How long?

How long do you give a book to draw you in before you give up on it? I for some reason never used to give myself permission to quit on a book. If I started it, I finished it, no matter if it took years and I hated every minute of it.

In the past few years I have granted permission to quit, rather than torture myself and all those around me that have to hear about how much I hate it. Maybe I did not give myself permission but just followed the advice of my tortured soulmate. "If you hate it so much why don't you stop?"

I never knew I could stop. I don't think of myself as a quitter so therefore I don't quit...anything. Yeah I may need to continue to work on that, but I am much better now. (Ask me how long it took me to get through college. No don't ask! It would have been different if I had chosen something more suited to my talents. That is my story.)

Anyways back to my question, how long do you typically give a book before you decide it is not for you? I've heard people say 50 or 100 pages but that seems pretty long. Let's face it I would be invested in the story and need to know how it ends. Even if it ends badly in my opinion. A hundred pages is close to 1/3 of many of my books.

For all my summer sleuthing from a couple of weeks ago I am not falling in love with any stories right now. Maybe that is part of it too, I'm starting fresh in almost every method I use; Kindle, audio and paper. Is my reading suffering from startitis? Too many characters being introduced in everything I'm reading?

All I can tell you is that I am at the library, I have a couple of book pickup lines on the tip of my tongue. Hey book, do you have a map in you, because I can see myself getting lost in your pages. Book, your words on a page, you're what they call FINE PRINT!

Do you think either one of those will work, or should I just bring my library card?