around 1.5M words.

Now imagine that of those 4.2M words, 14 books, 40% is some of the most brilliant, skillfully written, entertaining and immersive fantasy storytelling ever put to paper, while the remaining 60% is either pointless padding (there are entire books in the series where literally nothing plot-relevant happens in an entire novel) or focuses on horribly written characters doing inane things while we are being persuaded that what they are doing is totally important and impressive. If you ask me, shoveling aside 60% trash to get to the 40% gold is still a fair deal, and the quality being divided like that only makes it a lot easier.

If there was no such delineation though (for example, if the male and female characters would constantly mingle and there would be no way to separate the good chapters from the questionable ones) then I would probably join your ranks and just grind my way through anyway, but as it stands, since the option is available, I still think skipping is a valid option in this case at least.

P.S.: In case you haven't notice, I am still venting here. As much as I love WoT this far, juggling the good and the bad chapters is tiresome and you guys are not helping with your instant condemnation of skipping. It makes me feel guilty and a need to justify myself, so now I demand that you feel guilty for making me feel guilty and wasting my time with justifying myself.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

SNIP

I am still with QueenMichael though with the other part of what he said. I am not going to put myself through something I don't enjoy just to get to the bits I might.

I think it is a fair assumption to make. I have read some epics in my time... start to finish. Some things, when I was younger, I read just because I felt I had to. I was a good reader when I was young, and because my dad always spoke of it I read LotR when I was 12 (Hobbit a year prior). I read the entire works of Sherlock Holmes (unsurprisingly) when I was a kid... loved it. At some points I found it frustrating. He wasn't the hero I expected. There wasn't much action usually, and I hated some of the clients he worked with, but it was all worth it. His failures were as important as his successes and who and how he helped people helped paint who he was.

The last series I read was the Mistborn series. I loved it. Although there were 2 characters I didn't like, and didn't like it when their perspective was followed. TenSoon the Kandra I found frustrating due to his decision-making skills... and Spook I found whiny and his lack of self-confidence hit a nerve that was too close to home for myself to enjoy. I stuck with it though. I read all their bits, and I am glad that I did. Both characters turned out to have great entertaining story arcs in the way the author intended.

If you are reading a huge series in which 40% is good, and the rest drivel, why read it at all? How do you know if you are skipping a good bit or not? All the books I have read recently each scene is important... if not to the actual story it is to the characters development. If I skipped all the ball scenes in Mistborn because they were a change in pace I would have missed some of the most important parts of Vin's development throughout the books.

 

[DementedSheep]

I skipped the council meeting in LoTR and I occasionally skip sex scenes/ relationship crap in books (which rarely have anything important in them) but that's about it.
If I wanted to skip half the book I'd stop reading it.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

SNIP

Also... in a different tact... Try some other stuff. There are some awesome fantasy trilogies that may not be as epic as WoT in worlds and stories but are engrossing and fantastic nonetheless. I am sure others will add to this list, but some that I like the most are:

Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson
Painted Man series - Peter V. Brett
Gentleman Bastard series - Scott Lynch
Night Angel trilogy - Brent Weeks
First Law series - Joe Abercrombie


Or try some other stuff. The James Bond novels surpass the films indefinitely, and the Dirk Pitt novels are cheap thrills. Read the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks to try something completely different, and a dip into his world of writing. (Actually... drop everything and just do this. It is really quite short, and 10000% worth it!)

There are loads!

 

[DanteRL]

Never done it, I'm also part of the team that would stop reading before skipping parts. If the book is good, I just go through the bad parts, I know they'll end eventually. If they don't, they I might just stop it. Almost did that when reading the first LoTR because screw YOU Tom Bombadil most boring human on Middle Earth...

Well, I almost skipped parts twice, but didn't. With Children of Hurin, because by the end I wasn't enjoying at all, and with Musashi, because Eiji Yoshikawa couldn't write a female character for shit. And I knooow, it was the 20s, so what we call sexist now, would commonly pass back then, but it's still pretty bad.

 

[Batou667]

I skipped all of the songs and poetry in LoTR. Including them was just plain obnoxious and masturbatory writing. Did Tolkien expect us to magically know what tune to read them to?

Also, there was one chapter in 2001: A Space Odyssey that was copy-pasted word-for-word in at least two of the three sequels. You bet I skipped that.

Aside from that, no I don't skip. If the book's garbage I'll stop reading, but usually I finish a book even if I don't love it. I sometimes find myself skipping forward in a paragraph if something exciting is about to happen, but then I backtrack a bit and re-read the bit I skipped.