Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Recent DNFs


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is books straight outta struggle town. I want this blog to be a positive place, so I don’t spend much time talking about books I give up on, but I think they’re worth mentioning. Here are the books I’ve DNFed so far in 2017. There are only 4 of them, so this is a top four Tuesday.





Books From Struggle Town 








The Clan Of The Cave Bear – Jean M. Auel

It’s so long and so slow. Basically, I ran out of patience.




















Three Moments Of An Explosion – China MiĆ©ville


The book made me feel stupid. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be getting out of these bizarre stories. My reaction to most of them was, “Um . . . okay . . . ?”















Pygmy – Chuck Palahniuk

It’s written entirely in a made-up dialect. I can handle dialect in small doses, but a whole book of it will quickly get on my nerves.
















A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels In The Far East – Tiziano Terzani

The author gets the opportunity to spend a year traveling around Asia. He spends the whole trip whining nonstop about Asia.












What’s the last book you gave up on? Why’d you give up?







14 comments:

  1. Only 4 books isn't bad!! I haven't DNFed many this year either. I have struggled through some though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I gave up on Clan of the Cave Bear as well. It was so longwinded I just couldn't 'bear' it! Har! Yes, ok, moving on...I did the same thing this week. My tpoic is the worst books I've DNFed this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've heard of the Clan of the Cave Bear before and couldn't decide if I should try it. It sounded like it could either be really cool or awful.
    My recent DNFs

    ReplyDelete
  4. I try to be pretty positive as well when talking about books. I'm usually able to find something worthwhile in just about every book I read. Unfortunately, there are exceptions. Here is my Top Ten Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have no interest in reading Clan of the Cave Bear - the movie was slow enough! It was good, but I'll keep it to just the movie. I haven't heard of the rest. No DNFs yet for me this year. YET. lol
    Rebecca @ The Portsmouth Review
    Follow me on Bloglovin'

    ReplyDelete
  6. Concerning "made up dialects" I'd stay away from "A Clockwork Orange" (It was like having to learn a new language with a dictionary in the back).

    As for your last book ("A Fortune Teller....") which I labeled "a little condescending, I did read it and reviewed it: http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-fortune-teller-told-me-earthbound.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooh I always wanted to read Clan of the Cave Bear but never did. Maybe that's for the best if it's slow...

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you only DNFed 4 books, that shows the type of follow through that I do NOT have. If I cannot get into a book by 20 - 25%, I am out. I don't tend to keep track of them, though I am trying. I just sort of pretend like the bad experience never happened.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh wow Pygmy definitely sounds like it'd be hard to get into?! I struggled enough with the slang in The Maze Runner! (Although I did end up loving the book, it was still HARD trying to figure out a new "language" without context.) I hardly ever DNF...I hate unfinished things. šŸ˜‚ But I couldn't finish Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Just sooo boring.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, no-not Clan of the Cave Bear!!! LOL ;) I absolutely love the Earth's Children series. I was just talking to a friend about rereading the whole thing. I must admit that Clan of the Cave Bear is slow, but the series picks up quite a bit with Valley of the Horses I promise! Ayla moves on and things change dramatically for her. Let me know if you ever decide to try the second book. You could honestly start the series from there. I own one book by Chuck Palahniuk, but I can't seem to bring myself to read it. After reading reviews of his work I sort of think he may not be for me. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Only one of these is on my tbr list. I feel like I should read Clan of the Cave Bear but have never actually seriously thought about starting it. It will probably hang out on my tbr list for a long long time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As Rebecca noted, you can see the movie for Clan.

    I read a graphic novel by Mieville. I liked the basic concept better than where she ended up going with it.

    I liked Choke. But yeah - different dialects make reading tougher. This is similar to why I haven't read Trainspotting.



    ReplyDelete
  13. Bwhhaha I totally would have ditched the whining about Asia guy. Like boo-hoo, you get to travel? Hard pass on that. I don't think I could do ALL the made up dialect of Pygmy either- that's just too much! Sad about The Clan Of The Cave Bear, I was hoping that would be good, since people compared Ivory & Bone to it (though that bored me too, so maybe not haha). Only 4 is really good though! I wish I had your DNF frequency- not too many, but you do it when you have to, I like it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my... I read a travelogue EXACTLY like that one but shined whined about divorcing her husband the ENTIRE time... poor guy!

    ReplyDelete