November Group Read: First Check-In

[kalloway]

Here we are, one week in. Have you finished or started anything? How are you feeling? (It is perfectly fine if the answers are "no", "nope", and "augh", of course.)


For added optional discussion, if you'd like- Do you ever DNF (Did Not Finish) books? If so, what makes you DNF something and when? Style? Content? Not grabbing you after x% of pages? Something else? Or are you the type of reader who finishes everything you start, no matter what?

Comments

[kalloway]

Perhaps not as much as intended, but...

All About Mandan, Michigan (Clarence J. Monette) is a short history of a ghost town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Rambling, but full of vintage photos and clearly well-researched and full of love for the subject.

Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink (Milk Morinaga) is a yuri (f/f) omnibus manga that wasn't on my list but snuck in for a re-read when I wanted something fluffy during a ridiculously long, busy week.

I finished watching Gingitsune, about a fox spirit, the shine he lives at, and the future priestess who can see him and then watched Taisho Baseball Girls. Taisho Baseball Girls is really charming! It's set in 1925 and is about a group of girls who form a baseball team (despite mostly knowing nothing about baseball), but it's also an interesting period piece for an era I haven't seen often in anime.

I did start The Enchanted Castle (E. Nesbit) but I've only read the first two chapters. I bounced off it before, but this time I think it'll stick.

Re: my question. I used to try to finish everything but... life's too short for stuff I'm not enjoying. Generally I try to give a book 10% of its page count and if it's not working for me, that's it. I have, absolutely, DNF'd books faster, including one whose prologue was so dire that I knew better than to waste my time. Most of the time I DNF something, it's because I don't like the protagonist or cast in general. Even if a book is well-written, if I don't care about the cast, why bother? Occasionally it's content. I had to DNF a romance I was otherwise enjoying because one of the subplots went off to a personal squick.

(I also once DNF'd a book because the lending library had put a plastic cover on it that made terrible crinkle noises every time I turned a page. But I just bought my own copy to enjoy crinkle-free.)

/accidental wall of text

[peaceful_sands]

You're not the only one to be affected by the cover of a book - I didn't buy several as I couldn't bear the feel of whatever the publisher had done to the covers. Mind you crinkly noises while reading would really annoy me too.

[kalloway]

Yeah, it was the worst cellophane and I have no idea why a library would use it. (But I guess it wasn't a total DNF since I'd liked what I did manage enough to get my own copy; I just need to get back to it.)

I also used to have a lot of trouble with hardcovers with dust jackets in general. Had to take them off and set them aside... Not possible with library books so I got used to them, but I still prefer paperbacks when I can get them.

[peaceful_sands]

I’ve come to the point where I don’t want the weight of hardbacks for general reading either and even find heavy paperbacks a drain.

[taichara]

Finished off Meat: a kitchen education and The Insect Cookbook: food for a sustainable planet, with inroads made on The Unknown Tutankhamun, Akhenaten: history, fantasy and ancient Egypt, and a hand-bound print of a nice facsimile version of the combined edition of Classic Traveller's three Little Black Books.

A few other things here and there, and gathering up some zines to (re)read, but mostly those.


Funny you mention DNFs, though -- and I'll abandon a book for all of the above and then some, because life's too short to read a book I can't stand -- because Horemheb: the forgotten pharaoh is a DNF this time! *lol*

Not that I'm surprised by this, because the first time was hilariously painful enough but I had to go back and see if I was exaggerating it in memory. I was not, lol.

You know when you stumble across in fandom a big ol' essay about an oh~ so overlooked and perfect and precious character and the author is clearly, shall we say, invested? Picture that, but an actual textbook. About a historical figure. This lady makes the Richard III fans look positively sensible -- she even inverts one of the poor man's titles to make it even more impressive! (her Deputy King -- oh I'm sorry, Deputy King, because for some reason all the big important titles are italicized -- is more properly rendered "King's Deputy" by every other scholar I have ever come across. lol.)

Even the intro is a wonder -- but no, I can't read this book twice X3

[peaceful_sands]

Deputy King??? I don't blame you for DNFing that one - totally different to a King's Deputy - even if there were such a thing, the meaning would be vastly different to my mind.

Hope the coming week's reading goes well.

[taichara]

Oh yeah, it was a special book. Lol.

Thanks kindly ~

[peaceful_sands]

Finished this last week - I am Pilgrim, Sway and Get Organized: Do More in Less Time (yep only two of those were in my original list but not to worry). I found the first two really good and the third okay - yes it had some good ideas, but also a bunch that I know wouldn't work for me at work or home. I also DNFd The Word Exchange I just couldn't get behind the characters and the plot was getting the best of me so yeah - it is no more.

I'm still struggling through Eve Green - I'm nearly a third of the way through and that's going to be the cut off - if it hasn't grasped me by then it's going out without finishing and I've just started Considering Phlebas (another that wasn't on my original list - basically this jumped the list because Audible are offering a 2 for 1 on the third and fourth book in the series for this week, so I thought I should finally get around to trying it out to see if I should take advantage of the offer).

I used to rarely DNF but instead books would be put to one side to come back to later but time and age and lots of good books and not enough time to make it through them all have convinced me that I shouldn't waste my time on things I'm not enjoying. Things that lead to a DNF - type is too small or I don't like the type on the page (e.g. the pages are too yellow or the font is unnecessarily strange or hard to read), I'm bored by the book and it's not grabbing my attention (not that it needs to be action packed but interesting), too gory or gruesome or violent. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and sometimes find that a good narrator will get me through a book that I couldn't get into when trying to read it myself, but a bad narrator (bad for me, not necessarily bad themselves) will lead to a DNF - some voices just don't work for me and the longer the book the less likely I am to stick with it. I still do temporarily DNF some books, thinking that if I come back in a different mood or at a different time, the book might work for me - sometimes I'm glad I did.

[kalloway]

it had some good ideas, but also a bunch that I know wouldn't work for me at work or home

I feel this way about basically every decluttering/organizational book I've read. There's generally something in each one that does work for me, but a lot that doesn't. At this point, it's just building a little toolkit of things to try and keeping what works and ditching what doesn't. (And recognizing when the advice is just downright bad, oi.)

[peaceful_sands]

I agree, that’s pretty much been my experience too - the decluttering book that told me I should have no more than ‘a small shelf that incorporates reference books and books waiting to be read’ was on to a losing streak at that point - clearly the author didn’t have quite the same love of books and reading that I did!

[kalloway]

I think I've only ever read one organizing book that flat out said 'if you want your space to look like a library because you like books, go for it', but unfortunately that was also the book that liked to put everything in decorative boxes and then stack them, which would absolutely guarantee I never put things away in/use anything in those lower boxes.

[rmc28]

I read the first chapter of She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, which was overdue from the library with eight people waiting for it. It was also on 99p at Amazon that day, so I bought it, and then returned the book that evening. When I did that, I found there was a new Penric & Desdemona novella from Lois McMaster Bujold: Knot of Shadows. I bought and read that immediately.

I am currently part way through The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, from the library, and am quite enjoying it so far. A small group of elderly retired people meet weekly to try to solve cold cases, but then a real murder happens in the neighbourhood and they try to solve that too.

I DNF books if I'm not liking them, or nothing's grabbing me, or I realise I put it down to do something else a few weeks ago and when I picked it up again I wasn't motivated to carry on. Or, sometimes the writing style is so very much Not For Me that I bounce off in the first few chapters (or, occasionally, paragraphs). I feel no obligation whatsoever to finish everything I start, life is too short for that and I don't get enough time to read as it is. Most books, I start, I read, I finish, everything's good. If that's not happening because I'm finding something about the book annoying, then I'll DNF.

[kalloway]

Well that sounds like it worked quite well and possibly even better!

The Thursday Murder Club sounds like it'd be right up my mother's alley, I'll have to ask if she's up for novel reading at all.

[pebblerocker]

My read is going well - Polgara the Sorceress turns out to be a worse person than was evident to me on an early read but everyone in the story is a bit of a jerk really...

I ought to have DNFed a fanfic I read today when I got to an actual throbbing manhood, but I stuck it out and then felt dissatisfied with my choices. The last paper book I DNFed was due to a very unappealing sex scene; I find that even the worst fanfic has less offputting sex in it than the average published book.

[kalloway]

I find that even the worst fanfic has less offputting sex in it than the average published book.

Yeah, I agree.

I'm definitely quick with the back-button when it comes with fic. Sometimes I'll soldier on if it's got a really interesting premise or is for a rare-pair, but mostly at the first stumble I'm outta there.

[fred_mouse]

This is definitely a time of DNFing books for me. I've finished some of the Hugo nominees that I've started, but once I have a story/entry in a category that I truly love, everything else has to meet that standard. If it is nearly there and it is early in the book, I'll keep going. But I've put two aside for saying nothing new. I'm sure they are great books, but so far they aren't reaching what I need them to do to consider them as contenders,

And I'm a big one for DNF. I've just moved from goodreads to storygraph, and one of the things that I love is that you can list did not finish, and it asks the reason why. Which means I can actually write those kinds of reviews, without having to worry about it being counted in my 'read' books for the year.

There are lots of reasons I do this, not least because my eyes are bigger than my available time, so I always get too many books at the library. Other than that, the main reason is because the author isn't doing anything interesting with a trope I find interesting but not must read, or there isn't a hook that grabs me at all. What irritates me is when I encounter fiction written by people who are obviously not paying attention to what is happening within their sub-genre(s), for whatever reason, and so I'm all 'we have moved past this, get with the programme'. (particularly egregious are those non-SF people who claim to have done something visionary by doing something that was passé when I was a teen). The particular one I remember vividly was a short story collection on the theme of werewolves, where they were all macho military men, and I was all 'Teen Wolf and attending fandom has taken the werewolf story so much further than this you are all an embarrassment'.

[kalloway]

I admire your dedication with your Hugo reading. I don't think I'd have the patience at all. (Or, more correctly, I don't think my personal interests within the genre are broad enough and it could be fabulously written but a lot of, oh, mil-spec and whatnot probably won't grab me.)

[fred_mouse]

I've been really fortunate in recent years to have gelled with the zeitgeist, so am finding lots of interesting books this way. However, see above on willingness to DNF -- I had several I didn't try, because I've declared those authors to be Not For Me.