Did Not Finish Titles [DNF] - And Why

[John F]

Originally Posted by shmn

Sorry to hear that. It's a difficult book to get through. Not because of the writing but the topic. It's a depressing subject and it's message is timely (although, the message can be considered "timely" at any time in human history) which can frighten more than horror novels.

Nevertheless, I found it to be one of the best books of 2023 and will probably read it again in a couple of years. I also found his prose to be engaging given it's sparse, relentless, stream-of consciousness style.

Although I don't necessarily agree with the goal of reading prize winners for the reason they won a prize...have you considered another Booker Prize winner which is a bit lighter in tone than Lynch's offering? Like Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac from 1984. It's not "up-beat" but, at least, it's not dystopian.

For me, it was the writing. I don't recall DNFing a book due to topic. I really enjoyed Life of Pi, and as I recall, I liked The Remains of the Day.

I'll continue reading the winners, I'm just going to give them a little lower priority.

[sydmalicious]

One of the worst books I dnf'd was The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent.

It was free on Audible and at first I started to enjoy it until he got weirdly cartoonishly libertarian and I quit it shortly after. I don't care that he's a gun toting, Don't Tread on Me right winger. The digs on liberals, which I can usually take, were just plain bad. Not my type of humor.

[sydmalicious]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I just read The Road, and his tenuous grasp on punctuation is obnoxious, indeed.

That bothered me for a good five minutes and then I proceeded to devour that book. Acquired taste, for sure.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by sydmalicious

That bothered me for a good five minutes and then I proceeded to devour that book. Acquired taste, for sure.

Yeah, for me, The Road is a brilliant novel of literary fiction.

For other important authors who fully understand (and use unmediated dialogue in their works), you might wish to check out William Gaddis, Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner [The Sound and the Fury], and José Saramago.

Especially José Saramago. Saramago sometimes has a very 'Kafkaesque' flavor to his writing. His work speaks deeply to my concerns regarding narrative technique and his vision of the world.

Cormac McCarthy [The Road] is a brilliant writer of literary fiction. He knew exactly what he was doing. He also wrote a number of important works that use unmediated dialogue. You may wish to check out his absolutely brilliant trilogy called The Border Trilogy. Equally important is the novel Blood Meridian. McCarthy, you may know, died June of last year.

Perhaps one or two of the above may pique your interest. These are literary novels with important concerns about human nature and life, and they delve deeply into these aspects of humanity.

[Cactus Chef]

I recently read Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger and its companion Stella Maris, but I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from them, other than "Being a genius sucks."

Still waiting for Blood Meridian to go on sale to round out my collection, but they haven't let it drop in price since he died.

EDIT: Well, hey, it finally went on sale. Guess I'll be reading Blood Meridian next!

[Artemis]

I made it 76% of the way through James Clavell's Shogun before DNFing. Clavell made the stranger-in-a-strange-land trope come across as dated, fetishistic orientalism. I know that if I had read it when I was younger, I'd have enjoyed it. It was around the time that I was reading the umpteenth instance of Blackthorne moping about all of the Japanese women he has to sleep with (and how one of them is ugly, oh woe is he!) that I deleted it and found something else to read.

[7hir7een]

I have DNFed about 30 books since I started keeping track on Goodreads. I used to be highly reluctant not to finish a book. I'd like to think I've since gotten better about not giving too much time to books I don't like--eight of the books are from just this year. Now I say I'll give it up to 10% or 50 pages to convince me to finish it.

My main reason for DNFing is similar to why I pick up books -- I am a mood reader who hardly ever knows what I'm going to read in advance. Mostly I just pick something off my Goodreads or Calibre in random sort mode and go from there. So either I am not in the right mood for a book, I am bored by it, or do not enjoy the writer's style / the content.

Being able to download samples of ebooks has saved me a ton of money. I can't tell you how many samples I've put down over the years. I don't keep track of those

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Yeah, for me, The Road is a brilliant novel of literary fiction.
[...]

I read this only recently and was surprised to discover how much I agree with you. Given some of the comments I'd read I was expecting to have trouble, but instead found myself immediately immersed in the setting.

P.S. Thanks for the other recommendations.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by gmw

I read this only recently and was surprised to discover how much I agree with you. Given some of the comments I'd read I was expecting to have trouble, but instead found myself immediately immersed in the setting.

P.S. Thanks for the other recommendations.

You're welcome.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.