Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

After rereading some of the previous Question of the Month threads the idea of DNF (did not finish) a book was repeatedly discussed. The more I read the more willing I am to DNF a book. Are there any you did not finish in the last year or so and why? Personally, I will be talking about time constraints as well as translation issues.

I read a bit in Swann's Way but found it slow and I wasn't in the mood for that pace; so I've added it to my to-read list for this year. He's a beautiful writer but it felt like I was trudging through words. I think the timing was just wrong.

I'm a big Samuel Beckett fan and had wanted to read all of his fiction. However his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, which he wrote it in Paris in 1932 when he was 26 years old, was rejected by publishers and not published until 1992, three years after his death. I started it but DNF'd pretty quickly. I think I side with the publishers. And I also read that "Beckett refused to allow the entire novel to be published during his lifetime, on the grounds that it was 'immature and unworthy'," so that helped me to make up my mind.

There were several books I abandoned; that's why I asked the question. There can be different reasons for not finishing a book. The first 4 are books that I started, read about a chapter, then moved onto another book. I actually liked each one and want to read them, but time pressures prevented. Those books are on my lists this year.


Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1963)
The Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison (1981)
Death of a Cad byM.C. Beaton (1987)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (1848), 576 pages



The following 2 are books I doubt I will try to read in the future.

The only book I started and did not finish because I did not like it was Les Miserables. I am sure it is a wonderful book, but I just couldn't commit to such a slow book. Perhaps some day I will have the patience and time.

The book I had translation issues with was In Praise of Folly by Erasmus. I ended up with 3 different versions which were vastly different. One was half as long as the other two. I found it confusing and just abandoned the attempt.

I only DNF'd one book last year:

The Survivor by Thomas Keneally
This was awful.
I had expected better, since Keneally is the man who gave us Oscar Schindler's story, Schindler's Ark, that became the movie, Schindler's List.

One DNF in a year is pretty good.

I used to not DNF but now in the past few years I do just because of time reasons and not wanting to read a book that is so unpleasant or that I dislike immensely. Here are mine from this past year:

Everything is Illuminated (1 star)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1 star)
Infinite Jest (made it to about 400 pages, but just couldn't go on, 2 stars)

As a mood reader I DNF a lot, often knowing I'll come back to the book another time and enjoy it. I don't keep track of those, or of times I barely start a book only to realize it's not right for me and return it to the library.

I do have a record if I owned a physical copy. Starting last year I've made a real push to read the books that have lingered on my shelves for years, and since my taste has changed a number of those got DNFs. This doesn't mean they're not good books, only that they no longer interested me. Here are some of those:
The Widow's Tale
The King's Evil (by Marston)
The Spy's Wife
Confessions of a Red Herring

There were a couple of books I really expected to like that got DNFd.
Ten Thousand Stitches is the sequel to a fantasy novel I thought was fun; I tried twice to read this and couldn't get into it.
The Enchanted Castle by E Nesbit. Three strikes and Nesbit just isn't for me, though I still enjoy plenty of kids' books.

There were two nonfiction I didn't finish.
My Dear Cassandra, is a compilation of letters by Jane Austen to her sister. It includes lots of photos and other biographical details woven in with the letters. I love Austen but I couldn't bring myself to care about this book, perhaps because it wasn't really a biography or a collection of letters but more of a mishmash of everything.
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made was totally my misstep. Because I'm interested in the topic and found it at the thrift store I didn't look up reviews. It was poorly written and full of errors, digressions, and outright untruths. But the writing was so stiff and dull I didn't even get the bad stuff!

One DNF-for-now on my shelf is The Port of London Murders. Set dockside on the Thames in London this was a group read I looked forward to. It starts in foggy London among the poor where a girl helps pull a dead body from the river. At the exact same time I started reading Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, and anyone who has read that will see the parallels. It just wasn't fair to always be comparing this to one of Dickens' best books, so I put Port of London aside for a while. I want to give it a chance to stand on its own.

My eyes are often bigger than my stomach, and I'll start a book and read a few pages and realize I don't have time, concentration or whatever is needed for it and save it for later. Those don't really count. For me there's two types of DNF, both after I've read a chunk: one I'll try later, thinking it's a mood thing, and one I realize is not for me.

The Stone Raft by José Saramago seemed like it might be really good, but I wasn't in the mood for it.

The one that was definitely not for me was The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I know it's well-loved, but for me, yuck.

Like Franky, for most of my life, I did not DNF a book. That said, I am sure there were times that I unconsciously abandoned a few. I simply bookmarked it, set it aside, and forgot about it. Thanks to some good group friends I realized that life is too short to spend time with a book that does not grab me between 50 and 100 pages.

Lynn's question has caused me to go back through last year's reading. I did not have any DNF's. I also didn't have any 1-star reads and only 4 two-star reads. I had a very good year!

I couldn’t remember any off the top of my head, but I took a look at my DNF shelf, and sure enough, there were several last year.

▨ Watchmen — I had been given the impression that this was very much a graphic novel, not just a lengthy comic book. That wasn’t my experience of it.
▨ Food: A Love Story — My wife brought this for us to listen to on a road trip, because we’re both fans of Gaffigan. We got about 30 minutes in; it was absolutely awful. We’re not as big of fans as we had been before.
▨ Jerusalem: The Biography — When people say they don’t like nonfiction, I assume it’s because they think it’s all like this book. I love nonfiction, but this was just dry, tedious, uninteresting, and frankly not even reliably factual.
▨ In the Lives of Puppets — Honestly, this one was my own fault. I’m not at all the target audience for this. One of my irl book groups was reading it, so I thought I’d give it a go. Couldn’t bear it.

And it wasn’t last year, but I just DNF’d David Copperfield. I have no interest in (or sympathy for) the title character, and there’s not enough else to make it worth my while. Got about 2/3 through, so one might have expected inertia to get me through, but there are more interesting things calling my name.

I finished 123 books in 2024, and DNF'd 13

my DNF rate has increased noticeably over the last couple of years, because I have been "forcing" myself to read books that I have been putting off cos I was a bit dubious/leery about or just outright didn't fancy at all, and for the most part my instincts have been proving "correct"

I won't name any, cos I prefer to talk about books that I liked, but suffice to say that the most popular reason for a DNF for me tends to be if both the plot and characters are not engaging me and I really could not care less what happens and how things work out for anyone
sometimes the style really P's me off
and sometimes I get what the author is doing but the book is just so darned long that I can't face spending yet more time ploughing through more of the same

Bob wrote: "Like Franky, for most of my life, I did not DNF a book. That said, I am sure there were plenty of times that I unconsciously abandoned a few. I simply bookmarked it, set it aside, and forgot about ..."

That sounds lovely Bob. What a good year!

Teri-K wrote: "As a mood reader I DNF a lot, often knowing I'll come back to the book another time and enjoy it. I don't keep track of those, or of times I barely start a book only to realize it's not right for m..."

Haha, Teri-K, I had the exact same experience this year with Half a Soul (fun) vs Ten Thousand Stitches (meh). Except I only tried Ten Thousand Stitches once -- you're more persistent than I am. :)

Wobbley wrote: "Haha, Teri-K, I had the exact same experience this year with Half a Soul (fun) vs Ten Thousand Stitches (meh). Except I only tried Ten Thousand Stitches once -- you're more persistent than I am. :)"

The sad thing was, since my library didn't have a copy of Half a Soul and it had taken Libby ages to get it, I'd bought Ten Thousand Stitches - new. Something I rarely do. So I really wanted to read it and enjoy it. Sadly, after those two tries it went to my used bookstore, which only gives you 10% off your total purchase for any number of books traded in. Ouch.

I struggled for years with the "guilt" of leaving a book unfinished, and I still do, but I am starting to leave them if I don't like them.

I can't remember exactly ( I do not mark unfinished books), but I think DNFed one, a novel written by a 19th century Croatian writer. The story was dull and superficial, and the writing style terrible. I had the same issue with some other Croatian writers of the same era, but I forced myself to finish them. I decided not to with this one. I have also decided, after many tries, that one very famous Croatian writer (so important that an age in Croatian literature bears his name), wasn't for me. I read his short stories and managed to finish maybe 2 out of 10. I gave him up or good.

Many years ago, I DNFed Faulkner. I decided his works are just not for me. I know he is very popular, but...just no.

I also struggled with DNFing, Samanta. I had always forced myself to finish books I had started. I give them 100 pages now. If they don't have me at all by then, I'm out.

Sara wrote: "I also struggled with DNFing, Samanta. I had always forced myself to finish books I had started. I give them 100 pages now. If they don't have me at all by then, I'm out."

You are more determined than I am, Sara. I don't have the page limit, i still try to hold out as long as I can, but it's sometimes difficult.

Like many of you, I'm trying to get myself out of that lifelong habit of "I must finish this book!" I've done much better in the last couple of years. I can't remember the book I quit last year, but remember the empowering feeling of letting go of something that I was not enjoying at all. Yay! We can do this!

Read what you Love! Love what you Read!! ;)

It's funny how so many of us have this in common. I so rarely DNF books for good. If I do DNF, it's mostly set aside to read at another time. I have finished many bad books, but at least I can say I know for sure.

Last year I DNFed 2 books, that I can remember.

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI I found this book anxiety-provoking and stressful. My real life had enough of that last year, so I gave up on the book. I may go back to it someday, as I really liked his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

Laurus I can't really remember what didn't work for me at the time. I may go back and try again. Although, I always feel bad reading books translated from Russian when I am fluent in Russian. Maybe I should try to get it in the original language.