What were your last few DNFs? And why?

[IceIceBabyBump]

> The Witches of Vardo by Anna Bergman. I got to a point in the book where the characters were just walking between building every day. I could also feel heroics brewing which I hate in books.

> Atonement by Ian McEwan. I got 60-pages in and nothing had happened yet. Dense description of bugger all. Boring.

I hated Hamnet too. Drivel is a very good description.

I just don't get the love for it on here.

I've recently given up on "Jude the Obscure" by Hardy. Just boring.

Little Fires Everywhere was sooooooo dull.

I don’t blame you. Hardy is really depressing.

I gave up on Evelina by Fanny Burney. It could have done with a good editor.

Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. The whole time I was reading it I felt I was missing something. I could sense that it was meant to be comic, and that I was meant to be finding certain passages humorous or absurd. The problem, of course, is that you lose so much in translation. I'm not a fan of translations tbh. So much is lost. It's sad, because it cuts you off from much of the world, but it's just a fact. Think of English-language books. How could you translate a line from P. G. Wodehouse like "what ho my old crocus," or a line from Dickens like "what larks Pip" into, say, Russian or German? You can't. You lose the essence or feel of the words.

I'm told that Mann does great dialogue, and that the novel is full of interesting debates on philosophy and politics and so on. But there are plenty of English-language writers who play with ideas and write clever and interesting dialogue (Oscar Wilde, Aldous Huxley, Iris Murdoch). I don't need Mann.

Yes! I got to chapter 4 and thought ‘I don’t like anyone in this book’ and I felt like I was being lectured. I returned it to the library with much relief.

DNF The Safekeep. Predictable and slow. Loved The Gods of the Woods by Liz Moore.

I gave up on butter too! So slow.

Oh no, I'm reading this now and enjoying it!

My most recent DNF was The Salt Path - before the Observer investigation was published.

I was stumped by the huge hype around it - poorly written and even in her own book Raynor Winn comes across as unlikeable and an unreliable narrator.

You've reminded me that Shantaram is sitting unfinished on my Kindle.

I just don't understand how books like this (and The Salt Path ) garner such glowing reviews and recommendations.

Ugh, Shantaram, like being cornered by some hideous hippyish bore insisting on telling you the story of his life, yawn...

My most shameful DNF is Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety. I've read all her other books many times over and love her writing, but just get overwhelmed with all the characters and complicated events. I suppose it was the French Revolution after all!

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. Waterstones were pushing it last month and our book club picked it. Boring, boring, boring. I am just not that interested in hares.

Quite a few recently!

The Safekeep (agree, dull)
The Lamb (cannibalism not for me)
The Modern Fairies (too many characters)
The Mourning Necklace (did not like the writing style)

Also The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, who I usually love, but I couldn’t get into this one.

Ah yes I DNF that either - but relished Buddenbrooks

Latest DNF- Shuggie Bain. Dreadful
DH liked it though

I loved Shuggie Bain

I also loved "Shuggie Bain"

Why did you think it was dreadful @FranticFrankie ? No shade at all, just curious.

I've just temporarily DNFed "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel. It has fantastic reviews on here but I found it incredibly slow and boring 😬🫥 I plan to retry it once I'm retired!

Penance by Eliza Clarke. Felt like a good effort from a goth in set four.

The Children's Book by AS Byatt which I picked up in a charity shop. The first few chapters seemed promising but after that it was just so many characters and felt as if the author was trying to demonstrate how knowledgeable she was with constant lecturing about Victorian politics, art, literature etc etc.
I am a history lover but it was like wading through treacle. Yes I get it, you're well read you big show off but this isnt a dissertation, it's a novel. Where is the sodding story?

Yellowface. Thought it was truly awful and really couldn't bear to waste any more time getting to the end.

I agree.

I like Babel though!

James by Percival Everett. I thought it would be a clever inversion but it's so gimmicky that I can't get on with it. More like a writing exercise than a novel.

I'm listening to an audiobook of Butter and this thread has me a little worried.

Strangely, there's a Pratchett I have tried 3 times to read and just don't get on with - Raising Steam. Obviously I'm a big fan, particularly of Moist and Vetinari, but this one falls flat for me.

Ah yes, still life. Which brought back memories of normal people, which is the same style. My brain cannot process a book with punctuation like that.

Had never read any Maggie O'Farrell. I recently started The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and seriously, I could not believe the author is so lauded. I found it curiously empty and clunky right from the off, so I gave up. Might give it another go if I can find the right frame of mind.

I found the opposite- thought Yellowface was way better than Babel.

Tbf I'm not usually into fantasy.