The DNF (Did Not Finish) Thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I *want* to finish "Lincoln Highway" but just can't get into it at all. Help?

Came here to post Lincoln Highway. I loved his other two books but just could not get into this one.

I really pushed myself through this at the beginning because it was my book club book. About half way through I started to love it and am glad I finished it. If it wasn’t for my book club though, I’m sure I would have given up.

[Anonymous]

Too many books are overwritten…I also have a pile of unfinished books…like others mentioned: Gentleman in Moscow, Lincoln in Bardo, Sympathizer…

These are bestsellers, but I wonder what percent of buyers finished until the end?

I find memoirs more engrossing. They’re urgent, pull at my heart string, and I learn about someone I knew little about.

[Anonymous]

The complete works of Isaac Babel

The museum of abandoned secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko

I want to support Ukrainian authors (dead and living) but find the stories hard to relate to …

[Anonymous]

A S Byatt, The Children's Book. I was disappointed in myself for hating it and not finishing, but then again, it was unbelievably pretentious. I'm a lefty, but her enlightened boho academics were insufferable, smug twits.

[Anonymous]

Re: The Sympathizer

I finished it, just barely. A good friend recommended it to me and wanted to know my thoughts, so I slogged through it just so we could have a discussion. But its fatal flaw is the author's love of his own words and the lack of a decent editor. The book could stand to lose at least 1/3 of its volume and be better for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crying in H Mart
The Seven Husbands of I forget the rest of the title
A Gentleman in Moscow
Caste

I finished all of these, BUT:
- Only finished Crying in H Mart because it was a gift.
- Spending the time to finish The Seven Husbands was a mistake. Never got any better.
- A Gentleman in Moscow - I acknowledge that it was work and the beginning was the strongest part, but I did enjoy this book.
- Caste - Only finished because I needed to discuss it. I never understood the hype about this book. None of it seemed very original to me.

The book I'm currently not finishing is Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts. It feels very contrived.

I'm feeling much more empowered by this thread not to finish in the future!

I found all of Celeste Ng books contrived and forced, not sure how people read them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: The Sympathizer

I finished it, just barely. A good friend recommended it to me and wanted to know my thoughts, so I slogged through it just so we could have a discussion. But its fatal flaw is the author's love of his own words and the lack of a decent editor. The book could stand to lose at least 1/3 of its volume and be better for it.

I loved The Sympathizer, but I thought the sequel, The Committed, was awful and yes, was in dire need of a firm editor. It was like something a 23-year-old jointly enrolled in an MFA program and a graduate postcolonial studies program would produce.

[Anonymous]

An Island by Karen Jennings

I picked this up at the library due to its small size and thought it would be a quick read. No. I should have known that I can rarely finish a so called literary novel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: The Sympathizer

I finished it, just barely. A good friend recommended it to me and wanted to know my thoughts, so I slogged through it just so we could have a discussion. But its fatal flaw is the author's love of his own words and the lack of a decent editor. The book could stand to lose at least 1/3 of its volume and be better for it.

I loved The Sympathizer, but I thought the sequel, The Committed, was awful and yes, was in dire need of a firm editor. It was like something a 23-year-old jointly enrolled in an MFA program and a graduate postcolonial studies program would produce.

Same here. Loved the Sympathizer hated the Committed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A S Byatt, The Children's Book. I was disappointed in myself for hating it and not finishing, but then again, it was unbelievably pretentious. I'm a lefty, but her enlightened boho academics were insufferable, smug twits.

I prefer her sister Margaret Drabble- more domestic warmth mixed in with academia.

[Anonymous]

I saw hype around a book called Queen of Thieves, so I borrowed it...I thought it would be kind of a 1940s Oceans 8. Two chapters in, I didn't like the main characters at all and decided to DNF.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60833956-queen-of-thieves

London, 1946. The city struggles to rebuild itself after the devastation of the Blitz. Food is rationed, good jobs are scarce, and even the most honest families are forced to take a bit of "crooked" just to survive.

Alice Diamond, the Queen of Thieves, rules over her all-female gang with a bejeweled fist. Her "hoisters" are expert shoplifters, the scourge of London's upscale boutiques and departments stores. Their lucrative business stealing and fencing luxury goods always carries the threat of violence; Alice packs a razor, and has been known to use her heavy rows of diamond rings like brass knuckles.

Young Nell is a teenager from the slums, hiding a secret pregnancy and facing a desperately uncertain future when Alice takes her under her wing. Before long, Nell is experiencing all the dangers--and glamourous trappings--that comes with this underworld existence. Alice wants Nell to be a useful weapon in her ongoing war against crime boss Billy Sullivan's gang of rival thieves. But Nell has a hidden agenda of her own, and is not to be underestimated. The more she is manipulated by both Alice and Billy, the more her hunger for revenge grows.

As Nell embraces the rich spoils of crime and the seedy underbelly of London, will she manage to carve out her own path to power and riches? Might she even crown herself the Queen of Thieves?

[Anonymous]

It’s taken me weeks to get 1/3 through Our Missing Hearts. Will it get better? Can I safely drop it?

[Anonymous]

I came to DCUM this morning to pose this very question, so I'm glad I searched back a few pages to see that it was already created.

Since January, I've had a series of books that I just can't get into. It almost seems like it's a "me problem"! I used to force myself to finish a book I start, but as soon as I started giving myself permission to drop a book I'm not enjoying, I so easily just give up on it. I have a very deep wish list on Overdrive, so it's easy for me to move on. There are more books than time.

Maybe I just don't have enough mental energy to be absorbed into anything too deep these days, and that's why I'm striking out with more books than usual. I also haven't been as careful in curating my wish list, I just add new releases and anything I see with a good book review, whether or not I've read the description. I think that contributes to my issue.

Case in point, "Survivor Song", a book about zombies and a virus. I gave it a few pages this weekend, but went in blind, and quickly exited. I would never have added this to my wish list if I had read a brief description.

[Anonymous]

Didn't finish Educated, or a Good Neighborhood.

Didn't like them both and there are too many good books to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A S Byatt, The Children's Book. I was disappointed in myself for hating it and not finishing, but then again, it was unbelievably pretentious. I'm a lefty, but her enlightened boho academics were insufferable, smug twits.

I finished this book for a book club and despised it. I literally thought it was terrible.