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.

Me too. I'd read and loved two of his previous books, and was really looking forward to this one, but it just wasn't engaging me at all.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. I bought it months ago and my bookmark is currently on page 11. I felt like I was reading it out of a sense of duty as it is supposed to be a classic, what with the film and all, but my enthusiasm for it petered out rather fast.

The other one is Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. I read chapter one, and then went on a week's holiday. It was a bit on the large side to pack and take with us, so I left it at home. That was in June, and I haven't had any inclination to pick it up again yet. Enthusiasm level zero.

I agree. I've read Esme Lennox and Hamnet by O'Farrell. Both absolutely terrible and more like homework tasks for an amateur writing group - predictable, clunky, 'thin' feeling. I can't understand the high praise on here at all.

Oh no, @IceIceBabyBump ! What I shame.
I loved Hamnett because I felt it was very evocative of the place - the smell of the meadow, the sounds of the house. I felt I was immersed in the world. I didn't expect to enjoy it t as much as I did.

That's so interesting to read, because one of my critiques of "Hamnet" is that it wasn't evocative at all. I thought the descriptions were a little thin and pedestrian.

I didn't feel like I was in the middle of a bustling C16 town - I think "The Glutton", for example, evokes a sense of time and place much more convincingly and immersively.

I found it very textural, so I wasn't at all surprised that she'd visited the house. The feel of the floorboards underfoot, the quality of light coming into the bedroom being different from that if the workshop, Agnes in the woods with her kestrel... I found Hamnet a very sensory novel.

I agree it wasn't all that bustling - it was quite rural really. But Agnes herself was quite wild, with her herbalism and her forays into the woods. She was the wild world to her husband's urban world.

I finally ploughed through to the end of James by Percival Everett. What a one trick pony that was.

I also dnf’d Atonement but gave it another go a few years later and absolutely loved it, became one of my all time favourites. It has a slow start but imo is worth persevering.

my last dnfs were Tom Lake and H is for Hawk. Both really popular but Tom Lake was boring, I got halfway through and nothing had happened, the characters didn’t interest me at all. Although I did like the style of writing so eager to try the author again. H is for Hawk talked too much about TH Whyte training a hawk and was also very boring for me.

I get you completely. I think my issue was that I wasn't really convinced by the textural and sensory descriptions of things. They felt a bit surface-level and 'obvious' rather than giving me a full sense of being there. I'm not explaining myself well at all 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Also, Agnes annoyed the ever living shit out of me - I found the character to be a very one dimensional representation of a kind of 'maverick' or 'rebel' woman from that time. Again, I just found it very pedestrian - like an amateur creative writing homework task.

I really liked Tom Lake but found myself getting frustrated by the family's behaviour with the daughter eg creeping around her so they don't 'set her off'. FFS you're all adults grow a backbone!

Tom Lake was a DNF for me which I was disappointed by. I generally love Ann Patchett: The Dutch House, Commonwealth… but Tom Lake was just so boring.

Previous DNFs were The Gathering by Anne Enright (depressing) and The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (boring snd twee).

Actually, my most recent DNF was Antarctica by Claire Keegan. It’s a collection of short stories. I read about half of them and decided they were too dark and miserable and I didn’t need them in my life.

This must be a marmite one. I loved it.

I’ve finally given up on The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis after whinging repeatedly about it on another thread.

The descriptions are tedious and it’s about 400 pages too long.

I have read some truly awful books to the end because they won a prize. I recall one but have forgotten the author and title about a man (possibly alcoholic) that went blind. Awful stream of consciousness. Painful but I stuck with it.

Just found it was called ‘how late it was, how late’ by James Kelman. See if you can get through that Booker prize winner!

I liked Hamnet and think its one of her best books. But I do agree about Agnes as the maverick feisty rebel. She does tend to recreate the same heroine over and over imo.

Glad it wasn’t just me who didn’t finish Yellowface! It was a birthday present from my teen DS who had very carefully chosen it for me so I felt really bad about hating it.

My most recent DSF is a Booker from a few years ago: Last Orders by Graham Swift. I got about half way through, found that there is a movie with a great cast, watched that and gave up on the book. For me the characters all seemed to speak/think and I couldn’t tell them apart without looking at the chapter headings.