Top Ten Tuesday:
Ten Books I Struggled to Get Through (Or Didn't Finish)
DID NOT FINISH
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
(I quickly read 100 pages and then stalled out)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
(I read this on a plane flight home from somewhere and I can't remember a thing.)
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
(It is too depressing what the Internet is doing to our brains. Sigh)
Gulp by Mary Roach
(I actually think I will get back to this one, someday. I enjoy this author a lot.)
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
(This is a tome weighing in at over 500 pages. I am currently reading it right now and wonder if I will finish it.)
Romeo and/Juliet: a Chooseable Path Adventure by Ryan North
(I read several of the adventures and all of them were stupid. I gave up or didn't know how to actually read the whole book.)
FINISHED, BUT IT WAS A CHORE
Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy
(A book club selection. I thought I would never finish the book. Ugh.)
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
(I was disappointed that this book wasn't anything like the movie. The middle part was especially draggy. It was a miracle that I finished it.)
Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
(I had heard this was a hilarious book, written in the late 1800s. I am not sure if I laughed once.)
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
(What a weird book. WEIRD. I finished it because it, too, was a book club selection.)
The Hotel on Place Vendome by Tilar Mazzeo
(Everyone was disappointed by this book which had so much potential to tell real WWII stories.)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
(I had a lot of trouble reading this book, even though the story was good. I don't like reading plays.)
Sadly I had the same problem with Out of Africa as you know from my CC spin last year. I've also never got further than the first page of White Teeth - I'm hoping to have better luck with Swing Time.
ReplyDeleteI remember that we were both struggling with Out of Africa near the same time last year.
DeleteNot finishing a book or finishing one that is a struggle is so frustrating. I think that might be contributing to my reading block. It's been over 2 weeks since I've read anything!
ReplyDeleteI liked White Teeth, but it is slow going. I've talked to my HP fanatic students and they all pretty much told me to avoid Cursed Child so I don't plan on picking it up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your students. Avoid Cursed Child.
DeleteYou know, I've seen that Lemon Cake book show up several times lately at my library...
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the few bloggers who enjoyed Cursed Child. I don't consider it canon, but it was at the very least entertaining. I totally hear you when it comes to format though. Sometimes plays don't really give you all the details you need to form a picture.
ReplyDeleteI've tried and tried to read Three Men and I never get far before I give up. Maybe I should just permanently give up. A Fine Balance, now...that book touched my heart. So much sadness in that book.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I really did like Five Days at Memorial...with the Harvey and Irma having just occurred I'm thinking there is plenty of things to think about it in this one.
ReplyDelete