Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
"Life's too short to read a bad book." --James Joyce
For years, when faced with a book that was either not my cup of tea or a verifiably poorly written one, I would either make myself finish it, or feel terribly guilty not finishing it. This is, of course, a silly mentality-- why waste time reading a bad book when there are so many amazing books out there? Why force myself to read a book that I know isn't for me?
This whole scenario became more complicated when I started to check out ebooks from my library. Now, if I didn't stay on top of a book, if I wasn't motivated to finish it in a timely manner, then the book just disappeared from my e-reader. I no longer had that physical reminder, the book staring at me as I made a conscious decision to stop reading it.
With that being said, I have two categories for books that I did not finish: books that I couldn't finish on time, and books I chose to stop reading.
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly
These two books are good books-- but I struggled through both of them. News of the World was more literary than I typically read, and Hidden Figures was a tad bit too dry. Since I already have trouble getting through non-fiction, I wasn't able to make progress on the book before it was automatically returned to the library. I want to try both of these books again in the future!
Reader I Married Him edited by Tracey Chevalier
The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson
These two books are both books I disliked too much to get more than 50% through. Read, I Married Him is a collection of short stories loosely inspired by Jane Eyre and I didn't like any of the stories. The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest was too simplistic of a tale for my taste, and the plot was too predictable. Which is a shame, as the cover was gorgeous!
What about you? Have you recently given up on a book? Was it a time issue or did you not like it?
