Books I Did Not Finish and Why

I always see lists like the worst books of 2016. They also make me feel a little eh and I don’t tend to read or watch those. I guess it is the word worse that does it for me. I don’t mind people making a list of books they disliked the most in 2016. I guess because that gives off more as it is their opinion while worst (without my) suggest that it is widely accepted. For me that is a bit too negative.

It did get me thinking though and I realize I rarely show my thoughts of books I did not finish. I guess because I feel I don’t always read very far within the book and so it does not deserve a review as my thoughts are so little.But sometimes it is good to show what made you dnf a book.

Now I do not often dnf a book. I tend to power through. There is often something that catches me. But with these 8 books below I could not continue in the last few years.

⌘

⌘

Lycidas (Uralte Metropole 1) by Christopher Marzi
Lycidas is one of those books I tried very hard to like. I think I bought this book when it first came out in Dutch in 2009.I gave it a try every year but somehow I never got past page 180. I think a lot of it had to do with how the story was told. We would go back and forth between the person that told the story in first point of view and the actual story. I found the narrator very annoying and I recall there were some things that made little sense to me. The world was interesting but that just wasn’t enough to get over the writing style.

The Magician King (The Magicians 2) by Lev Grossman
I really enjoyed the first book to this trilogy and when I read that I didn’t realize for years there were two more books. For me the story was done. So I was already hesitant picking this up. The start to this serie cut out the characters that I most liked and the world I wanted to read about. Another character was added that I had little interest in and after about a 100 pages I could not get myself to pick it back up. There is a small chance I might give this another go, but that won’t be for a long time.

The Mirror Crack’d (Miss Marple 9) by Agatha Christie
I read another Miss Marple book before this which was an okay read. But the start to this novel was incredibly boring and I found it torture to get through a chapter. There was nothing that held my attention.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Surprise, a Terry Pratchett book. This book is a historical standalone with no fantasy. I actually listened to this as an audio book, but had a hard time holding my attention to it. I enjoyed the narration but the story and character were of no interest to me. They style was very different too. I decided not to torture myself with it and just continue on with the Discworld books.

⌘

⌘

The Death Cure (The Maze Runner 3) by James Dashner
Oh my. I honestly thought the first book had potentially. Absolutely hated the second one and I could not for the life of me remember why I would even pick up the third one when I started reading it. Thomas and I shall never be friends.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
A book I started for a buddy read but that neither of us ended up being very taken with.

The book was off to a good start initially. There was enough mystery and curiousity peaked by giving us some bits and pieces. Like this line thing they kept referring to or their friendship with a fifth person. But the writing style didn’t quite take me. The chapters had chapters within itself. Sometimes a paragraps, other times quite a few pages. It is not something that helps with my reading enjoyment but it is something I can overlook if I enjoy the story.

However the second part of the story started with a military section and that is where my attention started to waver. It dampened my interest immediately. There was nothing appealing about this section at all. And the leading person was such an asshole that I did not want to read about him at all. I found nothing of interest in him. The sections with the four guys started being less interesting as well especially when one fell away.

We struggled along for a bit after that but we both realized that we weren’t very willing to pick up the book. Stopped at p318

Rivers of London (Peter Grant 1) by Ben Aaronvitch
I found the writing blunt and to the point. There is no dressing up and it makes the main characters rather annoying. The way he treats his female friend also bothered me. Enough reasons for me to dnf.

Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms 1) by Saladin Ahmed
I’m sad to say that I can’t see myself finishing this. Next to not liking the characters, they also very heavy focusing on their duty to God. Now I have no problem with religious characters at all. I can admire that conviction but I don’t need to see oh almighty God every two sentences.

I could have gotten past that though but as soon as a girl from a tribe was introduced is where it stopped for me. The mc referred to her and tribe members in general as savages, barbarians and had zero respect for her customs. I had to put the book away and after sleeping on it have decided that I am not picking it back up.

It is a big shame because the world and the plot with guhls and the falcon prince did interest me.

⌘

Do you dnf a book often?