I will put down a book if it bores me. Also, I have put down some books because I didn't like the MC. I like well-written antiheroes, but a character has to be either sympathetic or interesting or both for me to read about them. If they just annoy me to no end, I'll usually quit reading.
That's... an unusual reaction. But I think I understand what you are saying. True to reality depiction is one thing (because in real life there are people who can be a punching bag all their lives and still do nothing about it). But fiction is not real life, and like everything else about fiction writing, over doing can be over-kill. A char suffers, we sympathize with the char, and then we want some change. May be an attempt to end his sufferings, even though his attempt is a silly one and he is sure to fail and suffer more. Don't go on and on about the same suffering for endless chapters when a scene is more than enough to get the readers' sympathies. So, yeah, it could bore me even though the writing style etc may be good. Thick book scares me too, because I am a very slow reader. Shorter good books leave the feeling 'I wish the book was longer' and that is a good thing for the writer, I guess. On the other hand, longer good books gives the 'complete' feeling. So, I have to say length doesn't matter much to me if the book is good. Boring books are another matter entirely
I have a list of modern classics I've been working my way through. Most recently I tried to read Catch 22, by Heller and I found it very frustrating to read, the story kept folding back onto itself and the style was difficult to follow. I pushed through to half way, reassuring myself that there must be something amazing about it for it to be so famous. I realised that the things I didn't like were the things that made it a classic, and I also knew I would never use that style and I wasn't going to learn anything from it, so I put it aside. Usually if I put a book aside it's because I don't like the style or the pace is too slow. The Memory Keeper's Daughter and Atonement are others that come to mind, though both of those I picked up later and finished.
I think I can kind of guess what you mean by this but I'm not sure. What's an example? I put down Pillars of the Earth because it was just too damn long. I was probably only a few pages from the end but there was so much repetitive back-and-forth between the protagonists and antagonist that it was seriously killing me. Every time the tides changed again I would just close the book for a second and sigh. Also, there is an absurd amount of detailed description of architecture that was completely lost on me. Couldn't get far in Naked Lunch. I wanted to like it but it bordered in indecipherable for me.
If I pick up a book, chances are that I'm going to read the whole thing. I only pick up stories I want to read. But there are times that I don't. If a book starts with a prologue that describes geopolitical boundaries or history, especially in a didactic manner, that thing's going back on the shelf. The only other turn off is when the characters in the book don't treat the main character like how I would treat him/her in their position. This is probably why I like the Eragon series. No matter how cliched the plot becomes, people always call out Eragon on his stupidity. The main character thinks he's really cool, and its obvious the author thinks the main character is really cool, but none of the other characters think he's really all that smoking. I can get that.
