Half-finished books

WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH NABLOPOMO, PEOPLE! It has gone by very fast, and so far I’ve been doing well. Thank you to all who have been reading, and good luck to all of you bloggers who have made it this far! It’s all down hill from here…

Today I am going to make a list of books that I only half-read. We’ve all done it. I try to not do it, but sometimes life gets in the way, we discover a new book that looks more interesting, or we just plain abandon a book because we don’t like it. Here is a list of books and book series (in no particular order) that I never fully finished:

1. The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – And How We Can Make It Better by Annie Leonard: This book was chosen as my university’s “One Book, One Campus” book during my sophomore year of college. I bought the book and began to read it in order to review it for the campus blog I was writing for at the time, which unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) no longer exists. Being a nerdy English major who did all assigned readings, it was hard for me to find the time/sanity for extra reading in college. I managed to get almost halfway through the book, which was enough to write about it for the site. I’d like to finish it one day, because it was interesting, but it’s not a priority.
2. The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson: I know, right!? Steampunk fans gasp! I am ashamed to say I never finished this book because it got me confused and frustrated. I honestly couldn’t keep track of the plot and the characters. I’m not really sure why; I do remember that I was very busy at the time I was trying to read it (also during college), so there would be long stretches of time between picking it up. I really do want to start it fresh again, because it’s a seminal Steampunk classic, but again, it hasn’t been on my priority list lately.
3. A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz: This book sounded interesting, but didn’t pull me in enough to prevent me from getting distracted by other books. It’s about a guy who travels across America to rediscover its untold early history. This is another book I’d like to pick up again at some point.
4. On the Road by Jack Kerouac: Unlike the previous 3 books, I will not be picking this one back up again. You can read more of my thoughts about the book in this post, but in short, it just wasn’t my taste. I tried to slog through it and got over halfway done, but I decided it wasn’t worth the time if I didn’t like it.
5. Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint: I know that de Lint is like a big name in urban fantasy, especially YA urban fantasy, but I just didn’t like this book. I think I had gotten to the point where I was too old to be enticed simply by the story and wanted a little more from the prose. It failed to capture me, so I gave up. The narrative style was so dull. I know a lot of people like de Lint, and I have one of his other books on my self, but I haven’t picked it up yet because of my poor experience with this one.
6. A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin: I read the first book, but I’m in no hurry to read the rest since he’s clearly in no hurry to write them. (HEY-OOO!)
7. The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis: I’ve read 5 of the 7 in chronological plot order (cause that’s how my giant tome with all 7 books is set up). So I’ve got The Silver Chair and The Last Battle left to read. I’m definitely going to do this before the next film comes out (although after the Dawn Treader film totally sunk – PUN INTENDED, HEY-OOOO! – my expectations are low).
8. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini: I read books 1 and 2 and was actually a big fan of them. I think not finishing was just a problem of waiting for the next book to come out and moving on with my reading life in the interim. Also, the film. Dear God, that film.
9. The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman: I am ashamed. Books 2 and 3 are actually pretty high on my priority list, so I’m hopefully going to get on this soon. In fact, I’m going to stop writing this post now and read something to cover my shame…

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