10 Books I DNF'd (Did not finish)

There's no rule that says: "Thou shalt finish any book once begun." 

It's important to generalize that rule from books to tv shows, video games, and meals you're allergic, to. 

There are many reasons I don't finish a book. Sometimes the book is on loan and I have to return it. Or sometimes I loan the book out! Books have been lost, packed away, or accidentally destroyed by a spilled glass. Sometimes the book comes out in a different form for better or worse (like a movie or a comic). While I've read The Princess Bride multiple times, it's a big DNF for Shane. I got him most of the way through, but Carrie couldn't wait any longer to show him the movie.

The books below are ones that I started and chose to put down. The reasons are varied, but the books and my decision to stop reading were vivid enough I could recall them here. There are many others that aren't listed here, but (for whatever reason) they didn't come to mind.

The List

Honorable Mention -  A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. This is one of the few books I've rage-quit. I was enjoying it when my favorite character died in a way that infuriated me. This is only an honorable mention, though, because I went back and reread it later. I was able to be more objective round 2. For the book to be a series, that character had to die. It made sense based on the narrative and the motivations/machinations of other characters. This was all before the TV series. But that leads us to...

10. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - I started this book a couple of times, but never got into it. Matt read it and told me some cool things. I followed the card game some by Fantasy Flight and knew some cool things. The HBO show came out and I knew even more cool things. But amongst all that, I heard plenty of things I didn't like. It's a brutal series and for all the great moments it felt like someone tried to write a LOTR without hope. Everyone was terrible, muck everything up, and die in a variety of ways. That was the plan. The series is still unfinished. The ending of the HBO series was met with a lack of applause and GRRM may consider it safer to die with the series unfinished than face the fans. I may reconsider reading this if the series ever finishes (well), but I wouldn't bet on it (the finishing or the finishing well!).

9. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - I started to read the book to see if Shane was old enough and would like it. Carrie showed Shane the movie. It wasn't a bad book, but that killed my drive. If I was younger, or I had some other external motivation it may have kept my attention. I went through a Greek Mythology phase when I was in 4th or 5th grade, but haven't overly cared about it since. I did see a graphic novel version at the library. I picked it up hoping Shane would read it. He didn't, but I found where I left off the book version and skimmed through to see how it ended.

8. The White Tower (The Aldoran Chronicles: Book 1): An Epic Fantasy Adventure by Michael Wiseheart - I grabbed this book on Kindle for $0.99. 4.5 stars on 4,500 ratings. Magic is banned. Kid has magic. This had all the makings of, "Mike will like this." Something doesn't have to be original to be good....but this didn't do it for me. I like multiple viewpoints. This one bounced around too much and without setting a rhythm or pattern I could discern. It ended up being an object lesson for me about how not to handle an epic. It could be the book got better as time went on, but I kept trying to rewrite and revise it into a style I preferred. That's not a good way to enjoy a book. It was well liked, so I chalked this DNF up to "Probably a good book for the right person, but it didn't fit my taste." This might have been a good book for a much younger me. However, I've read a lot. Harry Potter wasn't my first magical school, so it didn't wow me like so many others. This book wasn't my first epic fantasy. I couldn't help but compare to other series I preferred, and I found it lacking. So I dropped it. For a buck, I didn't feel bad about it, either.

7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -  This was a classic. Sometimes classics are classic for reason other than being old. I read some glowing reviews about C&P. One reviewer listed it as a must read for any future psychiatrist or anyone interested in human psychology. I scanned some BookTube reviews on it and then Matt mentioned to me he'd met someone who converted to Christianity after reading it. I was intrigued. It was a big book from Russia and a difficult read, but I'd been to Russia and I'm a smart guy who liked to read so I tried it. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if it wasn't an audiobook. There was some imagery that I figured was meant to be funny, but the cultural/temporal distance let it elude me. I found Raskolnikov's falling apart boring rather than fascinating. I wanted more happening in the real world instead of the mental world of a character I didn't like. There were some weird name changes and I decided the book wasn't for me.

6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - While I'm talking about classics, I hated this book. Or maybe I would have if I was ever able to read more than a few chapters. I bashed my head against this book multiple times for an English assignment and never made much head way. I can quote the opening line, but it was too much work to read and I felt no payoff. Perhaps it really is brilliant. I'm not the one to ask. I ended up checking out the movie from Blockbuster, not enjoying it, and skipped to the end. I BS-ing my assignment and probably ended up with a C or a B. I have no interest in going back to this book even if only to judge if it's as bad in reality as in memory. I doubt I would have ever picked it up if I wasn't required to. 

5. Unnatural Acts: The Cases of Dan Shamble, Zombie PI by Kevin J Anderson - Objectively, I enjoyed this book far more than A Tale of Two Cities. It got promoted on the list to keep the classics together, but it can also represent something I get sick of: preachiness. The book started off okay. The theme seemed amusing. A zombie detective was contacted by a golem who was forced to make tourist knick-knacks. There were some funny lines here and there as everything ambled along. But it was off somehow. I may have grinned here and there, but I kept feeling like the book should have been better. It missed the mark over and over again, but by just enough I hoped, "Maybe this will click for me." And then it got extra preachy. I dislike when books get too preachy or political. If it's subtle enough, presents information from both sides of a nuanced subject, and lets the reader make conclusions, it's fine. But when it's screaming off the pages? Hard pass. This rule even applies when it's something I beat the drum for. I'm a Christian and I like C.S. Lewis. However, I've only read the first book of Narnia. It was enjoyable, but too on the nose for me. I've never read the rest of the series, because of that. I won't pick up something like the golden compass which preaches against my core beliefs, because I don't want to argue with a book. Anyway, I got halfway through this book before I decided it'd be a waste of my time to go further. 

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - 

I first heard about this book while substitute teaching at Robinson Secondary School in NOVA. It sounded fascinating. It tells the tale of a special needs student who processes things radically different than "normal" who finds a dead dog and wants to solve the case. I got it on an Audible sale. I wanted Shane to hear about a viewpoint that was radically different from what he considered normal. It started off great. The way the protagonist thought was a major mindshift for Shane. But it didn't stay great. Shane lost interest, but that was fine with me. The story shifted in a way I didn't really want him to keep listening anyway. More things were revealed until I didn't really like any of the major players and I stopped reading. They revealed the answer to the mystery halfway through. The book never was a "solve who did it," but more of a "look at how these all cope with the main character's disability and trauma surrounding it by making poor life choices." The first few chapters are great for a "Wow! Could someone really think like that?" After that, I personally would not recommend it.

3. Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson - DG is book 2 in a series with a dedicated fanbase. I enjoyed the Wheel of Time, so I figured The Malazan Books of the Fallen could be my next epic. The biggest criticism I saw for The Malazan books was that the first book dropped you in the middle of the plot and said "Figure it out!" I have read that first book, Gardens of the Moon, twice. Both times, I enjoyed it. Yes, the criticisms were valid. Erikson drops you in to the action rather than building you up towards it, but I enjoyed the ride. I went into Deadhouse Gates ready for more and quit halfway through. It was too bleak, too slow, too hopeless, and I didn't see the characters from the first book I wanted to know more about. I've heard "it gets better once you get past book 3," but these are big books. I don't know if I want to put that amount of effort in. The Wheel of Time lagged for me around book 10, but by that point I was already so invested I wanted to work through to the final payoff. This series disappointed me by grabbing my interest and then smashing it to pieces. 

2. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson - I picked this up to experience a new detective. It got too real, too gruesome, and I dropped it like it was on fire. That was probably before Chapter 3. I like the puzzle and I like the bad guy getting caught. I don't want to know details about torture or the like. An initial scene in Oath of Swords by David Weber triggered me, but instant retribution came in the nick of time to prevent me from signing off. I went on Wikipedia to skim ahead on Along Came a Spider to see if I was overreacting and it screamed "Not for me."

1. Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie - This series was darker. I knew that going in. But it was written so well! There were characters I liked, action scenes I got into, and dialogue I laughed at. Say one thing for me, say I'm an optimist! Even when things kept getting darker, I hoped for a turnaround (a "eucatastrophe" to quote Tolkien). It was in Last Argument of Kings I figured out that was going to happen. I kept reading for a while, but eventually went online for a synopsis to confirm my prediction. Normally, I oppose reading the end of a book first. I justified it this time by saying I already finished the first two books. It saved me further reading. It really stunk to drop a trilogy halfway through book 3. I was nearly at the end! It was such a disappointment that this book shot to the top of this list. If someone reviewed another of Abercrombie's books as "Joe's writing, but lighter/less dark" I'd give it a whirl, but I haven't picked up one of his books since I dropped this one.