You know how there are those people who are dedicated and committed to finishing things they start? Who go the distance? Who read a book all the way to its sometimes bitter end, regardless if they actually enjoy the process of it or not?
Yeah, I’m not one of those people. #sorrynotsorry
The thing is, I have so many other things to do and so many other books to read for me to justify continuing to read books I’m not thoroughly enjoying.
So here’s the skinny on five books I added to my DNF shelf, mostly ones that you might call me crazy for, and at least one I might call you crazy if you actually got through! 🙂
1.
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
I think I managed to get about 3 chapters in before giving up on this. I know, I know… this has a huge following of die-hard fanship, but I just couldn’t. I had no idea who anyone was, what was going on, why I should care about any of it. There’s a small possibility I might try to go back and read this again someday … but it won’t be today.
2.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
I just want to say that this was not a terrible book. The writing was good, the story was fine. Maybe this was one of those “This wasn’t what I was in the mood for at the time” kind of things, but when I put it down, I just didn’t have a burning need to pick it back up. So I didn’t.
3.
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
I really had high hopes for this book, having read several other Hello Sunshine Book Club picks and loved them. I expected this book to be outstanding. I really wanted to love this book. Instead, I found the characters to be flat and lack personality, and the story line to lack direction or any sense of goal or motivation or even conflict. I DNF’ed at 60%, and turned out everyone in my local book club felt the same: Dud. Very disappointing.
4.
Snow and the 7 Hunks by R.R. Banks
This was my first and last attempt at reading anything with R.R. Banks on it. This guy dominates the Amazon top 100 charts in Romance and a dozen other categories the books don’t actually fit it. I bought the book because of the fairy tale retelling aspect of it, but I quickly and thoroughly learned my lesson. Sentences, paragraphs, pages were so stuffed with unnecessary filler words to the point of making the sentences not even make sense anymore – mostly “of” and “that” added in when they weren’t needed. It was so distracting that I couldn’t even tell you what the story was about at this point. I DNFed at about 5 chapters in, and I’m surprised I made it that far. It was clear that Mr. Banks was more concerned with how long the book was than how good the story was. No more for me. #thankyounext
5.
The idea of this book sounded really intriguing to me, having grown up hearing about and being oddly intrigued by all things Charles Manson. (More from a psychological/sociological standpoint in the study of serial killers, not in a glorified kind of way.) And then there was the fact that this book was super hyped at the time I picked it up, so I had high hopes on this one as well. However, when I started reading, I found the writing to be pretty dry, and I just couldn’t get into it. This is another one I wouldn’t be opposed to giving another try at some point, in the hopes that my tastes have grown up a bit and changed. Who knows what the future may hold!
What is a book you’ve started but Did Not Finish that everyone else seemed to go crazy over? Let me know in the comments below!
