Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: How many books have you started, but just couldn’t finish?

I’ve no idea about the number, but it isn’t very many…  I’m a completist, so I will usually stick with a book.  I did somewhat famously quit Awaken halfway through because it  made me so angry; it was either quit or throw it across the room.  Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, on the other hand, I finished so that I could hate it more comprehensively (and so I’d know what I was talking about at my book club when I criticized it).  I sometimes finish a particularly dark book because if I get to the end I can close it in life and in my head, and if I stop halfway it feels more likely to linger.

Lately I’ve been trying to drop books if I just don’t care about them.  There have been probably four or five in the past year that I got several chapters into and, while I didn’t hate them, I had no real interest either.  I have to remind myself that there are too many books in the world to waste time on ones that I don’t care about, even if I can’t point to any reason I don’t care–sometimes a book (or, frequently, its characters) just won’t grab me.  So I’m trying to quit on those.

This new resolve did cause a problem when I was at work, with lunch and a second break ahead of me, and continuing to read the book I had brought felt like it would be nothing but a waste of time.  I’ve since started keeping a collection of O. Henry short stories (my go-to for random snatches of reading time) at my office, just in case.

Do you frequently drop books midway, or do you feel compelled to give them a chance?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: What was the one time you thought the movie was better than the book?

There are actually a number of movies that were better than the book…although I do think the trend is usually the other way!

One of the big ones is Horatio Hornblower.  I watched the miniseries, went to the books, and found out all my favorite bits of the miniseries weren’t in the books.  What’s especially odd is that the miniseries had much, much better development of the characters and their relationships than the book did–not the usual situation.  Oddly enough (or not), the same author wrote The African Queen.  Exact same problem with regard to best bits and character portrayal compared to the Hepburn/Bogart movie.

More likely to raise some controversy…I also feel that the movie Stardust was better than Neil Gaiman’s book.  Two reasons: he summarizes a major journey that sounds like the most interesting part into only a few pages; the movie portrays this portion much better.  Second, he subverts expectations at the end with a kind of non-climax…and there’s a reason people like climaxes.  I preferred the movie’s admittedly more conventional ending.

Have you encountered times when the movie was better than the book?  What made the difference for you?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Is every day a reading day for you?

Yes.  That’s the short answer!  I read every day, and honestly doubt there’s been a day in the last, say, ten years when I didn’t read for at least a few minutes.  I read in bed before I get up in the morning; over breakfast; on both my breaks at work; over lunch; and again in bed before I go to sleep.  Any of those times could be disrupted or interfered with on any given day, but it’s unlikely for all of them to be missed.

I often end up reading less on weekends, oddly enough, because I fill that more open time with other things (like writing or socializing or, less virtuously, TV).  But weekdays are pretty set for reading time, and even the weekends include some at the beginning and/or end of the day.

So, yes.  Every day is a reading day.  I’ve never been quite sure what people do with themselves who don’t read.  I mostly read in snatches of 15 minutes or less, and it’s the perfect, brief relaxation for those times.

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Would you take a book with you when you go to your family’s Thanksgiving gathering/dinner?

Absolutely!  Though I should clarify by saying that it would be very unlikely I would actually read it.  I just bring a book everywhere, all the time.  And there might be a suitable reading opportunity somewhere in a day-long Thanksgiving gathering.

In recent years I’ve fallen into a semi-tradition of reading Terry Pratchett over Thanksgiving weekend.  I think it started when I read Hogfather one year (a little early, as that’s his Christmas satire, but it was almost seasonal) and now I’ve been carrying it on just for fun.  And perhaps it’s appropriate–laughter in general and Terry Pratchett in particular are something to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, all my American readers–and a lovely day to all the international ones too!  I am grateful you are here. ❤

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: When you settle in for the night with a good book, do you read until you can’t stay awake or simply have a nightly page goal?

Actually, neither!  Just about any time I settle down to read, but especially at night, I’m looking more at a timeline than at a page goal.  I know what time the light should go out, and I read until then–and I usually try to settle down to read about half an hour before then.  Very prescribed and ordered, I’m afraid!  And I suspect this is not a surprise to the people who know me well off-line…

Though it does sometimes surprise people that I don’t stay up late reading.  I get into books and I occasionally read page-turners, but it’s been a long time since I stayed up later than planned because I couldn’t put a book down.  I remember the last time that happened (a few years ago now)–it was Jane Eyre.  Probably not cited as a page-turner all that often!  But it’s a book I really love, and I was reading it for the first time.  I had watched a movie version, and I was eager to keep reading and see how the book wrote some of the moments I had seen in the movie.

What do your bedtime reading habits look like?  Assuming you have any–but many readers seem to!