I’ve seen a lot of posts around lately about people who always finish books they pick up.  They feel wrong if they don’t finish them.  I don’t have that problem.  I’m a ruthless DNFer (did not finish).  I don’t even need a good reason.  Here’s a few books I didn’t finish lately and the reasons why.

If you are a person who needs to finish every book, you may want to cover your eyes.

The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan but I’ve never read Sandman. I’ve heard forever about how good it is but I never got around to it. I finally picked up a book of the whole thing. It was heavy. It was boring. Yeah, I said it. I went through about 40 pages waiting for something amazing to happen and then I sent it back to the library.

 

The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern TimesThe Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times by Tristram Stuart

This one hurt. I was excited about this history of the vegetarian movement. But then it went on and on with English men fighting over what interpretation of Bible verses could mean that you should be nice to animals. I just wanted to slap them all and tell them that they didn’t have to justify compassion by jumping through semantic hoops. Maybe they could be just kind without the Bible condoning it? Finally, it irritated me so much I gave up.

 

Shadow Scale (Seraphina, #2)Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

This is the sequel to Seraphina, which I loved. This book was suffering from second book syndrome though. It was setting up the next story instead of having a compelling story of its own. I forced myself though 3/4 of it before I admitted that I just didn’t care what happened and I sent it back to the library.

 

Written in the StarsWritten in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

This is a book about a girl being forced into a marriage and trying to get away from it. It should be upsetting but I was just annoyed by the parents. There is only so much stupid I can take and listening to a whole book of “You shame us, you horrible female child” was getting on my last nerve. It is 2015 in the U.S. Get over it.

 

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, #1)Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

I should have liked this book. It is urban fantasy but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I knew it wasn’t for me when I wasn’t excited about listening to it when I was driving. I returned it to Audible. I think that is the first time I’ve done that.

 

 

The Private Papers of Eastern JewelThe Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley

This is based on the real story of a Chinese woman raised in Japan who worked as a spy. That should be good but in the forward the author talks about how she came across the story and wanted to tell it from the woman’s point of view to make her seem less thoroughly bad than the press described her. Yeah, that didn’t work. She was completely unlikeable which can work sometimes but not really in the whole “I was bored so I slept with my foster father because I could” way.


 

Maybe I don’t feel bad about not finishing books because I get them from the library.  No harm, no foul, just send them back and try something else.  Maybe I’d feel different if I bought books.

Do you finish every book you start?  What will make you put down a book?