There’s no universal rule of thumb for when you can stop reading a book after you pick it up. Some say after you get through 50 pages. Others say after you skip to the end and read the last sentence (if you’re a crazy person). But here are some of the most useful standards our panel of experts has come up with:
- When it’s time to head to this month’s book group.
- When the book cuts to an entirely different scene/set of characters, and the dialogue is just as horrid as before.
- When you see a NYT controversy raging about it.
- When God rests on the seventh day.
- When you give up and look at the Wikipedia summary.
- When you’ve exhausted all the good stuff from the book jacket.
- When the author is credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
- When you see the movie.
- When your friends, strangers, and twitter bots make fun of you for reading Infinite Jest.
- When you’ve bought two new books since you started reading this one.
- When you haven’t opened it in like six months and three books have since been stacked on top of it.
- When the HBO adaption is better than the manuscript.
- Never. Don’t be weak. Don’t give up.
Left on Read 