Today's suggestion is from Cereal Box ReaderI would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?
Well now...this would seem to be a timely question seeing as I have literally just posted about a book that I have given up on this week! As I said in that post, it is very, very rare for me to put a book down with no intention of picking it up again. The only other two books that I can think of where this happened over the last couple of years are The Well by Elizabeth Jolley and Music and Silence by Rose Tremain. Whilst I don't envisage ever picking up The Well again, every now and again I think that maybe the time just wasn't right for Music and Silence and maybe I should give it another go one day because it seems to have the right kind of setting and storyline that I should really love!
Now, if you want to talk about the books that I have started and put down with the intention of picking up again but having not done so yet, that is a whole other question. A couple of examples of those books are Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory...and lots of others!
You're right about delayed finishes being a whole other question. I ocassionally go back to the Bible and to the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, but I certainly don't consider them abandoned- just who could read either of those in a single run?
ReplyDeleteIs Cry, the Beloved Country the book where the author doesn't use quotation marks?
ReplyDeleteThe most recent books I abandoned were Jacob and Desperate Duchesses. (The latter I decided to properly read when the entire series has been published or the secondary romance is properly resolved.)
Marg - yes you right. It is whole different questions ifit a book that I started, put it down and IS intention to pick it up again. I normally give books a second chance before I knew the book isn't for me :)
ReplyDeleteI never heard of the books you listed here, but good luck on given Music and Silence another go :)
Happy BTT !
I have not read any of the books you listed, but I do agree with you about timing. I think this really influences our reading and our thoughts, and then again there's our reading moods...
ReplyDeleteI hope you will enjoy the books when you decide to read them again.
I have gone back to an abandoned one at some point or other. But I will never read a Hemingway!
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely books where timing is everything. I've started something and thought 'meh' only to pick it up a week, month or even a year later and realize what a treasure it is. So mood does matter.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm about a third of the way through VIRGIN RIVER by Robyn Carr and am wondering why everyone loved it so much. I'm struggling and the characters just aren't that interesting to me. Timing? Maybe. I set it aside for now.
I put books aside all the time. I usually try to give them 50 or 100 pages as a fair trial, but after that, I figure life is too short and full of amazing books to trudge through blah ones.
ReplyDelete