Which books have you decided not to finish and why?

[Fiddlesticks1]

Are there any books you decided not to continue reading and why?
For me two books.
The Plague Dogs- just found it too upsetting
and in the days of devouring books by Russian authors I gave up on Dostoyevsky because I found them depressing.

The Hurricane Wars series - stopped halfway through book 2. Brilliant plot with interesting world building. But once the main characters had sex - which was described in detail - it just seemed to abandon the plot for sex scene after sex scene.

Silver Elite - same as above. It became porn and the plot stalled.

Both well written though and interesting and easy to read. Such a shame.

I’m getting really annoyed because the entire fantasy series seems to have changed into Mills and Boon with Magic and none have any age warnings on the outside. What happened to classic fantasy where you could say they’d had sex without describing any thrusting?

We did this at university and I remember thinking it was just gratuitous horror. Awful book. Well written but absolutely not my thing.

I couldn't get in to the Time Traveller's Wife either. I gave up on Cloud Atlas after persevering when a new character with a new voice was introduced about half way through. Painful.

Oh, I liked A Gentleman in Moscow. I did have to sort of 'slow down' to get into it, and let it unfold at its own pace. Found it rewarding in the end, though.

Oh yes! I did finish the goldfinch but only because a friend of mine told me how she’d loved it so I kept thinking it would get better and then I was so far through I thought I might as well finish it. It was a slog though.

The Secret History sounds like the kind of book I might like but I’ve never tried it because I’m put off by the goldfinch.

Memoirs of a a Geisha. I'd just been to Japan and was looking forward to reading a modern classic but found the first 3 chapters so unbearably depressing I couldn't face the rest

Elinor Oliphant. Painfully obvious plot from the get-go, badly written and unlikeable character.

'Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
A more depressing book would be difficult to imagine'

I slogged through that one. It was pretty brutal, but v interesting and well written so I stuck with it. But yes, grim

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I didn't read much of it. I hated the writing style, I didn't understand the story, I didn't understand who the characters are...just a big NOPE from me.

I'm currently reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Not loving it so far - not sure I'll be able to continue with it. I hate the writing style, and I hate the main character, Natalie.

I somehow, and miraculously, managed to read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, but it was far from being my favourite book. I liked the letter-format of writing, but I didn't like the main character, Sybil, at ALL - and I hated that so many of her letters were her reminiscing her past. I generally don't enjoyreading about people's past and memories - neither in books or in TV series and films.

Some years ago I tried to read Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols. It's not a Fiction book, but I'm interested in water science so thought it would be an interesting book to read. It had some facinating points, but he waffles too much, and repeats points, which made me not finish the book.

I'm reading The Correspondent at the moment. I'm enjoying it somewhat but finding I'm having to stop and think as to who each person is. Now, a book with a similar format was The Appeal by Janice Hallet, and that absolutely grabbed me. Like they say on all the front covers, I really couldn't put it down! 😆

Oh dear a few of these are on my tbr pile, and I almost bought The Milkman yestetday but decided i need to read what i own..

I ploughed through two of those in sheer obstinacy, but I hated them. I also persevered through The Goldfinch and wished I hadn't, so have given up on Tartt entirely.

I couldn't be doing with Sally Rooney either, and gave up on the two of hers I've been loaned. I also have given myself permission to never have to finish Les Miserables - started it 4 times, gave up each time.

I realised at about 50 that I'm not going to have enough life left to read everything I want to. Not unless I quit doing everything else, at least. So why blow valuable reading time on something I don't like?

I've been trying to read Middlemarch too, I know what you mean about the sentences being dense. I think I might just watch the BBC adaptation instead!😂

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington.
I kind of skim read it to sort of see what happened. The genre is 'fantastic' fiction, imo one batshit thing after another.

It was bought for me as a joke. There is due to be a film out about the author.

This worked for me with Jane Austen. I couldn't get my head around all the Miss Bennets and all that, just could not keep the characters straight in my head. So I watched a TV adaptation of Emma, read the book, and then that seemed to get my eye in and now Northanger Abbey is one of my favourite books ever.

Just looked it up. Bloody hell he looks young!

So many of my favourite books being mentioned here - some in my all time top 10! I must go through the other books mentioned and start reading them 😂

My DNFs are War and Peace and Catch 22. Fully intend to give them another go when I have a decent chunk of time to, in theory, get properly immersed in them.

Middlemarch is my favourite book! 😂

The Women by Kristin Hannah - so awful that I gave up about a quarter of the way through in protest. Almost as bad as The Crawdads.

Eat Pray Love, what a self absorbed smug entitled woman the author is. I had to put it down after a few chapters for my own sanity

The Secret History and Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Far too much waffling

Normal People - Sally Rooney I just didn't care what happened

My Wild And Sleepless Nihhts by Clover Stroud. I could go on but it’s low hanging fruit.

Catch 22 was the first book I ever gave up on I think. Read it as a teenager when I was just making my way through my parents books that we had on the bookshelves in our living room and I’ve often thought maybe I should go back to it, because maybe I would appreciate it more with an older brain, but as it seems I’m not the only person to abandon it, maybe I won’t bother! I don’t remember much about it other than the whole catch 22 thing being relentlessly hammered home. I felt like by the third mention I had probably got the point. And I’m not sure if there was a single female character in the book, or at least not one with her own voice, and I felt like I couldn’t relate to it at all because of that. Although I’m sure I’ve read many many books written entirely from a man’s pov since and never had the same feeling quite so strongly

Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. I think it was on a must read modern classics type list but I found it really boring and far too long. I can't believe people plough through several volumes of it.

Eat Pray Love, what a self absorbed smug entitled woman the author is. I had to put it down after a few chapters for my own sanity

Good move. I battled on to the end and she gets worse.

Also Wolf Hall. I can appreciate Hilary Mantell's literary brilliance but maybe just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it.