I need a name, a word. What do you call books that you've started, but not finished, but that you can't finish because you only downloaded the first section as a sample to your Kindle?
Since I got the iPod at the beginning of the year, I've downloaded a mess of free samples. It's like a little sickness; someone mentions a book, or I read a review, and instead of putting it on my Amazon wishlist, I just download the sample to Ginger. And then I read the sample, because whatever it is, it won't take longer to read than it takes me to get home on the train. They aren't unfinished - I finished what I had. It's like I've eaten the appetizer, but the dinner and dessert hasn't yet been served. Because I have so damned many books, real live dead tree books, sitting by the side of my bed, I've not committed to finishing any of these sample books - yet.
Just read the sample:
- Packing for Mars
- Our Life in Gardens
- The Winter of our Disconnect
- The Coffins of Little Hope
- Outlander
- Dirty Secret
- Half Baked
- Bossy Pants
- The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
- The Hunger Games
- Man Down
- Stories I’ve Only Told My Mom
- Love is a Mix Tape
- Joy for Beginners
- A Visit from the Goon Squad
- Country Driving
- and I shall have some peace there
Read the sample and then finished it as a library book:
- The Emperor of All Maladies
- Cooking on the Edge of Insanity
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
- Life From Scratch
So what are they? In purgatory? No. Interregnum? No. Betwixt and between? Meh.
Help me!
10 comments:
If you weren't planning on finishing them I'd call them abandoned, but if you might still get to them . . . hmmm.
I loved Bossypants.
That is a bit of a thorny issue. Well, maybe not. It's an interesting problem. If it was a dilemma, as in 'on the horns of' I could have said it was a horny problem.
Not helpful, I know. But at least I'm amusing myself.
I'm not sure I could do that to myself. Although I guess if the book was have-to-read-ish enough you would get the real one (or the rest of the fake - er, digital - one) and read it.
Reminds me of the pile on my nightstand. They're half-started and eying me impatiently. I like the idea of book purgatory...and having a horny problem LOL.
I think it's a function of how technology gets us to scan, but not delve deep. The difference between, say, reading the Times on the web (where one's eyes skims the headlines and one clicks on three things) and paging through the actual paper. Something happens with a real book, perseverance-wise, that doesn't with a reader. Because the book sits there and pleads with you to finish it? Because of the allure of the weight in your hands, and the stolen pleasure of a window seat?
If you'd had hard copies of those books, which category would each one fall in?
They are on the bench, waiting to be put in the game. ;) I use the sample feature to test out books...if I'm hooked by the end of the sample, it is my next read. If not, they are deleted and forgotten. I have a few in purgatory that I liked well enough to hold on to in case I need a b-string book to read.
In waiting? Or just say "sampled." as in, Did you read that book? I sampled it.
I'm reading Bookseller of Kabul now because I found it when browsing your lists on Goodreads.
I would definitely buy Stories I've Only Told My Mom and read all the essays. You won't be disappointed! It's a laugh and cry experience not to be missed.
You have GOT to finish "The Winter of Our Discontent". It is the best Steinbeck, by far.
Oops, I think I misread your title...
Still, what I said before? Yes. Don't know about any of the others on your list.
Commenting late on this, but I would say stick with Outlander and the series after that. Those are on my Best Books of All Time list.
And the Hunger Games trilogy is well worth reading, if only from the library.
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