Closed a book early yesterday.

Yup! I've talked about it before, but I had to do it again. I didn't care about the characters. Kinda wanted to know what happened, but the remaining 250 pages were not worth my time.

This go round, I think the problem was the point of view (POV). The main characters were all men and the few women appeared to be very stereotyped. The wimpy mom. The obnoxiously dressed career secretary who files her nails and stares out the window. The hot babe sunning herself on the back porch. Gag me with a spoon. Yes, I just wrote that. If the main character is always tramping through the woods carrying a gun, peeing behind trees and ogling a girl from afar, I cannot relate to these non-universal experiences. I'm pretty sure this is the reason men don't read chick-lit. Too much girl stuff. So this book is what they must refer to as "lad-lit." I've heard of the phenomena but never read any. Now I know why. But for all the guys out there, I'm glad the book exists. It actually won a fairly prestigious award for the excellent writing. I'm guessing the judges were men.

As I'm working on my next novel, this makes me look at my male characters more carefully. Are they cardboard cutouts? Are they placeholders/props? I want all my characters to be real; three-dimensional. How do I avoid the cliche? I'm working on finding some kind of universal experience in each character that every reader will relate to. Something to think on.

What makes you quit reading a book? (Please don't name names).