The books you didn't finish

[Addams]

Happened to me yesterday with Beautiful Darkness by Garcia & Stohl.

I kinda liked the fist volume of the series but for some reason it just didn't work with this one. Just to read the first 100 pages was a chore so...

[chongjasmine]

I couldn't finish the first book of the chainfire series by terry goodkind.

[Michael P]

I couldn't finish the first book of the chainfire series by terry goodkind.

Lucky you.

[chongjasmine]

Lucky you.

Why? Is it very bad?
I kind of find the book boring.

[Lee Kaye]

I just put down Terry Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment. I kind of like his work (finished about 7-8 books) but they all feel too samey for me know. Small quirks and jokes, and it's gently amusing, but nothing catpured my attention. As I say, not sure if it is this book, or all his work now.

[Roquefort Raider]

I just put down Terry Pratchett - Monstrous Regiment. I kind of like his work (finished about 7-8 books) but they all feel too samey for me know. Small quirks and jokes, and it's gently amusing, but nothing catpured my attention. As I say, not sure if it is this book, or all his work now.

I am embarrassed to say that happened to me with all his books (the ones I tried, at least) after reading Good omens. "Small quirks and jokes, gently amusing" is an excellent way to describe what I thought of them.

[DebkoX]

The Emerald atlas.
Proclaimed as the 'New Harry potter'
Uses a range of cheap shameful copies and is easily the worst book I've ever opened.

[Roquefort Raider]

Proclaimed as the 'New Harry potter'
Uses a range of cheap shameful copies (...)

Sounds like Harry Potter, all right.

[the_kaz]

I usually always force myself to finish whatever book I started, no matter how boring it is, but these ones have slipped through the cracks. I may finish some, or all, of these one day:

• Homer's 'The Iliad' - I think I made the mistake of picking a prose translation (and an old one at that) for what is supposed to be a poem. As prose, it's one of the most boring, inconsequential stories I've ever read. However, when I picked up a critically-acclaimed contemporary verse translation, just to quickly see how it compared, I was amazed at how vibrant the language was and how lively the action was.
  
• Dante's 'Inferno' - I actually enjoyed this while I was reading it, but it requires so much effort and perseverance that I just had to stop when I became a student again.
  
• Francis Bacon's 'The Essays' - I read a lot of "dull" philosophy but, like everything else I've read of Bacon's, this is incredibly dull. Furthermore, it doesn't seem nearly as deep and insightful, for the most part, as people make it out to be.
  
• J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' - I attempted to read this many years ago, as a teenager, and I found it too boring so I gave up. Since then, I've read 'The Hobbit', which I loved, and I've developed a great deal of respect for Tolkien, so I think I'd like it if I tried it again.
• Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita' - No specific reason why I stopped reading this one, as I actually really enjoyed it. I guess other things just came in the way. Will start it again some time.

[idlewildered]

Cloud Atlas. I just became sorely disinterested around the half way point and I never give up on a book when I've gotten that far.

[Lee Kaye]

Cloud Atlas. I just became sorely disinterested around the half way point and I never give up on a book when I've gotten that far.

You reminded me, I read 75% of Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl, and just stopped. It was exactly the kind of book I should like, but it just stopped interesting me. It just seemed to be full of arguments about trade embargoes and other such stuff.

[idlewildered]

You reminded me, I read 75% of Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl, and just stopped. It was exactly the kind of book I should like, but it just stopped interesting me. It just seemed to be full of arguments about trade embargoes and other such stuff.

The Windup Girl is on my shelf at the minute actually waiting to be read......... shall see how it goes.

[Lee Kaye]

Yeah, let me know. It got so many good reviews, and was my kind of thing. But just didn't click. As I say, most of the way through I gave up. It may have been as I only read before sleeping, and sometimes if I am worn out it's difficult to follow or get into more complex plots, if that makes sense.

Edit: It's not exactly massively difficult to follow, just felt like that. More importantly I realised I didn't give a f--k what actually happened to anyone, or anything.

[glue]

The only two I can think of that I quit because of content are All the Pretty Horses and Anthony Kedis' autobiography.

edit: Oh, and I don't remember the title but the PKD book that starts with some friend calling him for pills to kill herself.

[Shikidum]

Atlas Shrugged.