Top Ten Tuesday – Books I DNF

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. 

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “Books I Did Not Finish (DNF)”. This is a topic I could write an essay about. Oh dearie me, I DNF a lot of book. I have a short attention span and a busy life, so if a book doesn’t grab my attention and hold on for dear life, I simply can’t be bothered to finish it. I rarely abandon books because I hate them, rather I just lose interest. Sometimes I go back to a book I abandoned and give it a second go, but there are so, so many titles that simply languish unfinished on my bookshelves, or get returned to the library only partially read.

Here are just a few books that I remember abandoning partially read:

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Ecco – I love historical fiction, especially mystery novels with a historical setting. But this book? I just could not make it through the endless tangents and the long, winding, rambling passages. I really did try to muscle my way through this classic novel, but I eventually gave up.

Exit the Actress,  Priya Parmar – Another historical fiction novel! I didn’t dislike this book, so much as I simply lost interest in the protagonist. It isn’t a bad novel per se, just not one that kept my attention.

A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin – This series has garnered so much hype, but neither the settings nor the characters really appealed to me. Many of the characters felt deeply unpleasant, and I find it difficult to get invested in a story when I really couldn’t care less what happens to the characters within it. I watched a few episodes of the television series, and just couldn’t get into that, either.

Insurgent, Veronica Roth – I read Divergent while working in library teen services, and while I didn’t enjoy it, it was a pretty quick read. I decided to try and carry on with the series in an attempt to “be cool with the kids”, but I just couldn’t be bothered to get more than a few chapters through this second book in the series, and I didn’t even pick up the third.

The Map that Changed the World, Simon Winchester – I read a lot of nonfiction, and I have enjoyed some of Simon Winchester’s books, but he does have a terrible habit of wandering and meandering. Sometimes the tangents can be so extensive that you can’t remember what exactly a chapter was about in the first place.

The Time-Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer- Another nonfiction title that just felt a bit too dry for my liking. The title really intrigued me – I imagined an engaging, tongue-in-cheek travel guide to Elizabethan England – where to eat, what to wear, what to do, where to go. to get the most out of your visit to the past. The book is in fact far more academic than I was anticipating, and to be clear, that doesn’t make this a bad book by any means, it just wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping it would be. It’s thoroughly researched, so if you are looking for an extensive look at everyday life in Elizabethan England, this might be a good title for you.

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy – Now this is a title that I put aside and picked up, put aside and picked up, again and again and again, before finally finishing it, more out of spite than out of any sense of enjoyment. This book was long, and parts of it were numbingly boring. The “war” sections were far more enticing than the “peace” portions – the descriptions of Russian society just didn’t grab me. BUT I DID IT. I FINISHED WAR AND PEACE. And I certainly won’t attempt it again!

Do you ever DNF books? What do you do if you start losing interest in a book? Do you put it aside and try again later? I’d love to hear your thoughts!