Today’s Booking Through Thursday question is: “So… you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But… you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half. What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens? Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?”

I am so bad about this! I tend to be a pretty good follower of the 50-page rule, but so often I will get one of those books that totally hooks me for the first 50 pages, but then by page 100 I’m like… why am I still reading this? What went wrong? I don’t want to be reading this anymore! But I don’t always stop reading, even when I really really should. There are several reasons for this, which I shall enumerate in a list.

Reasons why Alison keeps reading bad books, even when she shouldn’t:
1. It’s the only book around and I need something to read.
2. I have heard good things about the book and am hoping it will get better.
3. It’s a really popular/well-regarded book and I want the experience of reading it.
4. It’s a mystery novel and I want to know how the mystery plays out.
5. It’s a horror novel and I fear nightmares if I don’t finish it.

Really, most of the time it’s reason No. 1 ruling the day, which is why I try to carry around enough books to keep me amused at any given time, though clearly this doesn’t always work. I’m such a lost cause.