Books you’ve given up on this recently, and why

[Phase2]

Thought it might be good to share, also maybe some encouragement to pick them up again!

Just ditched Bewilderment by Richard Powers. It was so dull and nothing happened. Got half way though, read the end and it’s in the charity pile.

starting the hare with amber eyes next.

Another one here who gave up on Thursday Murder Club, thought it was badly written and a very boring story.

Also gave up on a book called The Sleepwalkers, can’t remember the author but it skipped around from different viewpoints so much I’m afraid I lost the will to live.

I bought the Detective Sophie Allen kindle box set on Amazon when it was a bargain price and I usually enjoy crime/thriller/police procedural type stories.

I returned it after slogging through 2.5 books as the author had shoehorned in a trans identified male who spoilt every single fucking scene he showed up in. Hectoring, patronising, portrayed as a constant woe-is-me victim. Always womaning better than the actual female charaters.

I feared serious eye strain from the constant rolling and the patronising authors note about the character and signposting to the Fawcett Society was the last straw. I am a book finisher by nature but I just couldn't take any more

A Barbara Taylor one where they just kept banging on and on about how wonderful the main character was, it was really weird.

Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy. Each chapter was about a different person or family, but they were all exactly the same. Cringey and low effort writing.

Have you done Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series?

Gave up on something called The Nix, The Count Of Monte Cristo and SAS Rogue Heroes all for being boring.

wish I’d DNFd All Fours by Miranda July, absolutely shit.

No, I'll check it out!

There's something weird about the Thursday murder club. I just can't shake the image as I read of Richard Osman sitting in the corner of an old people's home as a voyeur rubbing his thighs like vic reeves.

I can't bear Terry Pratchett. I have read one book of his, and it was one too many.

@Oldmothershrubboard oh it’s a must the sexual tension thing isn’t immediate it’s a slow burn but so good as it develops

Very controversial I know, but I almost didn't finish Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Just not my cup of tea at all (despite the 100,000s positive reviews....).

One I have inhaled this week is Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell. I read it in 24h flat and it will stay with me for a long long time.

The List of Suspious Things by Jennie Godfey is a recent one I've put back on the shelf. I hate not finishing a book and can't figure out why I couldn't keep reading it.
Think it was a mix of the writing feeling autobiographical, felt I was hearing the author and not the characters. Or that I just wasn't in the mood for it. Will retry another time.

I wish I'd given up on The Alchemist but because it's so short, I persevered. I wish I hadn't bothered.

I also gave up on Let Me Not Be Mad as I got fed up with the characters love for himself, and quite boring telling of what should be interesting subjects.
what makes a good book? For me it is believable plot and great writing (even if set somewhere like space, I have to believe in the happenings and actions).

If a book hasn’t grabbed me within a chapter or two, it gets tossed - life’s too short, there’s so many books out there that will grab me, I pick something else up.

That said, currently on hold are The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex, and The Count Of Monte Cristo by Dumas. I was listening to the audiobook of The Count alongside the thread on here: I was enjoying it, but I got out sync with everyone else when work went mental and couldn’t catch up. I was a bit concerned there might be too many characters for me to keep track of before I started, and I started to struggle with that aspect of it. I will go back to it after a break.

I was very much enjoying The Sunshine Man, and definitely want to finish that. My focus is shot right now unfortunately, and while I’m rarely triggered by things in fiction, there was something that made me put it down. Stonex is an excellent writer IMO, so I’ll get back to that as soon as I can.

I've given up on plenty of audiobooks recently. I tend to listen to trashy thriller bestseller type things. But if the narration is annoying then 💥

Posted too soon!

I've given up on books I've started reading, rather than listening to, recently have been Precipice based on the true story of the affair of Prime Minister Asquith and his daughter's friend Ventia Stanley. I found the made up policeman character & his part of the plot unbelievable. And I'd rather read a non fiction book on this.

Also Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thompson. This was a book about 2 lesbians in early 20th century France who were players in the dada movement and who went to jail for resisting the Nazis in occupied Jersey in WWII. I stopped reading before I realised that this was (also) a fictionalised book about real people. I would be much more interested in seeing their work and to read an account of their lives rather than a novelisation. I felt the author didn't write authentically as first person woman. The love interest of the narrator was repeatedly breaking the heart of the narrator. But the narrator came across as stultifyingly jealous. Nothing much happened for the first 100 pages; no hint of the story to come.

I think his USP is making people feel good about how pedestrian their lives are. He aggrandises liking to try out new Costas, experimenting with gluten-free baking and watching recorded episodes of Bergerac by giving them the same attention as solving murders or being abducted at gunpoint or framing an unpleasant mugger by planting cocaine in his toilet cistern.

@tobee

I'm a big Rupert Thomson fan but I did think Never Anyone But You was not one of his best.

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. Staggered my way through the first 100 or so pages and hated it so had to give up.

interesting that a PP mentioned Tom Lake, I did finish it but felt unsatisfied with it. After all the glowing reviews it was all a bit meh.

Yellow Face. Just didn’t care about the ridiculous storyline.

Long Island Compromise. I got about a third of the way through and although I thought it was well written, it was too long winded.

I thought All Fours started strong, but I will admit I skimmed towards the end.

Agree with Terry P. I can’t manage them.

The second Jackson Brodie book.
I didn't like his girlfriend, she annoyed me and I honestly didn't understand the dynamic of their relationship. I just didn't get on well with everything else enough to plough through. I don't know why. I got to 100 pages and realised I'd struggled with the first book too. So that's it for that series for me.

Wuthering Heights, this was a re-read. I thought I might like it better with my extra years of wisdom but alas, I did not.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, it just got a bit too weird for me 😂

I’ve just chucked The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase on the charity pile after a few chapters - too many adjectives and hyped up plot hooks!

I was going to ask how many chapters do you give a book before you call it a day? Personally I try to get to at least 100 pages and if I am still not enjoying it that’s it. Sometimes it’s clear on the 1sr or 2nd page. I buy all my books so spend a fortune as I do not like kindles and my library has really tatty books.

The Falconer too much introspection and nothing happens. Might return to it but not now.

Halfway through intermezzo and not getting the hype.

@Ellinor that’s a good question. Sometimes I think I persist too long.
if I’m buying in a shop I open randomly and check the prose to decide if I can get on with it. I’m thinking of being more ruthless though. Maybe 100 pages and continue or don’t.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Read a couple of pages and just thought Nope. It's rare I give up on books.