Books We Never Finished

[Danny Franks]

The Circle by Dan Eggers. It sounded promising, it was touted as a conspiracy thriller set in a cutting edge software company (which turned out to be Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter, all in one). But the main character was such a limp drip, and the writer just kept introducing new, seemingly pointless characters every couple of pages ('hey, I'm Whosits, I work in Thingamajig'... 'Hey, I'm Whosits 2, I work in a department that's not Thingamajig'), and after about 150 pages, there was no sign of a conspiracy other than everyone being really happy at work, and the protagonist's job being entirely too dull to ever make anyone happy, that I just couldn't be bothered continuing.

 

I read a breakdown of the story online, and I don't think I missed anything. Good.

[cherrypj]

It might be just me: I cannot finish any autobiographical book by a comedian: Bossypants (Tina Fey) and Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan).

 

Just two, but I won't pick up Amy Poehler's Yes Please to find out if it's universally true for me.

 

It's just too forced. Everything's a joke. I'm laughing, then chuckling, next grinning, finally wincing. It just dies. It's too much.

 

There has got to be good options out there.

[Babalu]

I sometimes have anxiety dreams that there are several books I haven't finished and have to get back to, but the only book I can remember actually not finishing is Gravity's Rainbow many years ago. I see it has 4 stars on both Amazon and Goodreads, but it just beat me up and spat me out.

[SmithW6079]

I never finished "Wicked." I liked the concept -- delving into the social/economic/political background of a beloved children's book, but its execution was ponderous and deadly dull. I started listening to it on audio, which I liked, but without a commute, I switched to the book. I plodded through for a while, but finally stopped after Elphaba left college. Given the Wicked Witch's aversion to water (you know, because it would kill her), I couldn't stop wondering how she kept clean and didn't smell.

Thanks to Wikipedia now, sometimes I'll find a book and read the synopsis, so I did that with "Wicked." Based on what I read there, I'm glad I saved myself the aggravation of finishing this. I read the synopses of the next two books, which convinced me they were as awful as the first.

I read a lot of alternate history, and "Pavane" is considered a classic. It's really a collection of short stories that take place in a 20th-century England where Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated, the Spanish Armada was a success, and the Catholic Church was triumphant in England. Except the stories have relatively very little to do with that concept, and really have more of a mystical touch to them. I read three of them and put the book aside.

Edited June 3, 2015 by SmithW6079

[blueray]

 Bossypants (Tina Fey)

I did finish this book and liked it. However I didn't really laugh. I kept thinking that I wish there was more on SNL.

[Deanie87]

The audiobook is wonderful. It was recorded by Jim Dale, who also did the Harry Potter books, and his voice is *fabulous*, very sonorous and English and yummy! The Night Circus was my first audiobook and probably the one I (unfairly) compare all others to.

One of my favorites, actually, since I was about 12 (I was a little precocious when it came to reading material). Certainly my favorite of all of John Irving's books. The movie...? Though I do hear Robin Williams' voice in my head when I read the book, the movie was just meh.

I am in the middle of the audiobook of The Night Circus and I'm loving it! I bought the book, when it was the selection for the "Target Book Club," I kid you not, and started it a few times but couldn't get passed the first chapter. But on your recommendation I picked up the audiobook from the library and it is so much better. There are still a lot of characters and plot strands to keep straight but for some reason listening to it is much easier and more enjoyable. So thanks!

[cherrypj]

Have you read any of Ellen Degeneres' books? I liked My Point, And I Do Have One. It is a quick read and you feel as if she is talking to you. 

 

My library didn't have that one, so I picked up Seriously--I'm Kidding. Good choice?

[VanillaBear85]

It might be just me: I cannot finish any autobiographical book by a comedian: Bossypants (Tina Fey) and Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan).

 

Just two, but I won't pick up Amy Poehler's Yes Please to find out if it's universally true for me.

 

It's just too forced. Everything's a joke. I'm laughing, then chuckling, next grinning, finally wincing. It just dies. It's too much.

 

There has got to be good options out there.

Throw in Mindy Kaling's book and there I am. I tried, but for me, it might have to do with having zero interest in their television/media personas. I just do not find their books funny or entertaining at all. Having no interest in Amy Poehler's television show I still want to (attempt to read) read her book, although I will likely be disappointed from experience.

[alias1]

I couldn't finish The Aviator's Wife.  I had a problem with the author "projecting" what she perceived to be Anne Morrow Lindbergh's thoughts.  It just didn't ring true and read more like fiction than a real biography.  I can read the Wikipedia entry if I want to know the facts of her life.  I don't need to read what someone decides her thought process was.  It did inspire me to pick up Anne Morrow Lindbergh's own book though, Gift From The Sea.  I read it many years ago, and was surprised to pick it up now and see a forward by her daughter, Reeve, because this is the 50th anniversary of that book, written in 1955.

[Pickles Aplenty]

 

I couldn't finish The Aviator's Wife.  I had a problem with the author "projecting" what she perceived to be Anne Morrow Lindbergh's thoughts.  It just didn't ring true and read more like fiction than a real biography.  I can read the Wikipedia entry if I want to know the facts of her life.  I don't need to read what someone decides her thought process was.  It did inspire me to pick up Anne Morrow Lindbergh's own book though, Gift From The Sea.  I read it many years ago, and was surprised to pick it up now and see a forward by her daughter, Reeve, because this is the 50th anniversary of that book, written in 1955.

I read Melanie Benjamin's other books, Alice I Have Been and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and I avoided The Aviator's Wife when it came out for that very reason.  She takes interesting women who really existed and makes them sound melodramatic, like soap characters.  Annoying.

[psychoticstate]

I read Melanie Benjamin's other books, Alice I Have Been and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and I avoided The Aviator's Wife when it came out for that very reason.  She takes interesting women who really existed and makes them sound melodramatic, like soap characters.  Annoying.

 

Billina, what did you think of Alice I Have Been?  I remember when it came out - - I wanted to read it but never got around to it.

[Danny Franks]

I said this about The Narrow Road to the Deep North a few days ago:

 

Maybe I'm just an unappreciative philistine, but it all just makes me roll my eyes and long for something with a style that is direct and actually tells a story. The first task of a storyteller, in my view, is to make you care. So far, this one is failing.

 

 

Well, I'm now 230 pages in, and still don't give a shit about any of the characters. If you could call them that. The protagonist is... I honestly don't know who he is or what he's like. He's not even a cipher, just a mouthpiece for the author to tell you how great books and poems are, and apparently how "wondrous" a woman's nipples are. The rest of the soldiers are Folksy Nickname McCommonman, one and all, with little to distinguish any of them.

 

Look, this is a story about men suffering the worst traumas life can throw at them, as POWs forced to work on the Burma Railway by the Japanese. That's a great setting for a writer to build up some people you love, and then cause you anguish by slowly taking them apart. It should be a no brainer. Because none of these guys mean anything at all to me, I'm moved to no more than slight disgust by reading about their dysentery and their cholera and their lice and sores. I should be horrified, and it's a failure that I'm not.

 

So, over halfway through the book and I don't care about any characters? I think it's time to put this one to bed. I'm not going to pretend I liked it, just because some critics did.

[Darian]

I bail on books far more often that I used to (I realized I wouldn't live long enough to read all the books on my list, to which I need adding) but one I was surprised to give up on was The First Bad Man by Miranda July. I really thought I'd like it. I've liked her other work and I have a high threshold for neurotic quirk, but I gave up fairly early. Not going back either.    

[proserpina65]

I must shamefully admit that I've added Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet to my never finished list, at least for the time being.  I've renewed it twice, and still haven't gotten much further than 100 pages of the first book.  It's a combination of the first section focussing on a tertiary character whose life just isn't that interesting, and the fact that the edition I got from the library is a massive and intimidating four-books-in-one tome.  Maybe if I can find the four books separate I might try again.

[proserpina65]

So I recently tried reading "Fever" by Mary Beth Keane, which is a novel centered on Mary Mallon, the infamous Typhoid Mary.  Now, I was set for something that would humanize a woman villified by history, but I just couldn't with a book which asked me to sympathize with Mary Mallon AFTER she returned to cooking professionally following her release from quarantine/custody.  While I found it a little hard to believe that she didn't at least notice how many of the families for whom she worked as a cook ended up being stricken with typhoid, I was appalled by her refusing to believe that there was at least some connection when the evidence was laid out for her, and when she returned to cooking (at a maternity hospital!) after swearing she wouldn't as a condition of her release, I lost all sympathy for her and had to stop reading.

[PRgal]

I have never finished ANYTHING by Candace Bushnell.  Not even Sex and the City.  Maybe it's because I feel all her books are...whiney.

[ulkis]

Mr Norrel and Jonathan Strange . . . I just put it down at about page 600. It wasn't even like I hated it or anything, it's just that nothing was that great that I wanted to continue reading the footnotes. I didn't even hate the footnotes either. It just gave me a crick in the neck. I'm shallow. Which is why I'm glad they've made a series. I liked the story well enough, I wanted to know how it went, but not enough to keep going.

[ExplainItAgain]

The Night Circus. Lots of hype surrounded it, and I really did like the beginning. However, I think it's one of those books that really should have been a movie because of how visual it is, and how abstract the plot is. The plot was meandering too slowly for me, and the pieces didn't come together quickly enough for me. I got bored and frustrated and never finished.

 

I will also say it should've been a film because of the constant food descriptions. Those were good enough to warrant a film adaptation alone.

 

This book absolutely needs a movie. It's so visual and the descriptions are wonderful. I enjoyed it, but I think a well done movie would be sumptuous. Supposedly one was in the works, but I haven't heard anything about it.

 

I never finished "Wicked." I liked the concept -- delving into the social/economic/political background of a beloved children's book, but its execution was ponderous and deadly dull. I started listening to it on audio, which I liked, but without a commute, I switched to the book. I plodded through for a while, but finally stopped after Elphaba left college. Given the Wicked Witch's aversion to water (you know, because it would kill her), I couldn't stop wondering how she kept clean and didn't smell.

Thanks to Wikipedia now, sometimes I'll find a book and read the synopsis, so I did that with "Wicked." Based on what I read there, I'm glad I saved myself the aggravation of finishing this. I read the synopses of the next two books, which convinced me they were as awful as the first.

 

You are my people! When I saw this thread title, Wicked is the first book that popped into my head. Started it twice and finally just gave up. How they got such a great musical out of that I'll never know.

 

I touched on this on another thread, but my white whale is War and Peace. For some reason I am determined to read it (maybe because I love Anna Karenina?), but I have started it 6 times and haven't made it very far. It was on my 2015 bucket list and time is running out...

[Crs97]

I started Les Mis over twenty years ago. I think I can finally say I am not going to finish it. I will let you know if that changes, but I think the book is still in a box from three moves ago so it doesn't look good.

[HeySandyStrange]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Really, on paper it sounded fantastic and right up my alley. A satirical anti-war tale set during WWII, written by a war vet? A modern American classic? I wanted to be all over that but it all fell apart about halfway into it. It felt like ever 20 or so pages it was another random story about random people, none of which were truly interesting. Then the story (or joke) spun around and around into nothing and we leaped to some other random scene. The constant meandering and pointlessness, while possibly a commentary on war, was just too much for me.

[cherrypj]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. ... It felt like ever 20 or so pages it was another random story about random people, none of which were truly interesting. Then the story (or joke) spun around and around into nothing and we leaped to some other random scene.

 

The joke, when I was in college, is that Heller wrote the book, stapled together the pages for each chapter, threw them into the air, sorted the pile, and submitted it that way. The editor didn't know any better.

 

True? Not true? I really don't know!

[nodorothyparker]

I really adore Catch-22 but I can absolutely see why it wouldn't appeal to a lot of people for many of the same reasons that some people just don't like Vonnegut.

 

You've really got to commit yourself to the full-bore crazy Heller's selling or it does feel like an exercise in meandering non sequiturs.  Some of it's just so damn out there.

Edited August 11, 2015 by nodorothyparker

[SmithW6079]

Apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio is making "The Devil in the White City." Even though I like true crime and I like history, I never finished the book. I thought it was dull and boring.

Edited August 12, 2015 by SmithW6079

[HeySandyStrange]

I really adore Catch-22 but I can absolutely see why it wouldn't appeal to a lot of people for many of the same reasons that some people just don't like Vonnegut.

You've really got to commit yourself to the full-bore crazy Heller's selling or it does feel like an exercise in meandering non sequiturs. Some of it's just so damn out there.

Funny thing is I tend to really like Kurt Vonnegut's work(Cat's Cradle is a fav). I also like Tom Robbins, who's books read like a gentle acid trip. Heller's work is somehow tedious to me. I might have to invest some more time to try to get through it.

[psychoticstate]

Apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio is making "The Devil in the White City." Even though I like true crime and I like history, I never finished the book. I thought it was dull and boring.

 

I thought it was a fantastic book and I can't wait to see what Leo does with the role. 

 

But I can understand why the book may not be everyone's cup of tea.

[Danny Franks]

Catch 22 is my all time favourite book. It's the funniest, yet still poignant, story I've ever read. But even I would admit that it's much better to read it as a series of 'episodes' rather than as a coherent narrative. It bounces around a lot, throwing characters in and dragging them out, killing them and bringing them back to life, and there are threads that are less interesting than others.

 

The complete punctured balloon ending had me in stitches, the first time I read it.

[nodorothyparker]

Every time I want to describe Catch-22 as the funniest and maybe best absurdist satire out there, I think of the scene of Yossarian sitting naked in the trees because his uniform is covered in his friend's blood and he just can't anymore. It gets me every time.

[Babalu]

Catch-22 was my favorite book in high school, and now I both want to and am scared to read it again. I kept it on my bedside table for a couple of years and frequently opened it at random and read a passage before I went to sleep. I liked Vonnegut then, too, and have the impression I wouldn't enjoy him so much any more but would still like Heller, but I'm afraid of being disillusioned.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

I'm 130 pages into the behemoth that is Infinite Jest and I'm ready to shoot myself in the eyeballs over it. When I bought it I thought I'd read 100 pages a day and be done in less than 2 weeks.

That was about a month ago.

I'm not sure if this is David Foster Wallace's opus and I'm just too damn stupid to get it, or if every critic and academic was just as stumped as I am, but were too embarrassed to admit it.

[Demented Daisy]

I feel like some type of blasphemer, but the last "adult" novel by JK Rowling: not the HP books, not "The Casual Vacancy" but her last detective book.

 

I never finished The Casual Vacancy.  I put it down one day and never picked it back up.  Not even sure if I still have it.

 

 

You're not the only person I've heard say that about [Hunger Games]. Personally I loved the books but I think reading Mary Renault's historical fiction helped me out a lot. From the start it made me think of Ancient Athens and Theseus volunteering to go to Crete with the other youths as tribute to the Minotaur. It also helps knowing that now, archaeologist believe that there is some truth to the myth about the Minotaur after digs in Crete revealed paintings of youths doing dangerous acrobatics (and some getting killed doing so) around a bull. Anyway, I highly recommend her books. 

 

But on the YA topics, after reading the HG series very fast and loving it I bought the Maze Runner and Divergent to see if I could get as into those books. Haven't finished either of them. I think this was a one time thing for me. Glad I bought the books second hand.

 

 

Wasn't the labyrinth and the minotaur the inspiration for the Hunger Games?  I thought I read that somewhere....

 

If you are curious about more YA and like ancient Greek and Roman mythology, might I recommend Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books?  Percy Jackson and the Olympians (5 books) concentrates on the Greeks; the Heroes of Olympus (also 5 books) mixes the Greek and Roman.  The Kane Chronicles (3 books) are all about Egyptian mythology.  In a few weeks, he'll be releasing Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, his foray into Norse mythology.

 

All are modern day, for what it's worth.

[GreekGeek]

I'm having trouble getting through The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. The premise should be fascinating--a world where the creation of a Jewish state (Israel) never happened and Jewish people were relocated to Alaska. This is the background for a murder investigation of a former chess prodigy. The book started off slowly, picked up some momentum, and now seems to be getting sidetracked into investigation of a second (unrelated?) death. The prose is also very dense and the dialogue is mostly insults. Has anyone else had a negative experience with this book?

[bubbls]

Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay. If the story continued in Scotland I'd read the whole series, but I spoilered myself and found out it doesn't so I lost interest. I can't decide if I'm disappointed or glad to not have wasted my time. The writing wasn't very good, but I was immediately drawn to the main character and her friends and her life. So, I guess I'm disappointed.

[jenh526]

A former boyfriend used to joke that they should make books in half-sizes for people like me who never finished them. I've gotten better about it, and I'm proud of the fact that I actually got through all of Moby Dick in college when so many others didn't (and all of Joyce's Ulysses as well). But as others have mentioned, I've never gotten through Catch-22, although I've tried several times. Didn't get through The Devil in White City either. I've never been able to finish any novels by Marquez. One book I'd really like to finish one day is A Canticle for Leibowitz. It has such a promising opening.

Edited September 21, 2015 by jenh526

[Etta Place]

I'm 130 pages into the behemoth that is Infinite Jest and I'm ready to shoot myself in the eyeballs over it. When I bought it I thought I'd read 100 pages a day and be done in less than 2 weeks.

That was about a month ago.

I'm not sure if this is David Foster Wallace's opus and I'm just too damn stupid to get it, or if every critic and academic was just as stumped as I am, but were too embarrassed to admit it.

My husband and I read that together earlier this year. We read 15 pages a day. It turned out to be a really rewarding experience, but I cannot imagine trying to read in much larger blocks.

[NewDigs]

Could not finish Night Circus. Done trying.

Could not start Infinite Jest but it's such a my-kind-of-read that Etta Place's review has me rethinking. Maybe I'll try audio. If it's a good reader... But sometimes I feel like that's cheating.

Not a big autobiography person but got a kick out of Samantha Bee's i know i am but what are you?

[Lovecat]

Could not finish Night Circus. Done trying.

I did the audiobook, which was WONDERFUL.  It was read by Jim Dale, who did all of the Harry Potter books.  He's an English gent with a lovely, distinguished voice full of gravitas and michief.  Honestly, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it quite as well had I been reading it myself.

[alias1]

Could not finish Night Circus. Done trying.

I loved The Night Circus.  LOL.

[auntlada]

One book I'd really like to finish one day is A Canticle for Leibowitz. It has such a promising opening.

 

Try thinking of it as three shorter books that you don't have tor read all at once.

[funkopop]

I have tried twice now to read The Color of Magic  by Terry Pratchett and could not finish. I have the whole set of Discworld novels and want to read them all but this one is ROUGH!!

[Joe]

Maybe jump ahead to Equal Rites or Guards Guards. I love Colour of Magic, but I admit it isn't for everyone.

[Danny Franks]

The Colour of Magic is not a book I find easy to read, either. The plot feels like a series of set pieces rather than a coherent narrative, and the world is so loosely formed that I struggle to visualise it.

 

I'd definitely recommend going for Guards! Guards! first. That's the first great Discworld book, in my opinion. It's the one where I feel like Pratchett really hit his stride and got a handle on his style and on the world he wanted to create.

[funkopop]

I've read Pyramids and Wyrd Sisters so far, I will try Guards!Guards! next.  Does Light Fantastic read a little easier?

[Joe]

Not really. It's a direct continuation of COM.

[NutMeg]

I have never finished ANYTHING by Candace Bushnell.  Not even Sex and the City.  Maybe it's because I feel all her books are...whiney.

Maybe start with One Fifth Avenue. Or even Lipstick Jungle. Sex and the City did not hold my attention much, despite me loving the series. 

[bubbls]

I finished it just barely, but Sex and the City was shockingly awful. How someone read that shallow, boring, confusing book then came up with the charming series is beyond me, but I'm glad they did.

[wallflower75]

I'm of the philosophy that life is too short to spend time trying to read a book you know you're not going to like; therefore, my "Books I never finished" list is so long it could circle the earth twice.  A few of the notable ones where I did make something of an effort at reading them:

 

Middlemarch by George Eliot.  I'm so ashamed because this is supposed to be the pinnacle of English literature.  I've tried to read it twice and tried listening to the audio book once, and the farthest I've gotten is 1/4 of the way through.  What's worse?  I love the miniseries with Rufus Sewell--in fact, the three attempts at reading the book have coincided with seeing the movie.

 

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.  It bored me to tears and I gave up about halfway through.

 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  This is supposed to be some great love story?  Look, my love stories don't always have to end happily, but at least give me characters I have at least a smidgen of sympathy for!

 

On the flip side of that coin, there are books that I didn't get through on my first try but I did eventually get through them.  Took me three tries to read Anna Karenina (I couldn't stand Levin) and Outlander (although once I'd read it through, I tore through the rest of the series to that point).  I still believe I can get through Infinite Jest--maybe reading it in short chunks is the way to go with that one.

[Snow Apple]

I couldn't get through Outlander either. As a romance novel reader who is into epics, drama, history, and time travel, it should be right up my alley, but I had to admit defeat and gave up after several attempts. 

Edited March 30, 2016 by Snow Apple

[psychoticstate]

I couldn't get through Outlander either. As a romance novel reader who is into epics, drama, history, and time travel, it should be right up my alley, but I had to admit defeat and gave up after several attempts. 

 

OMG, me too!  I'm so glad I'm not alone in this.  I love time travel and I really like the series but I couldn't get through the book.  I've even tried listening to the audio version twice but I start zoning out.

[FozzyBear]

I have never finished ANYTHING by Candace Bushnell. Not even Sex and the City. Maybe it's because I feel all her books are...whiney.

And boring? And pointless after you get past the initial joke? I really tried with Sex & The City, but there's just no there there.

[psychoticstate]

And boring? And pointless after you get past the initial joke? I really tried with Sex & The City, but there's just no there there.

 

I tried reading Bushnell's "Sex and the City", expecting something similar to the tv show.  I felt like I'd been Punk'd.