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Books you didn't finish

The only one that I really have a *good* reason for not finishing is The Lovely Bones. I got 1/2 way through it and it was too intense for me at that point in my life, so I stopped. I DO plan to finish reading it and soon.
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That's interesting. I guess a next logical question would be, which books have you folks put down for any reason, and then successfully picked up reading again?

I put down Kushiel's Dart for almost a year, and then finished it the summer after I started it. I suppose schoolwork got in the way.
 
Kristocat:
From what I remember, the prose was well-handled. But for me the prose couldn't save the book - the subject matter and plot were just too slow and boring. But my fiance liked it and I'm glad you did too. Like steffee said, luckily we're not all the same
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Fair enough. I don't mind slow rambling plots, as long as there is something there to keep my interest, i.e. the beauty of the prose, or perhaps a wealth of information. Eco, tends to always keep me enthralled, no matter how slow, there is just something there, that I can't pinpoint.

Violanthe
That's interesting. I guess a next logical question would be, which books have you folks put down for any reason, and then successfully picked up reading again?
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War & Peace- Tolstoy,
The Covenant - James Michener
White Moghuls - I can't rememeber the author, and come to think of it i don't think i did actually finish it completely.
 
Anne Rice didn't quit writing because she is BORN AGAIN, she quit writing books that don't align with her Faith!!! Which I find to be respectable, and courageous...she gave up a very profitable genre...

The Red Tent...I just can't get past the first couple chapters...& I've tried several times
 
Georg said:
Anne Rice didn't quit writing because she is BORN AGAIN, she quit writing books that don't align with her Faith!!!
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But she only found this faith after becoming a "born again" christian, so you could say that this was the cause of her quitting.
 
I stopped reading The Historian. I found it very dull and boring.
Is there something wrong with me everybody tells me how good it is but I can’t seem to get into it.
 
I have tried many times to read a couple of the Bronte sisters’ novels, including “The Tennant of Wildfell Hall” and “Villette” (I have read “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights”, had to for uni).

My interest was sustained until about halfway through both books, but I found that the characters then became way too introspective (probably due to both spending a portion of the story alone  ) and at the same time very judgemental about the morals of other characters. This is all well and good, but it seemed a bit of a shift from the story driven earlier segments of both.

I also fail to finish “Oliver Twist” every time I start it, inevitably because something else catches my eye and poor Oliver is left discarded at the bottom of my pile. How very apt…
 
deception point -dan brown .. didn't find time to, I was in the middle of my uni quizzes and finals

all that remains -Patricia D. Cornwell .. the papers where smelly . so I stopped reading it
 
Lowry

i make an effort to push through the urge to abandon a book, to no avail with malcolm lowry's under the volcano. i found it obtuse and turgid and can not begin to grasp it's cult standing ...
 
I have a friend who read the Historian with her book club. Everyone else read the print book, but she "read" the abridged audiobook (still 10 CDs long) and she ended up liking it much better than the rest of the book club.
 
I tend to fight to the bitter end, but Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita was so utterly boring and senseless that it got the honor of being the first book in a long time that I just threw away with disgust, feeling sorry for the time I wasted on it.
 
I have a problem

I can't NOT finish a book - even if I don't like it, I am compelled to finish, regardless.

For example, I was going to read Ahab's Wife for my book group so I deceided it would be interesting to read Moby Dick first - an American classic, one of those books you should read before you die, blah, blah, blah. Well, I couldn't have been more bored with it (does that make me evil or something). That is a long book and I HAD TO FINISH IT - I can't even tell you why - I have no reason.

Right now I am reading Mao: The Unknown Story and I am really wanting to quit it, but I CAN'T!!!!

Is there a support group for people like me...
 
mel07 said:
i make an effort to push through the urge to abandon a book, to no avail with malcolm lowry's under the volcano. i found it obtuse and turgid and can not begin to grasp it's cult standing ...
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I completely agree, mel. I was assigned Under the Volcano for school, and even though it was required reading I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I just faked my way through the portions of the class relating to it.
 
Rhapsody--The prologue was great but after that it all went downhill.
Sophie's World--Just too much like a textbook...
Interview with the Vampire-- Go out, drink blood, sulk, plan to kill the other vampire. The cycle could only repeat so much before I got very bored very quickly.
Kushiel's Dart--I just didn't like it...
The Elfstones of Shannara--I've started this so many times I can practically recite the first few chapters. But something always gets in the way or I see another book that looks better.
There's probably others, but I can't think of them. I find it extremely hard to finish books I don't have an interest in.
 
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky- I tried, I really really did.
Desperation by Stephen King - I got about halfway, it just didn't hold my interest
Life of Pi by Yann Martel - this one I want to finish, somehow it just keeps getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile.
 
I almost always finish books once I start them, but every once in a while I pick up one that doesn't sustain my attention. I don't keep books around that I can't get through. If I purchased them, I either resell them, or donate them to the local library. This year I couldn't finish:

The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg: One loooonnng yawn.

The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen: I'd heard such good things about this book I really wanted to like it, but I got about half-way through before it lost my interest. The fact that it had an unlikable protagonist probably didn't help.
 
I always make it a point to finish a book, but if it's really dragging, I just read the ending and move on to the next book. I did this with The Da Vinci Code, The Lovely Bones, and The Historian. Too many books start out strong only to get very lacking in the middle, and then finishing up very nicely. Ah well.
 
I couldn't finish Lady Chatterley's Lover...At first, I absolutely loved it, but then half way through the insesant moaning and never finding any solution and hating everything just got me irritated and I couldn't read any more..
 
Mattyj said:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel - this one I want to finish, somehow it just keeps getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile.
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How far in were you when you gave up? I struggled with this book for the first 100 pages or so, but after that it was brilliant.
 
Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Left off on page 25 & i consider myself FINISHED with the book. Did not enjoy it at all! I will definatley NOT pick it up again!!
 
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