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Tried to read that dense history book about the Dutch East India Company but quit 50 pages in
I was at a used bookstore in Portland last month and picked up this old book called "The Company's Empire" thinking it'd be a cool look at colonial trade. But man, it was so dry and full of footnotes on every single page that I couldn't follow the main story. I gave it about 50 pages before I realized I was rereading paragraphs three times and still zoning out. The author spent like 10 pages just describing cargo ship dimensions and I just couldn't do it anymore. Has anyone else quit a book that seemed interesting but turned out to be too academic and boring?
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evanb8715d ago
That part about the cargo ship dimensions got me. I've been there with a couple of books where the author gets so caught up in tiny details that the actual story just vanishes. It's frustrating because you went in wanting to learn something interesting and instead you're drowning in facts that don't seem to matter. I usually give a book about 30 pages before I bail, and it sounds like you were more than patient with that one. Nothing wrong with putting it down when it feels more like homework than reading.
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