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| Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! |
There are plenty of reasons to set down a book. Offensive or uncomfortable subject matter, frustrating style and diction, or just a general boredom with its contents. A bad author, or a bad time of year (I can't be the only one who's been suffering from a general Covid-related slump). It's no wonder that not only is this habit widely-practiced, but also highly recommended by those who hope to up their Goodreads challenge goals. If you aren't having fun, you don't have to keep on reading!
And you know what? To put a book to the side for a while doesn't even have to mean that you're really DNF'ing it, either... just last year, I started Charlotte Gordon's Romantic Outlaws at the top of the year, in February, and didn't get around to finishing it until November. And I still ranked it pretty darn high, because I thought it was a really well researched and interesting study! I made it to the finish line in the end, and that's what matters.
Still, there are some books that should be abandoned for a reason. Take a gander at my last few put-down-able books, and let me know if there are any worth picking up again!
the ones I'm definitely not picking up again, for sure, ever
I originally perused this highly-hyped, highly-recommended novel during a bout of speed-dating my extensive TBR shelves, and was pretty interested by the time the timer went off about nine pages in. Unfortunately, the blurb on the back is coy with its actual subject matter, which I only realized during a conversation with a friend: while the description states "a violent act that leaves a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil" is the major action, it is more specifically - spoiler alert AND trigger warning - her rape at the age of 15, by one of the players on the hockey team at the center of the novel. There are better ways to spend my time.
2. The Color Master: Stories, Aimee Bender
Wouldn't you know it? Violence and other weird relationships with women are also the reason I put this book immediately into the "donate" pile, too, after another round of speed-dating my shelves. Of the first two stories, the first describes an assault, and the second has to do with a woman who finds herself unable to have sex with her husband unless he treats her like a prostitute. No thanks.
the ones I'll end up rereading eventually, regardless
To be very clear, this series by Bray - a favorite of my teenage years - is, in my opinion, one of the best YA Supernatural books on offer in any bookstore. Not only is it a personal favorite, but it's one I loved so much, I passed it along to my younger brother. So you can imagine his immense frustration at the fact that I am stuck somewhere around the middle of this thick installment, while he waits for me to catch up on my rereads before we get to the fourth book in the series, King of Crows.
4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5), J. K. Rowling
Another example of failure in a readalong-gone-wrong with my little brother. Originally, I had started reading this book two years ago (!!!), when he and I were trying to get through reading and rewatching all of the Harry Potter books and movies over the course of a calendar year. I picked it up around July... and promptly put it back down, 11 pages in. I'd rather just reread the first four over and over again - the second is my favorite - but I'm sure I'll pick up the fifth again sometime.
the ones I was enjoying, but were just... a lot to commit to at the time
Okay, so here's the thing: I was so, SO excited to read this one. I actually got a little over 50 pages in! But then I considered how the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel was a reflection on Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, and carried some of its themes, and contained more than a few Easter eggs, and I haven't read Dalloway since college, which was about five years ago, and I thought, "Hey, maybe I should reread Mrs. Dalloway again first..."
6. Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
So then I picked up Mrs. Dalloway! But here's the other thing: I don't know which copy of this novel you have, but the one I have is typeset in a very small font. And its style - stream of consciousness, with winding, drawn-out descriptions and flighty, spirited deviations in time and focus - isn't exactly conducive to those with short attention spans. Which I kind of have right now, you know, now that the world is essentially a pit of chaos. I'm sure I'll pick this up again when everything goes back to normal... whenever that is.
7. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
So, you know how that one movie adaptation of this book came out a little while ago? And how everyone in both the Book Community At Large and the Period Film Community At Large absolutely loved it? And they couldn't stop talking about Saorsie Ronan or Florence Pugh or etc.? It kind of made me confront the fact that I had never read it. (There's a story there. I'll tell you some other time.) And, you know, now I still haven't read it. I will at some point. Maybe.
8. Jane Austen: A Life, Claire Tomalin
Holy cow, was I loving this book. Absolute painstaking detail, comprehensive and far-spread focus on not just Jane herself, but the backgrounds and motivations of literally all of her wide-reaching family, as well as descriptions of the sociocultural setting of the time, just really, really well done. But then, you know, the world fell apart. And suddenly, all that detail and background and information just was a little too much to handle. I absolutely look forward to picking this one up again... just not right now!
I mean, it's a risk of the genre
I'm just going to leave numbers 9 and 10 under the general header for this one. Romance novels, guys. It's a mixed bag. And when you take a chance on Romance - especially the self-published kind - sometimes, you might end up with something you'd rather just... not. But it's okay, because it's just so easy to move on to the next one!
What's in your Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below!
