Not what I was hoping for

Autohrs of one of my favorite novel series recently made the ARC of their next book available, and (weeks later) I have finally found a quiet moment to dive in. And. hmmmmm. I can't tell if I'm just not in the mood right now, or if this really is one of the most boring first chapters I've even slogged through. I could swear there were paragraphs just dropped in randomly as well. Chapter two seemed only slight improvement.

Now I'm contemplating my options. Do I just keep reading, hoping it will become the delicious experience I was expecting? Do I start again, and take notes about which parts were confusing or unnecessarily droning? (That sounds like work, and not even work I'm very good at.)

or perhaps I will finally put some time into some of my other pending projects, and let entertainment book reading wait for another day.