I used to finish every book I
started, whether I was enjoying it or not. But life is short. I’ve realised
that I don’t have time for books I’m not full involved in any longer so if I
don’t like something or don’t connect with it as much as I want to, I’ll put it
aside. It still makes me feel guilty though, especially if I received them for
review so I still want to talk about them, explain why I didn’t like them. Here
are the most recent books I DNF-ed.
A Parisian
Affair, Guy de Maupassant
When the Pocket Penguins were first
announced, this short story collection was the first one that leaped out at me
from the list. I loved the sound of a collection about Parisian life full of
misdeeds, mistakes, lust and the debauchery of nineteenth century Paris from ‘the
father of the short story’, but I was SO disappointed. I read about four
stories, but I had to push myself through each one, especially the two that
were about 40 pages long. Nothing grabbed me and I just found myself dreading
picking it back up again.
The
Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
This epic
Victorian mystery is one of the classics I’ve been most looking forward to
tackling this year, but at nearly 800 pages it’s daunting. And I definitely
picked it up at a bad time. October turned out to be a stupidly busy and
stressful month, and though I enjoyed the 150 or so pages of this that I read, I
just couldn’t dedicate the time and effort it needs and deserves. I tried the
audiobook but it just wasn’t doing it for me. I’ll be going back to the book in
the future, however.
The Ghost
Stories of Edith Wharton, Edith Wharton
I read Wharton’s Ethan Frome earlier in the year and fell
head over heels in love. I immediately vowed to read everything by her and was
overjoyed to discover she was a big writer and fan of ghost stories – perfect for
Halloween, I thought. But I really struggled with this collection. The stories
are fairly lengthy, averaging at about 30 pages each and while they’re
elegantly creepy and well written, I put this down and ended up forgetting I was
actually reading it for over a week…
Sophie
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