Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
I’ve been abandoning books more regularly these past few months. Have any of you noticed the same thing about your reading habits
Here are ten books that I recently started reading but couldn’t finish for reasons I’ll explain below.
1. Nests, Eggs, Birds: An Illustrated Aviary by Kelsey Oseid
Why I Stopped Reading: I originally thought it was written for adults, but it read like something intended for kids.
2. Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss
Why I Stopped Reading: I couldn’t get into the writing style at all.
3. The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada
by Mark Osborne Humphries
Why I Stopped Reading: It felt like reading a dry textbook…and I’m one of those delightfully nerdy people who loves history and reads textbooks for fun.
4. Lake Erie Stories by Chad Fraser
Why I Stopped Reading: See also #3.
5. Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us by George Zaidan
Why I Stopped Reading: The author over-explained everything. If the page count has been cut back by 30-50%, I’d be raving about this book instead.
6. The Uninvited by Cat Winters
Why I Stopped Reading: See also #5. Presumably, there are ghosts somewhere in this tale, but I gave up on it before they so much as uttered a peep.
7. Epidemiology: A Very Short Introduction by Rodolfo Saracci
Why I Stopped Reading: This was a good read, but now is not the right time for me to be immersing myself in this particular topic. And I happened to DNF it right after The Last Plague, too.
8. The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin
Why I Stopped Reading: I loved the short story that spawned this novel, but I couldn’t get into the writing style of the book. This is something I may try reading again in the future.
9. Dracul by J.D. Barker
Why I Stopped Reading: It’s been far too long since I read Dracula. I had no idea what was happening or what any of the references were. My new plan is to reread Dracula and then give this another try.
10. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
Why I Stopped Reading: I strongly disliked the main character. Reading about sexual abuse also isn’t something I’m in the right headspace for right now.
Halloween is by far my favourite holiday of the year for the following reasons:
Halloween Films Are Creative and Unsentimental. No offence to anyone who likes sentimental films, they’re simply not my cup of tea.
1. Mainstream authors would be welcome, too, but I’d put a special focus on inviting indie authors so everyone could have the chance to discuss books they might never have otherwise heard of.
The problem with the sequels to me was how repetitive they were. Types of characters, conflicts, and even certain sorts of plot twists from the Mists of Avalon were recycled so often in the later books that I lost interest.
My list is a short one this week. One of the things my parents did marvellously when I was growing up was providing their kids with a wide range of reading material. I read just about everything I could get my hands on.
Occasionally, I’ve had to step into the road for a moment to get past that wall of obliviousness because they won’t even acknowledge a polite “excuse me!” (If concerned elders of my family read this, please note I only do it as a last resort on very quiet streets).
I decided to add what genre of music I think these imaginary bands would play, too!
I chose all of these characters for one reason: they’d be fabulous dinner companions. Any one of them would be filled with interesting anecdotes about their lives.
I don’t know about you all, but I tend to gush about the same books over and over again. It was fun to look through the lists of books I’ve read in the past and pick out a few that I generally don’t mention.
Navigating the Canadian Immigration System. I’d discuss everything from filling out the many pages of paperwork for it, to adjusting to Canadian culture, to how long it took me to go through each stage of the process.