Which books have you decided not to finish and why?

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The House of The Seven Gables. Too much like Dickens, whom I irrationally dislike.

I do agree mamaduckbone, I absolutely loved Demon Copperhead and The Poisonwood Bible, but I just couldn't get into The Lacuna either.

Milkman - I couldn’t cope with the lack of punctuation
Life of Pi - just couldn’t get into it
The Lacuna - I really want to love this and I generally do love Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead is one of my all time favourite books) so I think I just tried to read it at the wrong time. I’ll go back to it one day.

Nearly every booker prize winner😅 I like light escapism, give me a Hannah Ellis or T A Williams over the latest ‘everyone must read this’ book!!

The latest one I couldn't finish was Sarah Pascoe's Weirdo. When I was 20 I would probably have loved it, but 55 year old me just didn't dig it at all. Very disappointing.

Another one who couldn't finish 'When the Moon Hatched' it just seemed too lacklustre. Only read the first few chapters of 'The Hurricane Wars' too. Just seemed a bit rambling. Currently feeling very dispirited about 'The Knight & the Month's. It started okay but then just turned into every other Romantasy book ever written, ever. I only have around 50 pages left but just can't justify putting myself through finishing it.

Still they look pretty on my shelf as I only buy hardbacks.

That’s a pity about the Colum McCann; it’s a great novel.
I feel similarly about (tv not books, apologies) State of Happiness and For All Mankind. I’m a bit claustrophobic and have to watch some of them both through my fingers!

I do listen to audiobooks and podcasts.

Dark Night of the Soul (St John of the Cross).
Extraordinary difficult. Certainly one of the most challenging books ever written. I thought i would try it for myself.
It was so dark and so depressing I wondered if it was healthy to continue.
Though we all have dark night of the soul it put me in the place I did not want to be.

Thanks Brandied, I should definitely try and get hold of After Dark. Always seem to have other books on the go and I definitely can't take on anything too long right now. Cheers. :)

Thank you! That makes me feel better for not finishing 1Q84. I always think that Murakami demands a lot of time & attention for his books- and rightly so theyare overall great. But they are definitely designed for the time rich....

Maybe you’d enjoy audiobooks instead? You can listen in the car, or while you’re doing something at home, or sitting down, in bed… etc.

I struggle with any reading these days and getting to the end of a book.

I've read a lot of Murakami books, Wind Up, Norwegian, Kafka, Dance, half of 1Q84 (there are two simultaneous stories and I just followed the woman's). The one I really like is After Dark - which is probably the shortest one I've read.

Let the Great World Spin Colum McGann
With regret - from what I did read, it's great - but I kept having to skip the highwire bits, which are integral, and in the end my vertigo just got the better of me.

The Bee Sting Paul Murray
I shouldn't have started this. I got to the end of the first chunk and realised I just wasn't interested in reading to the end of what seemed like a shaggy dog story.

Thanks Ruby..I'll look at reviews for Kafka and the Bird Chronicles..I know I don't have the stamina for 1Q84. not even 1Q83. ( I'll show myself out ). Cheers Ruby 😁

I have read most of the book and enjoyed it. I just didn't like where it went towards the end. Its also a long winded story- you need a lot of time to read it. (Between FT work, DC & dogs it's just a bit too much) I would recommend reading it if you are familiar with Murakami and his writing and don't mind it to be too much fantasy fantastic.

I really enjoyed The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.

Hi, have you read much of his books? .can you recommend one that is not too long please? I've already read the one with the librarian who reads bones. can't remember if that's the one with the calculator man and 2 stories that run simultaneously. Also the dreary one with the couple and the girl lives in some sort of home for people with mental issues - is that Norwegian wood ? Keen to try another but it can't be very thick . Thanks in advance for any comments at all.

Can't remember if I got as far as the sister turning up... That's how much of an impression it made on me
She is generally an author I feel I should like/would like to like, as I find some of her settings and set-ups interesting. I just find the novels themselves underwhelming.

I did finish Coastliners in the end. The narrative became less ponderous when the protagonist's sister appeared on the scene, although I still wouldn't have minded if the island and all its inhabitants had sunk under the sea.

Not at all wrong, especially if they're so bad you don't want to inflict them on anyone else.

I am about to give up on 'skagboys' I think. About a quarter of a way through and the Scottish dialect in it is fascinating, but a bit too much like hard work!

I opened this the other night, read about 10 pages, closed it and will return to the library. Appallingly written rubbish. I was looking for a bit of fluff but no, that’s brain rot.

They’re currently showing Middlemarch on BBC4. I’m enjoying it.

I don't think I would have got through Daniel Deronda or Middlemarch if I had actually been reading them but I listened to the audio books instead which were much more enjoyable.