In the book "The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction", by Alan Jacobs, he advocates reading "at Whim". It was a welcome antidote to the notion that one ought read a lot and read "great" books. It's a good, quick read that will give some thought-provoking ideas about the reading life.

I have never understood this attitude, honestly. Some of the most worthwhile things in life are difficult, literature included. Discarding things because they don't immediately grab your attention seems like a side effect of our low-attention span age.

Rather than "difficulty", consider ROI and opportunity cost.

If it's difficult, but you're learning a new skill, expanding your perspective or capacity, or enjoying the challenge, by all means, keep going.

If you're not enjoying it, and the payoff is just having completed it, and you could do a lot more valuable/enjoyable stuff with that time, then stop reading Finnegan's Wake, for goodness sake.

Difficult things are rewarding, indeed, but you need infinite time to try them all. You have to pick your battles if you want to advance.

I have no problem with difficult things but in my free time I don’t want to force myself to do things I don’t enjoy. I have to do this already way too much at work.

It's perfectly reasonable to read a quarter/fifth of a book and decide that you don't like the style, premise or whatever. Sometimes I persevere and enjoy the book after all but perhaps that's just acclimatisation.

People who walk out of films, though...

It's specially liberating in fiction works. You don't have to soldier through a big book you don't like, allow yourself to drop it in favor of a better one.

There's always the option of resuming it if you feel like it.

”There's always the option of resuming it if you feel like it”

Exactly. Sometimes you just aren’t in the right mood/phase if life or simply not ready for the material.

In my opinion, Stephen King might be the best English language novelist since the mid 1950s or so. I think people mostly look down on him because he's generally identified with horror, which is of course his typical genre -- but his work transcends the genre and is deeply literary.

Carrie should be on the bookshelf next to other somewhat recent masterpieces like the Grapes of Wrath, Invisible Man (Ellison's), Lord of the Flies, the Great Gatsby, and Ulysses.

But I really am gonna finish cryptonomicon one day damnit!

That actually was an easy one for me :). Enjoyed it a lot.

I've gotten halfway through like 4+ times.

Maybe I'll try again soon, i'm honestly not sure why I've never finished, i like the storey well enough.

“Seveneves” on the other hand bored me to death after a while. The first half was great but then I lost interest. Finished it though.

It's worth it!