So many books I have started and ended up putting aside for another book: Under the Dome - Stephen King The Stand - Stephen King The Dark Tower #1: The Gunslinger Stephen King A Time to Kill - John Grisham I've actually only read one Stephen King book to completion, which was 11/22/63 from 2011. I'm reading It at the moment before I move onto The Dark Tower, but I've actually struggled to get through some of King's earlier work.
Maybe time to give up on King? I wonder why, when you fail to finish his books so consistently, you keep coming back for more?
From what I have heard, King is compared to tease and denial. Start off exciting, and end in disappointment.
I'm actually progressing through It fairly quickly and I enjoyed 11/22/63. It might be the fact that I'm 17 and not really in King's target audience, but my some miracle I loved 11/22/63.
it's happening with me when I start to read, but then understand that books is boring or just makes me feel sad
I never finished Slash's autobiography. That book needs some editing. Badly. I find that musicians in general tend to remember things in the wrong order and even forget entire scenes, but usually this is subverted with a good editor and/or ghostwriter (Keith Richard's book is a good example of this). I'm currently struggling with A Room of One's Own. Virginia Woolf is actually my 2nd favorite author, there's just something about this essay in particular that doesn't click with me.
Back in the day I was a big fan of the Fletch series of books by Gregory McDonald. With one exception. Carioca Fletch. I started the book three separate times and the longest I ever got before bailing was page 40. It was as if someone had kidnapped McDonald and taken his place. Utterly unreadable. The third time I was highly motivated to try to slog my way through just to see if it got better, but I just couldn't take it. Another book that I was shocked at how difficult I found it to finish was Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I was a big fan of Albom's newspaper columns back then and a ton of people who read the book said it was life-changing good. When I finally read it I was shocked. I thought the writing was mundane with none of Albom's flair or writing chops. I also thought the book was trite and cliche. Yes, it was about a wise old man who had a good perspective on life, but I thought it was standard wisdom that a lot of people realize as they get older. Yet so many people swear by this book, my mom included. Other newspaper peers of mine agreed with my take. Non-writers of my acquaintance disagree vehemently with me.
Hmm, there's The Eye of the World, which I put down in disgust halfway through. I can't recall any others. I do take hiatuses though, I think right now I am alternating between three/four books? If you can make it, the ending is great and the next book has a totally different tone. Grabs you right from the start.
I used to buy books in bulk. When I was 16 I bought a series of ancient history textbooks, imagining that one day I'd read them all... That didn't happen. Lolita. Not because of the theme, but because of the somewhat pretentious literature inserts. I keep wanting to start it again though. Maybe one day. Dune is another one. Just too much of an investment and it didn't quite grab me.
One of my office mates likes Fifty Shades. She asked why I didn’t like it, and I said, “I dunno. It seemed kinda boring.” Several of the office gals turned to stare at me with big eyes. Now it’s a running joke in the office that I must be a huge freak in bed. They think it’s hilarious I turn bright red when it’s mentioned. I need to keep my mouth shut.
I find that quite a shocking statement to make! The preface alone is worth the bother, but I guess I can imagine the darker sideof the story may not really hit home with some readers? Wurthering Heights is one I did finished and to this day I cannot comprehend why anyone raves about it. SOme nice descriptive writing, but I never gave a damn about either Heathcliff or Cathy. They both revolted me.
Of all the books in a Books You've Never Finished thread, this is the one that really ought to have been said. I've yet to try it. It's 1.2k pages long, isn't it? A mighty work. I may just resign myself to watching the BBC dramatization of it with Paul Dano...
I was interested in Capital by Marx too ... That is about an extra 200-300 pages compared to War and Peace, and the print is tiny! Also, really hope I find time to read the Bible one day.
Books I Couldn't Finish 1. "Vostok" by Steve Alten 2. One of the Maximum Ride books. I can't remember which, but it was the one where they learned why they were created and thought the 'why' was incredibly stupid. Books I Had to Force Myself to Finish 1. "Firestarter" by Stephen King 2. "Carrie" by Stephen King 3. "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare 4. The entire Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. I had bought them all so I was going to read them all and I about lost my mind at the description of Anubis. I can finish most books and even finished the Twilight series despite despising the characters immensely. (I haven't even attempted 50 Shades; apart from the fact that it's a straight couple, the BDSM portrayed within it is highly inaccurate and the relationship's abusive while masquerading as romance...I can go on and on about it, lol).
A couple of years ago everyone was raving about A Little Life. I hated it by 100 pages in and took months to force myself through to the midway point before I threw it at a wall and yelled expletives at it. It's the first book I've chosen not to finish for about 10 years. I also had to force my way though Eimear McBride's A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. I finished it because it was short, and I'm even more masochistic than its annoying protagonist, but that also took me many months.
Forced my way through two thirds of Jane Eyre. It was one of the free books in a Nook someone had given me. I had a one hour commute by train at the time, I discovered another site for free classic's and went for White Fang-much better. I got through Crime and Punishment, but it was work. I loved Of Mice and Men, but then again I was a rather dark teen. Brother in law went to DLI-Arabic, then re-upped for Farsi Planning to pick up Moby again. Put it down a couple of years ago. It is still around somewhere. Half Blood Prince was weakest of the books, and movies. It wasn't just Harry that whiny. Put Tale of Two Cities down about twenty years ago not through chapter one. Picked it back up a couple of years a go to discover it actually gets good in chapter two.
I've only read two, not to long after they were released. The Stand then The Shining. Found them both pretty good. I read Shogun twice, a couple of years apart, back in the seventies. Then I read Tai Pan and it's sequel Noble House. I loved the Hobbit, but LOTR just went on and on and on and on. It kind of turned me off to serial fiction in general.
Voss by Patrick White. I was in an advanced English class in high school, about a dozen of us, and I think two got past chapter 5 (me, I bailed out on page 10 and bought crib notes for the exams)
Things like Moby Dick require a reasonable amount of Biblical knowledge. I've found the older the book the more important the knowledge of ancient mythos enriches the work. Same goes for knowledge of general history.
Fahrenheit 451. I read like 3/4 of it in highschool and somehow never got to finishing it. I think I got so engrossed in Mad Men or something and then my investment in the book went down by the time I was ready to read it. So, to do this day, I still don't know how it ends. I should just start it over now and finish it this time, but now I'm reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway. Eventually. I just realized, I've actually done this with TV shows as well. I still haven't finished the last half of the last season of Breaking Bad even though I was enjoying it. I'm too easily distracted sometimes.
I've been pretty good about finishing books even if I lose interest in them but there was one series that really dropped off for me. The Left Behind. Made it about halfway through book four and just couldn't anymore. Up until that point they were pretty well written but I am not a religious person at all and it just got way too preachy to just ignore and read on.
