The Martian discussion

My biggest peeve here is people giving one-star ratings to a book that they did not finish reading. I think that doing so is a disservice to the author and skews the overall rating of the book. I get particularly irritated when the “reviewer” admits he/she only read a chapter or two or read fewer than 50 pagers. One “reviewer” admitted reading only 15 pages of a 335 paged book. A DNF one-star rating of The Martian stated a dislike of math and science. Just “DNF” it and move on. “Not my cup of tea”, “I just couldn’t get into it”, “boring” (after reading 18 pages) comments serve no purpose.

To put this into a more personal perspective, one of my most favorite reads is Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides. I slogged through the first hundred pages. I didn’t particularly like it. Continuing on it turned into a fabulous read, one that I have recommended to friends with the following caveat- get through the first 100 pages, don’t give up, you’ll love it.