I feel like I used to be more likely to finish even bad books. These days I’m more likely to leave them half read and let them drop down the list on my kindle or let the library app take it back. But I still probably finish more than I should—bad books I’m often more likely to skim to the end, whereas sometimes it’s the NOT bad books which just don’t grab me that I keep thinking I’ll go back to when I’m in a different mood. Guess it also depends on your definition of bad?

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

These are the ones I've had to learn to put down. If I'm not in the mood for it now, move on to something else. If I get back to it, fine. If not, there's always more books (and fic).

Yes, that’s reasonable. And I can usually do it, but does increase my TBR

I read Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good the other day and it's entirely charming: a very strait-laced high school senior with an even more strait-laced boyfriend falls into fandom and cosplay, and ... events transpire. It's pretty solidly YA but I would recommend, esp. if you like Rainbow Rowell. It's kind of like that but with lower stakes: it's unlikely to make you cry.

It can be hard to tell if this is a bad book or if this is maybe a pretty good book that I am just not in the mood for right now.

That's a really good point. It's interesting, I pick what shows and movies to watch and what video games to play based on my mood but I don't really consider it with books. I suppose part of it is that books are a larger time investment where my mood can potentially change throughout the reading whereas visual media is generally consumed in smaller bursts.

Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good

I already love it for the title alone. Also sounds like something I should recommend to my son to read.

Oh, I bought that after reading a review or something and then got distracted (in part by reading the author's autobiographical webcomic which is pretty interesting) and didn't actually read it...thanks for the reminder, Consuela!

Sounds like my jam, I shall put it on the list! RN I’m mostly looking forward to Yuletide.

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring. However with books if I don't enjoy something and can't get into it I'll put it down and not read it.

Which means there are a lot of classics I haven't read because I couldn't get into it and that made it hard to pay attention. I do go back and try some but not books that are just bad.

I thought the second sci fi alien kidnapped book might fall into the so bad it's good territory but no it felt like one of those fanfics where someone will put in the notes or on an AO3 tag that there is no real plot it's just about the smut because the world building and stuff was so thin but the smut was boring. and badly written.

I like movies that are so bad they are good but not movies that are bad but boring.

Totally agree - I would much rather watch a movie where the writer/director is trying to do something ambitious and fails spectacularly than a movie where by the end I still don't know why the creators wanted to make it.

I've been unable to finish many objectively good books recently because the part of my brain that knows how to read anything except category romance has been on sabbatical since June 2020. I can still do audiobooks but I'm incredibly picky about narrators so I have an ever-growing stack of will-get-back-to-after-the-pandemic.