{"id":56020,"date":"2013-07-12T11:04:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T15:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=56020"},"modified":"2013-07-12T11:07:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T15:07:51","slug":"spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

This infographic<\/a> on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is the Goodreads list of those titles most frequently abandoned. We don\u2019t want to spoil Stieg Larsson for anyone, but let\u2019s just say that those who don\u2019t persevere are missing out on some sexual sadism and computer espionage.<\/p>\n

\"abandonmentinfographic\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is the Goodreads list of those titles most frequently abandoned. We don\u2019t want to spoil Stieg Larsson for anyone, but let\u2019s just say that those who don\u2019t persevere are missing out on some sexual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[8855,2985,11],"class_list":["post-56020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-goodreads","tag-stieg-larsson","tag-william-styron"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2094\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\"},\"wordCount\":72,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Goodreads\",\"Stieg Larsson\",\"William Styron\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Look\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\",\"name\":\"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":2094},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein","description":"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein","og_description":"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":2094,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books","datePublished":"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/"},"wordCount":72,"commentCount":8,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg","keywords":["Goodreads","Stieg Larsson","William Styron"],"articleSection":["Look"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/","name":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-12T15:04:14+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-12T15:07:51+00:00","description":"July 12, 2013 \u2013 This infographic on \u201cthe psychology of abandonment\u201d\u2014that is, why we don’t finish certain books\u2014makes for fun reading. But even more interesting is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/abandonmentinfographic.jpg","width":600,"height":2094},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/12\/spoiler-alert-why-we-abandon-books\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spoiler Alert: Why We Abandon Books"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56020"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56034,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56020\/revisions\/56034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}