Top 10 Books I Struggled With & Ultimately DNF’ed

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Ten Books I Struggled to Get Into But Ended Up Loving or Ten Books That Were A Chore To Get Through or Ten Books I’ve Most Recently Put Down (the theme is…books you had a hard time with…tweak it how ever you need)

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DNFing books has always been hard for me.  Even if I’m not enjoying a book, there’s this little nagging voice in my head that says ‘Give it a chance. It has to get better or else it never would have been published.’  Thankfully that little voice has gotten much quieter since I started blogging and quite frankly don’t have the time to waste on bad books.  If I’m just not into it, I’m getting much better about just cutting my losses and moving on to the next book.  Below are some books that even when that nagging voice to keep reading was at its loudest, I still was not able to get through and ended up DNFing.

Top 10 Books I Struggled With & Ultimately DNF’ed

1. AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman

I’ve always been hit or miss when it comes to Neil Gaiman.  I absolutely loved The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Stardust, but American Gods, even though it seems to be one of his most popular books, just wasn’t a good fit for me. I struggled with it for weeks and finally had to DNF it.  (Find out what it’s about…)

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2. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks

Those who have followed my blog for a while are probably chuckling at this one and wondering why I even tried to read it, based on my aversion to most things romantic.  Honestly, I don’t know why I tried to read it either.  I guess because so many other people I know were raving about it. I thought surely it would melt my romance-averse heart.  Nope!  (Find out what it’s about…)

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3.  THE ONE MEMORY OF FLORA BANKS by Emily Barr

This is one I just recently DNF’ed and was really bummed that I didn’t enjoy it since so many of my fellow bloggers loved it so much.  The issue for me was that while I had complete sympathy for Flora and her situation, the constant repetition just got to be too much for me and I found myself skimming and skipping, looking for anything that wasn’t just a rehash of the basic memories she has of her life.  It just got to be tedious.  (Find out what it’s about…)

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4. GIRLS ON FIRE by Robin Wasserman

What I learned from trying to read this book is that I’m not a big fan of books that feature toxic friendships.  This also probably wasn’t a book I would have normally picked out but it was on so many anticipated reading lists that I got caught up in the hype.  This is also one of those books that made me start questioning who puts those buzz lists together anyway.  For the past couple of years, nearly every disappointing book I’ve read has appeared on one or more of those lists.  (Find out what it’s about…)

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5. RICH AND PRETTY by Rumaan Alam

Another hyped book that just wasn’t a good fit for me.  I picked this one up not just because of the buzz, but also because it’s a book about female friendships and because it’s set in New York City, which is one of my favorite cities and book settings.  Those two things just ended up not being enough this time.  It didn’t feel like there was much of a plot at all and I didn’t connect with the characters so I gave up on it.  (Find out what it’s about…)

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6. THE PARIS WIFE by Paula McLain

I usually love historical fiction and books that are set in Paris, but I just found this to be a very dry read.  I guess maybe I’m just not as big of a Hemingway fan as I thought I was.  (Find out what it’s about…)

This is another one of those books that pretty much everyone I know seems to love, but I found it dull and boring.  I don’t even remember how far I got into it, but I disliked it enough that I gave it 1 star and I don’t do that often.  (Find out what it’s about…)

8. GIRL IN SNOW by Danya Kukafka

I thought the premise of this book sounded so good, but when I actually sat down and started reading, I didn’t like the writing style at all. I felt like it was just dancing all around the subject at hand without really advancing the plot so I gave up about a third of the way through.  All I can even remember about the story is that a girl was found dead and one of the main characters whose point of view we’re given is a boy who used to stare at the girl through her bedroom window.   (Find out what it’s about…)

9. CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS by Sally Rooney

The blurb for this book had kind of a Friends vibe for me, which was why I decided to pick it up. It sounded like a fun contemporary read about a group of friends post-college.  Unfortunately I just found it dull and didn’t really connect with any of the characters.  Others have rated it highly so maybe I gave up on it too soon, but it just didn’t seem like it was going to work for me.  (Find out what it’s about…)

10. ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand

I hate DNFing classics because in my mind, there’s a reason they’re considered classics.  But at 1,168 pages filled with tiny print (at least the edition I was trying to read), it was just too much book.  This is one I could see myself trying again maybe in an e-format so that the print is larger and the book itself isn’t so cumbersome, but for now, DNF.  (Find out what it’s about…)

Question:  What are some books you tried to struggle through but ultimately ended up DNFing?