Top Ten Tuesday | Books I DNFed

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit Or Have Quit, so I thought I'd talk about some of the books I've DNFed over the years. I don't tend to DNF books that often anymore because I'm a lot better now at picking up books I'm going to enjoy, but when I first started out blogging I felt as though there were certain books I had to read that I just couldn't force my way through, and there were some books I had to read for uni that I couldn't make myself finish either.

On with my list!

Divergent by Veronica Roth: I love The Hunger Games trilogy, and dystopian YA was the craze. Everyone who loved The Hunger Games seemed to love Divergent, and even though I wasn't completely sold on the idea of the world I found a copy in my local library and thought I might as well give it a try. I gave it a really fair shot, guys. It was a fast read - if I'd pushed myself I probably could have finished it - but I just didn't care. The world building made no sense to me whatsoever, and I thought Tris was so dull. I couldn't do it.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling: I had to read this one for my Victorian Popular Fiction module at uni and it was brutal. In the end I couldn't force my way through it, it was boring me to death. Thankfully I still came out with a first in that module because I wrote about two other books on the course, The Moonstone and The Secret Garden, which I loved!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: Another one I had to read for university and another one I hated. I was so bored. So in the end I gave up, and I have no intention of going near it again any time soon.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: I always get such strong reactions when I tell people I didn't like this book. I really didn't like it. I managed to force my way through 2/3s of it and then I had to give up for the sake of my sanity; I could feel myself falling into a reading slump.

Matched by Ally Condie: Gave up after the second chapter. Rubbish world building, irritating main character, and a love triangle that consisted of the best friend and the 'bad boy'. Nope, not for me.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Another irritating character, this time described with pretty rubbish writing. The concept of this world was fascinating, but I can still remember reading three paragraphs describing a sneeze. A sneeze. I gladly gave up.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse: I forced my way through half of this book, desperate to like it, but half way through nothing had happened and I just couldn't do it anymore. Like Eragon, I could feel this book leading me towards a reading slump.

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory: This was the second time I gave Philippa Gregory a try, but her writing and I just don't get along. I only read the first couple of chapters before I gave up.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin: This was another one I'd really hoped to like, and the one book on this list I'm most likely to give a second chance. I love historical crime, and I love it even better when the protagonist is a lady, but I couldn't get into this novel. What irritated me most was that parts of it were far too modern; this book is set during the reign of Henry II, and yet the protagonist was warning people about obesity. I may give it another chance in future, though!

The Running Man by Richard Bachman: Otherwise known as Stephen King. I read a lot of dystopian fiction during my third year of university because I ended up talking about dystopia for my dissertation, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Unfortunately I didn't like it enough to finish it, and I ended up giving my copy away. In fact I've given the majority of the books on this list away.

What did you talk about this week?