• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Books you didn't finish

There was one book that I started twice but never continued reading it and it was part of a trilogy. The trilogy is the Dark Materials. I finally decided that I would finish it and when I read the trilogy I was so mad at myself for never finishing it the first time I started lol. :p
 
I made it about halfway through Atlas Shrugged but couldn’t maintain interest in it. I usually have more than one book out of the library, and sometimes I put one down and just don’t get back to it before it’s due (or overdue). I slogged almost halfway through War and Peace before I found that there were about seventy pages missing from the copy I took out of the library – they weren’t torn out or anything like that; it must have been some kind of mistake by the printer. Under other circumstances, I might have found it very annoying, but it was a convenient excuse to give up. If I ever move back to Vermont and find myself snowed in again, I may give it another go.

I have The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann out now, and I just haven’t been able to get started with it for some reason
 
I gave up on quite a lot last year

because I decided to no longer bother with those I didn't really like. I never finished "Envy" by Sandra Brown, " My name is red" by Orhan Pamuk, " American gods" by Neil Gaiman , among others.
 
Lady_Dread_Head said:
I used to have a long drive to work, anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours. Unfortunately, I never thought to try audio books then. You make it sound engrossing. And, like you, I sometimes gloss over some things when I'm reading, especially when the writer doesn't get to the point quickly enough. I guess I'll have try it then.
Click to expand...

I quite recommend them. With the advances in digital audio, they are especially convenient. The worse part was having to change the disc or flip the cassette, but now, I load them onto my mp3 and they play continuously start to finish.
 
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson because i got bored pretty soon after i started it. But i plan on trying again if i ever have time for it.
 
Codex by Lev Grossman and The Rule Of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. In principle they both sounded fantastic, but by the time I'd struggled halfway through each I relented and read the last chapter just to know what happened and get it over and done with. I really hate not finishing books, but I hate even more wasting precious reading time, and that's what these books felt like! I wouldn't recommend either to anyone!
 
You didn't miss much by not finishing The Rule of Four. I made it the whole way through and was extremely disappointed by the ending, mainly because nothing happened. It was as if the authors were showing off their knowledge of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and ran out of ideas as to how to finish. I feel lthey used the fire as a sort of Deux ex machina.

Books that I haven't finished include The Gobbler, by Adrian Edmonson, The Notre Dame de Paris (Victor Hugo), Books do Furnish a Room (Anthony Powell) and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig). Reasons, in order, were: irritating characters, far too wordy, to much assumption of knowledge of characters, and too philosophical.
 
letterHead said:
You didn't miss much by not finishing The Rule of Four. I made it the whole way through and was extremely disappointed by the ending, mainly because nothing happened. It was as if the authors were showing off their knowledge of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and ran out of ideas as to how to finish. I feel lthey used the fire as a sort of Deux ex machina.
Click to expand...

To me, it appeared that they were just stuck on how great Columbia was and how great they were for having gone there.:rolleyes: That, and the fact that their book was boring. It made a dense non-fiction book look spine-tinglingly fresh, at least it did in my case as it quickly lost out to a good history book.
 
Books I Didn't Finish

I rarely don't finish a book...I need the closure of finishing. However, one that stands out is The Monster of the Madidi by Simon Chapman. It's a non-fiction about his search for a giant ape. Sounded interesting and I enjoy cryptozoology, so I picked it up. I'm so glad I got it for only $4 at the book fair...the author's constant whining about sent me over the edge. I finally cast the book aside and have never finished it.
 
tullulah, I can understand why you stopped reading the rule of four: while the plot and characters are necesary for the story, they take away from the 'intellectual part of the book'.

hmm..i'm reading notre dame de paris in french now. Trying to struggle through it. It's dull at times and interesting at others.

the only book I didn't finish: stranger in a strange land.
 
I had to try several times over the years to actually finish Stranger in a Strangeland. It was worth it when I finally got there, but I don't think I would read it again.
The most recent book I didn't finish was Ender's Game, I think. I started it twice, but lost interest both times.
 
SFG75 said:
they were just stuck on how great Columbia was and how great they were for having gone there
Click to expand...

Indeed, and that just made for stomach churningly irritating lead characters. I'd hate to meet the authors in real life, I fear I'd react badly to them.
 
theoptimist said:
Recently, I gave up on The Sea by John Banville 60 pages in as it bored me senseless, how it won The Booker Prize I do not know! Maybe I should have stuck with it as it probably gets better towards the end, I'll pick it up again one day (if I have nothing better to do).
Click to expand...

Me too. I've tried it twice now. I keep thinking if it won the Booker there must be something I'm missing, but somehow it just failed to keep me interested beyond the first 20 pages or so. I don't think I'll bother with it again though. Life's too short and there are too many other books that will keep me interested:).

East of the Mountains by David Guterson is another one I've tried to read twice and I can't understand why I don't like it. It's beautifully written but just didn't have that something to make me want to go on with it.
 
The first book I remembered that I did not continue is This Side of Married by Rachel Pastan. I quote from the front cover: "Jane Austen’s honey-and-vinegar spirit is alive and well in Rachel Pastan’s delightful novel." I do not understand why it was compared with Jane Austen. I love Jane Austen but this book really bored me. I didn't know why I still continued reading till chapter 10 (if not wrong) when I should have abandoned it much earlier.

Another book would be Life of Pi. I couldn't get past the part when their boat sank. Maybe it would get better after that? I don't know. Should I continue with it?
 
I know that its supposed to be wonderful, but I gave up on one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books after about fifty pages. Dont even remember which one to be honest, possibly Love in the time of Cholera, all I can remember is that it has something to do with chess. Anyway, I didnt get into the writing style at all.

Phil
 
Emma by Jane Austen. With much effort I got through the first chapter, then could bear it no longer. I don't even want to see the movie now.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. I just couldn't get into it..my mind kept wandering. After I'd read the first chapter twice and still didin't remember a word of it, I thought it best to put it away for another day....maybe. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top