Can I criticize (or hate) a book I haven't read entirely?

[James Cozens]

It's funny, but some of the most popular books recommended by gurus: Money Master the Game, 4 Hour Work Week, Principles - even Blue Ocean Strategy - bored the sh*t out of me!

Some of the books by smaller, less well-known figures have been fantastic - probably the writers are putting their heart and soul into them. Unscripted , TMF and Alex Becker's book "pillars of wealth" were some of the best books I ever read.

It's hard to say when you should stop reading a book. Usually if I'm still bored by the 2nd chapter, there's not really much point to carry on as I'll end up going back reading the same paragraph again and again until I absorb it, taking me twice as long and putting me to sleep.

There are so many books out there that frame the same points in different ways. I would say it's not always the content of the book that's bad, but often the writing style and the relevancy of the content to the issues you're struggling with.

 

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[DustinH]

Basically - he says you're better off reading a good book 3 times than 3 mediocre ones, and if you're going to read 3 books, it's better to read "deep" than "wide". IE, use your reading time and effort to become a subject matter expert in something, rather than than have little factoids about 3 different topics.

This has become my philosophy on reading books. I read fewer and fewer new books each year while I have a list of books I re-read at least once each year, sometime twice. I have 2 or 3 new books on my docket for this year but, other than that, I will re-read my favorites.

1. Millionaire Fastlane
2. Unscripted
3. The One Thing
4. The 10X Rule
5. Cashflow Quadrant
6. Traction

New Books on my to-read list this year:
1. Atomic Habits
2. Expert Secrets - Russell Brunson
3. Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You Got - Jay Abraham

 

[DustinH]

It's funny, but some of the most popular books recommended by gurus: Money Master the Game, 4 Hour Work Week, Principles - even Blue Ocean Strategy - bored the sh*t out of me!

Same here. I think the first part of the second section of Principles is great to re-read. Where it starts actually talking about his business and management principles. The rest is filler.

I've been really struggling with Blue Ocean Strategy. It's boring as hell. On a similar note, I'm struggling also to get through Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen. A lot of boring stories. I'm only about 25% through each one. They have motivated me to cancel my Audible subscription. Instead I've picked up some podcasts about creating Online Courses and I've learned more about digital marketing and online business from those than I ever would've from those books.

There's too much filler in books. They fill the pages with related stories that take forever to get through and waste the reader's time.

 

[EPerceptions]

IMO, whether a book sucks or not is completely relevant to you.

How you react to a book changes based on where you're at in life. There are many things that were boring and tedious years ago, that I can completely relate to and learn from today. Or that I just couldn't get my head around when I was younger, but became clear as day after living life a little.

With non fiction, I glance through the TOC and possibly spot look at sections that might interest me. That's usually enough for me to know if I want to read it or not. Sometimes I'll spot read high and low reviews.

Personal fiction reading I have much less time and patience for, so it has to grab (and hold) me within the first 2-3 pages.

 

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[Jonathan Hoch]

I listen to most of my books thanks to audible. I usually toss in the earbuds, and let the book run while I go about my day. I've been able to listen to 35 books in the last 3 months, and a few I've listened multiple times.

But one book that I couldn't F*cking finish, was Overlap. I was hopeful because I had heard good things about it from a few friends. But it got to this weird point where it was giving relationship advice, halfway through the book. After an hour of how to treat my significant other, I ended the book. I'm 9 years happily married. I was looking for business advice. Thanks. No thanks. I promptly informed all of my friends they were idiots.

 

[Generic_Username]

80/20 principle or the Pareto principle: idk about specific percentages, but IMO you don't need to read the whole book to see if the book isn't what you wanted it to be:
1. Who is the author? Joe Hypocrite or Jane Practitioner: if the author doesn't practice what he/she wrote, why should you?
2. What is the purpose of the book? Is the purpose not what you wanted?
3. How does the author write- sample the book
Etc.

 

[NickVGreen]

It depends on what you're gonna say about it. For example, when what you have heard about the book sounds unappealing or not worth your time you can say "From what I have heard, I don't think I would like it/that it is worth my time" without spending any time reading it.

If you're actually going to read part of it though, you're free to dismiss or hate it as soon as you read the title or the blurb on the back, just as long as you are aware and clear on your reasons for dismissing/hating it. If the title or blurb turned you off, you should clear on that when you express yourself to others (instead of "I hated it," maybe "The title was a turn-off" or "The blurb sounds just like a million other books of [book's genre]).

For example, the worst book I've ever partially read was My lover's lover, where in the second chapter the main character reflects on the sweat molecules she's shedding as she hurries up a nightclub stairway. I knew it was going to be bad before I started, but once I got to that nonsensical characterization (the character was not a physicist and there was nothing about her or the situation that should have brought this molecule-reflection) I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

TL;DR: there is no point to which you have to read a book to make a judgment on it; you just have to be specific about your judgment and clear on your reasons for it (sounds uninteresting, hated the blurb, seemed like a repetition of other books on the same topic)

 

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[TheLearner]

IMHO, If you aren't reading something like a textbook, then at 3 chapters in you know if the book is something you want to keep reading or not. To me it is like watching a movie, if I get 30 minutes into a movie and I'm still not interested, I'm not going to spend another hour hoping that it gets good. I also wouldn't recommend that movie (or book) to anyone else if it didn't hold my attention.

 

[Darko Jocic]

Here's how I see it:

In short - If you're already thinking about dropping the book, just do it. Neither you, nor the author are about to change in a few chapters.

In long - Depends entirely on who's reading it and for what purpose.

Who: There's a saying where I'm from that's translated along the lines of "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." In that context I'd say that the quality of a book is always relative to the reader's ability to extract quality from it in a "learn from others' mistakes" sort of way.

Why: Sticking to the whole money niche, people read with various intents, all the while being incredibly prodigious in keeping themselves unaware of it. Thankfully there's no need for me explain anything here, since you guys have seen wantrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. So in accordance to whether someone wants a few hours of wishful thinking, a bit of encouragement, a list of excuses, a different perspective, or perhaps even practical advice to apply in their lives, a good book for them is one that ultimately allows them to achieve their intent, whatever that may be.

Edit: Just realized I didn't really give an opinion on the actual question. You can, of course. People hate people they've never met, ideologies they've never studied, food they've never tasted and so on. The question is only whether or not it is beneficial for you and the people you're sharing your opinion with, and that question people should answer for themselves, because it doesn't really concern anyone else.

 

[BlackLynx]

Over the last few years I've been on a "business-book binge". Reading an average business book takes about 10 to 12 hours. But if there is something I hate it's wasting time. And these books are filled with fluff - testimonials - stories etc. So I tried Blinkist - but that proved worthless to me because interacting with a book's content for 15 minutes doesn't let me retain the info.

My response to this problem is that I designed a particular method to reading a book, which allows you to interact in an entire new way with a book - and allows you to stop thinking about a non-fiction book as this linear thing.

Without sounding "new-agey" i think of reading a book more like interacting with the author. Instead of him just monologuing at you. It's like sitting in a bar with a dude who won't stop rambling. You have the right - the obligation perhaps - to question the information provided to you.

These are the 12 Steps:

1. Study the Front Cover
2. Study the Back Cover
3. Study the Table of Contents
4. Read the introduction
5. Read Chapter 1
6. Read The Last Chapter
7. Read The Epilogue
8. Read the 5-star reviews and the 1-star reviews on Amazon.com
9. Read the 5-star reviews and the 1-star reviews on Goodreads.com
10. Read the top 20 quotes from the book on goodreads.com (they are extracted from Kindle) and then upvoted or downvoted like on Reddit
11. Reflect on the themes of the book
12. Pick the next chapter that calls out to you or drop the book

I outlined the process in a long-a$$ post on my website. And I made a Udemy course on it (if someone is interested pm me and i'll send you a coupon). It really works for me and apparently is also valuable for people (which I was surprised at at first because the process feels deeply personal)

 

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