DNF -- Did Not Finish

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

This is something I hate and try to avoid as much as possible but, sometimes (and for reasons that we largely cannot explain), certain books or stories just don't click with us and we simply have to drop them.

What are some examples of this sort of thing that you have experienced yourself and why did they happen?

I personally recall having to abandon the first book on the "Outlander" series -- it just lost me after having done a pretty spectacular work of it, and I still think about the parts that really worked... But taken as a whole? I just couldn't digest it.

What about you? Do you regret closing the book or do you think it was just the right call?

 

[ciro64 ciro64]

I stopped reading the Movie Making Nerd half way through... but for no reason in particular. I was actually enjoying it.

 

[χKai]

Sometimes if something is particularly cringe or disregarding of other's rights and/or lives, it will make me stop so that I can go unleash my rage in a healthier outlet instead of.. Well.
I'll leave it that to your imagination.

 

[ICD]

I have always managed to read everything but I also had to force myself sometimes because it's a shame when you start something and don't finish it.

 

[trickybus]

Books I read for leisure I tend to finish as I know what I like—history, fantasy/fiction, and especially historical fiction. The earliest exception to that was Charles Dickens' Great Expectations because I picked that one up way before I had the vocabulary to get through it without stopping to look up every other word. Can't say I regret it because while it's considered a classic, it runs contrary to my literary tastes.

Nearly all of the books I ended up putting down were mandatory reads that were either too dry or written by loonies. In high school, I suffered all the way through Atlas Shrugged until I got to John Galt's speech near the end. I looked ahead to discover that his speech was several, droning pages long and tapped out right there. No regrets.

Grapes of Wrath was a mandatory read that bored me to tears. I wouldn't be able to summarize it for you because I think my mind black-holed it for my sanity.

 

[psvitaforever]

I borrowed "Harry Potter" books from a friend; I read them "just because", I weren't really interested but you were hearing about HP everywhere, so...
I used to read very fast so I went through at least the first three books in a few weeks, after that I had no desire to keep on and also I could not remember anything about what I had read, probably I wasn't interested at all in the characters, their story, the setting, everything.
I never wished to watch HP movies as well: I watched some minutes once, when it was on TV and I was scrolling through channels, but I felt no interest. So, no regrets and no desire to read them again.

Also, I can't really explain why I like or don't like something, it's a question that I find very difficult to give a good and long answer.

 

[Teordek]

Sometimes if something is particularly cringe

This was me with Napoleon Dynamite. Its particular style of humor really just made me uncomfortable more than anything else.

 

[χKai]

This was me with Napoleon Dynamite. Its particular style of humor really just made me uncomfortable more than anything else.

Oh you sweet summer child.
I mean far worse cringe than that!

 

[Teordek]

Oh you sweet summer child.
I mean far worse cringe than that!

You right, but I'm thinking about more conventionally popular stuff that people actually like tbh. Anyone can nope out of a basement showing of Feeders.