Do you tend to skip over "filler" book content? (1 Viewer)

[ChiaraStar169]

inspired by @Nina reply to this thread:

Do you reread books? - K-Pop Source — Keeping the K-Pop Forum Spirit Alive

My bestie is a one-and-done. She has her favorites -- she even has a tattoo for her favorite series -- but she never rereads books. I only keep books on my bookshelf that I think I'll reread, and my current read is a reread. (It's a really dense fantasy world, so I don't feel like I remember...

kpopsource.com

I do. I have this pet peeve about when authors go on and on and on about the character's history and don't start the dialogue until way later. I can tolerate when they give it briefly, though. This pet peeve is bc as a writer, I like to do it in "sprinkles", giving context clues instead of infodumping. Or at least I try to. lol

 

[athenaaa]

I read a lot of non-fiction so not sure if this really applies but I will skip over sections if they seem boring

 

[Villains]

nope. because what's the point of reading a book if you're... not reading it?

i recently read the little friend by donna tartt. i love tartt, but... this book was a pain to get through. 624 pages and most of them did not add anything to the actual plot (if there even was one to begin with) but i did not let myself skip any part of it.

nothing to do with your opinion, you can read however you want but this has actually been a whole discourse with "booktok" or the book side of tiktok. numerous booktokers have posted videos of them saying they only read dialogue or skip whole chunks and chapters of books if they seem boring, too long, or unneeded. i see this as a problem because why are you bothered by reading while reading? is reading now a status symbol?

 

[centen]

If I have to skip over significant chunks of the book to make it tolerable to read, then I'll just DNF. Unless it's for a book club or something where I feel obligated to try to power through.

 

[RockyGoose]

I can only think of when I recently was reading collections of a series of comic books based on Norse mythology, and there were parts where they included the original myths that some of the comics were based on and some "Behind-the-scenes stories", but I skipped most of those parts.

 

[Ahsoka]

nope. because what's the point of reading a book if you're... not reading it?

i recently read the little friend by donna tartt. i love tartt, but... this book was a pain to get through. 624 pages and most of them did not add anything to the actual plot (if there even was one to begin with) but i did not let myself skip any part of it.

nothing to do with your opinion, you can read however you want but this has actually been a whole discourse with "booktok" or the book side of tiktok. numerous booktokers have posted videos of them saying they only read dialogue or skip whole chunks and chapters of books if they seem boring, too long, or unneeded. i see this as a problem because why are you bothered by reading while reading? is reading now a status symbol?

If I’m reading for enjoyment, why should I force myself to read a part I don’t enjoy and that I dont need in order to follow the storyline? Who suffers from the fact that they do that? To me it’s kind of like saying that you need to make every recipe in a cookbook no matter whether you hate the ingredients, though slightly less severe. Regardless, your life is completely unchanged whether someone reads every word of a book they buy or borrow. Unless they’re upset that there exist people who read the whole book and are trying to force others to skip parts, which part of it is a problem? And this is coming from someone who does not consciously skip parts, I usually have no issue, but this opinion seems way too extreme for no reason (from what I see, maybe there’s justification for this opinion that you don’t add but makes it more understandable). But it just feels like a similar idea elitists and gatekeepers use for all kinds of hobbies, though maybe you didn’t intend for that to be the case

 

[Ahsoka]

Anyways, I usually try to read it all because it’s usually not an issue, but I find that my brain skips over details sometimes, even when important. Character names somehow fall victim to that a lot. There have been way too many cases of needing to google who characters are because I just forgot their name somehow

 

[dnb]

If I have to skip over significant chunks of the book to make it tolerable to read, then I'll just DNF.

Same here. I try not to skip sections, but if I find a book is boring (Dune, Lord of the Rings) or very poorly written (Fifty Shades of Grey) I'll drop it right away.

 

[Lexie]

I read everything. I don't like to skip anything even if I don't like it.

 

[Villains]

If I’m reading for enjoyment, why should I force myself to read a part I don’t enjoy and that I dont need in order to follow the storyline? Who suffers from the fact that they do that? To me it’s kind of like saying that you need to make every recipe in a cookbook no matter whether you hate the ingredients, though slightly less severe. Regardless, your life is completely unchanged whether someone reads every word of a book they buy or borrow. Unless they’re upset that there exist people who read the whole book and are trying to force others to skip parts, which part of it is a problem? And this is coming from someone who does not consciously skip parts, I usually have no issue, but this opinion seems way too extreme for no reason (from what I see, maybe there’s justification for this opinion that you don’t add but makes it more understandable). But it just feels like a similar idea elitists and gatekeepers use for all kinds of hobbies, though maybe you didn’t intend for that to be the case

first of all i said i don't care whether people skip parts of books or not, people can read however they want and i'm sorry if it came off as elitist, that's not how i intended it.

what i meant is that wanting to engage fully with art isn't about gatekeeping, it's about respecting an author's work instead of just treating it as a disregardable art form. i just see it as superficial interest when people consume art shallowly. (once again not labeling anyone here as that)

and i'm not forcing other people to read parts that they don't have a care for, what i said is being exaggerated. i mentioned booktok and skipping whole paragraphs and chapters, not just small sections like the OP most likely is talking about. i just added an extra thought that i felt like sharing, not a command for others to obey.

 

[Tickita]

I don't skip, but like you I do prefer sprinkles

 

[Ahsoka]

first of all i said i don't care whether people skip parts of books or not, people can read however they want and i'm sorry if it came off as elitist, that's not how i intended it.

what i meant is that wanting to engage fully with art isn't about gatekeeping, it's about respecting an author's work instead of just treating it as a disregardable art form. i just see it as superficial interest when people consume art shallowly. (once again not labeling anyone here as that)

and i'm not forcing other people to read parts that they don't have a care for, what i said is being exaggerated. i mentioned booktok and skipping whole paragraphs and chapters, not just small sections like the OP most likely is talking about. i just added an extra thought that i felt like sharing, not a command for others to obey.

All I was asking is why you think it’s a problem. I never claimed you directly force anyone to read it all. The only time I bring up forcing anything is saying that if others force you to skip parts it’s an issue, which I’m sure you agree with. Unless you mean the first sentences? In which case it’s kind of reasonable imo to think that if doing something is a problem, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t mean that, then I would guess that this was just a misunderstanding based on that.

 

[Villains]

All I was asking is why you think it’s a problem. I never claimed you directly force anyone to read it all. The only time I bring up forcing anything is saying that if others force you to skip parts it’s an issue, which I’m sure you agree with. Unless you mean the first sentences? In which case it’s kind of reasonable imo to think that if doing something is a problem, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t mean that, then I would guess that this was just a misunderstanding based on that.

maybe i misunderstood your tone, my bad.
i'm not very good with that but i assumed you were claiming i meant that by the way i read it.

 

[Ahsoka]

maybe i misunderstood your tone, my bad.
i'm not very good with that but i assumed you were claiming i meant that by the way i read it.

I wasn’t thinking that you’re forcing anyone, no. I was just confused why it would be a problem, and just from the perspective of viewing problems as things you shouldn’t do it could mean that someone who reads shouldn’t skip parts because it’s inherently wrong. But I never assumed you personally tell people you know that they’re wrong for it and that they need to change directly or anything of that sort.

 

[Selfmate]

I guess the question is how does one know if the content is filler or not?

 

[snsd2beg]

No, bc that's ridiculous (imo). If I'm engaging with a work, I'm engaging with all of it, and if I find it boring, I'm just not gonna read the rest of it. This is probably why it takes me 30 years to finish anything bc it's exhausting lol

 

[Soogi]

nope, i never skip anything but i do sort of read parts im not really interested in quickly without putting too much thought into it. if i find it too unbearable to continue i just drop the book

 

[eclipsoul]

i used to do so when i read books for school.... but it was a mistake because i had terrible luck at exam questions later and always got asked about things i skipped

 

[pinkmelodies]

Honestly I’ve never attempted to do that at all. If it’s something that I’m excited to read, I will take in all the filler details