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There are books that are mandatory for us to read in school or university , or sometimes we start reading them for our personal enjoyment, only to leave them unfinished. Would you give such a book a second chance? Maybe I was too young, or not concentrated enough, but there are several books hanging in my bookshelf that I simply didn't finish and I don't exactly want to get rid of. What are your thoughts ?!

I have recently considered re-reading two books from my freshman year of high school: Great Expectations and The Human Comedy. I didn't really care for either one, but I was going through some very negative things during that time, and I had a bad attitude about everything in general. Perhaps now I could appreciate them more.

Absolutely! Times changes, attitudes change, perspectives change and most importantly people change. I am not the same person I was when I first read the book--whether it was years ago or a couple of weeks ago. We are constantly changing and experiencing new things. New experiences effect your perspective. I love things I used to hate and hate what I used to love. I am definitely open to revisiting past experiences!

I have given books I initially hated another chance. Sometimes I still hate them, but I do get ones that I fall in love with. ?

I agree ! I know exactly what LivreAmour217 means, the state of mind we are in while reading a bout affects us tremendously. Especially when we know we are ''forced'' to read them (for school etc). There are some books like The Little Prince that people understand differently depending on their age and I think a person needs to reach a certain mental state before being able to fully understand and enjoy a novel. Bluemel4 I hope I get as lucky as you and fall in love with some books too !

Sure. I already know it will bore me and thus make the time pass more slowly giving me an artificial sense of a longer life *Wink*

Reminds me of a joke ... The doctor tells his patient he has only two months to live. The patient says he is going to go right home and call his mother-in-law and ask her to come and live with him and his wife. "I see," said the doctor "you must really love your mother-in-law huh?" The patient replies, "Hell no, I hate her guts." To which the befuddled doctor asks, "Then why would you want to spend your remaining two months of life with her?" "Simple," replies the patient, "she will make two months seems like twenty years."

And now, back to the previously recored program ......

I actually do this on occasion, just to see if my literary tastes have changed over the years/months since I last read a book I didn't enjoy. However, I'll be honest, if on the second go around it still makes me wish to cry at the thought of picking it up, I simply put it down and don't waste the time on it because life is too short to read books you don't connect with on some level. (Except textbooks which are, an unfortunate necessity in some cases)

Not really, unless I was convinced to give it another chance. There are too many books I didn't read to waste my time on books I hated.

It would come down to why I didn't finish the book.
I don't have many DNF's, and of those only a few I would say I hated. The others just didn't match my tastes at the time I first picked them up.
Those I often think of picking back up, but the ones I seriously don't like, there's a reason. I don't give up on a book easily.

gali wrote:Not really, unless I was convinced to give it another chance. There are too many books I didn't read to waste my time on books I hated.

Ditto, I have to stand by not really. However, I'll attempt Gone Girl later in the summer.

It depends on the reason I hated it. I read a couple of books in highschool and thought they were trash (probably because they were mandatory ) but read them a few years later and loved them. When you are younger you think differently. Then get older and look at it in a different light.

janae811 wrote:It depends on the reason I hated it. I read a couple of books in highschool and thought they were trash (probably because they were mandatory ) but read them a few years later and loved them. When you are younger you think differently. Then get older and look at it in a different light.

I would agree totally ... not only is "youth wasted on the young" (George Bernard Shaw ) but many books are too. But then I guess if you weren't introduced to these books you wouldn't have them to return to!
I hated Shakespeare in school but later got to love him - likewise with Beckett and many others.

My initial answer is no. There are so many books to read with so little time. However if somebody else reads it and points out many things I missed, and these points pique my interest, I may go back and revisit it. Sometimes I find I may have hated it because I didn't fully understand it. It's a fine line.

I would like to say that I'd give unfinished books a try again, but when I look at the few books I have on my "could not finish" list (couldn't, not just didn't!) I can remember the specific reasons for why I gave each one up...

Since I remember those reasons so well, I feel like they're all I would be thinking of if I tried to start over fresh.

I would like to think that I'm going to give them another chance, hence why I didn't immediately throw them away, in reality though I'm not sure if I ever will. I have so many to be read books on my shelves that I'm looking forward to that I don't really want to go back and re-read a disliked book.