Shelfarians discussion

I don't get to read as much as I would like, but I do set myself reading challenges every year. My question is: if I start a book but hate it after the first chapter or so and stop reading, should I count that as read? Life is too short to finish a book I'm not enjoying.

Carol wrote: "I don't get to read as much as I would like, but I do set myself reading challenges every year. My question is: if I start a book but hate it after the first chapter or so and stop reading, should ..."

I made myself a DNF (did not finish) shelf so that I would not mess up my legitimate count of books read.

That's a terrific idea! Thanks.

If I know that I will NOT pick it up again, I count it as read. But I don't put much store in the goodreads stats (or Shelfari before GR), so I don't really care if it messes with my legitimate count.

Books that I read 50+ of but don't finish go on an exclusive "Unfinished" shelf.
50- pages get deleted. I don't mark as "read" books that I don't complete.

If I start and abandon a book after a chapter or two (more often after a few pages) , I just don't record it or review it and I cross it off my TBR list; I rely on remembering that I didn't like it (of course I have so many books on my TBR list that once something is off that list I'm not likely to pick it up again.)

If I abandon something after reading a good bit, I record it on my challenge list as abandoned. I've used several on Shelfari, but now on Goodreads I use my challenge threads in the "Paging All Bookworms" group, which I regularly print out to a book I keep at work (the Library I work at decided in 2009 all the employees should keep a card file of reviews for making suggestions to patrons; I couldn't keep mine short enough for cards so I used a looseleaf binder, and after nine years I'm the only one who has continued it, even though my current job I'm not in contact with patrons much.) I also ignore the Goodreads stats, because when I came over from Shelfari my whole TBR changed to "read".

For the purposes of my challenges, I only count a book as read if I finish it, but I count the pages read for my page totals if it's more than a chapter or two.

Actually, I think I've only abandoned four or five since 2009 after really getting started, but I often abandon books after a few pages to a chapter, or even after reading the introduction; for example, if it turns out to be oriented to a younger audience or too simple in the case of non-fiction, or if it is too politically skewed or factually inaccurate. The ones I have abandoned further along are almost always historical novels which take too great liberties with the facts.

Abandoned list, that's a great idea. I wish I had made a list of books that I could not finish. I know that like artwork some people like or dislike. They even love and talk with admiration about a book that I have tried to read and do not like or found it boring.
What someone sees or reads is different for each person.
I do have books that I've tried to read and am still determined to finish someday (as if) like War and Peace and Delderfield's A Horseman Riding By. To me they are boring. Especially Delderfield which goes on and on in great descriptions.
I remember in college discussing books and wondering why people read some of them. Being an english lit major I struggled through books I had to read ending up liking some and not others. Solzhenitsyn's The Cancer Ward was one I ended up keeping. The Shining went out the door to someone who wanted to read it.
Books that I have started and decided they either don't impress me or I just don't want to continue reading have always gone to someone else. I have a friend who sends me a box of books now and then and she is into the vampire hunter type reads so I weed out the vampire ones and give them to a friend's daughter.
I have only thrown one book into the garbage bin much to my own surprise but had no qualms afterwards. Some paper just needs to be recycled.
I cringe at book clubs because I usually have a hard time with the books they pick to read. So I don't join. (Maybe it is because I don't like being told what to read?)
But a list of books I never finished would have been a good idea simply because I have bought an number of books and into a few pages realized I have tried to read them before and found them wanting to my bookish satisfaction.