I consider myself to be a person who rarely DNF’s books. If I don’t like a book within the first 30 pages I put it down instead of reading farther. I count that as a trial run rather than a DNF. Because of that, if I get anywhere past 50 pages I feel an obligation to finish the book. This means that if I’m not feeling a book once I get to a certain point I put it down and come back to it later. There are a few that I’ve done this with that ended up becoming one of my favorites. One of those is Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant. It’s a horror book that involves a good amount of science. It took me three tries but I’m so glad I kept reading it. Not only did this wild horror book about killer mermaids become a new favorite but it also opened my eyes to the horror genre as a whole. I’d love to know what books any of you almost gave up on that ended up becoming a favorite?
by Quirky_Dimension1363
12 Comments
Im hoping Good Omens will be that book for me in the future. Ive tried twice so far and it just doesnt read well with me.
Lord of the Rings for sure, and Dune I didn’t end up loving, but enjoyed far more than I imagined!
Dune for sure
Ulysses! I challenged myself to read it before I moved to Dublin, got halfway through the first chapter, and moved to Cork instead. Almost ten years later I was moving to Dublin again and persevered – I did the audiobook first so I’d get through it at least once, then a “great course” on it for better context, then finally read it on paper. And again in print after several years living in Dublin, and making it to Bloomsday. Come to think of it, time for another reread…
Song of Achilles
To the Lighthouse (Woolf). Ended up being one of my top five books ever.
And Middlemarch – so long, so worth it.
East Of Eden.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
I never gave up, but it was the most difficult, time consuming read ever
But also THE BEST!
I’m such a huge fan now, my mission in life is to get my fantasy fan friends and my brother into it as well
Catch-22
It was confusing the first couple of times and I gave up only after a couple of chapters. Also the humor was hit-and-miss (mostly miss). But then a friend suggested I just turn off the part of the brain that focuses too much on the story itself and also put myself in the right state of mind for when the book was written and what type of humor to expect. So I did a bit of background research into it and then started reading again but just letting myself enjoy each episode than focusing on the story and what happened before/after what. The humor, which was quite dark or absurd at times, is what got me through it and is the reason I began to enjoy the book enough to finish it.
After reading Cannery Row in high school, i tried to give East of Eden a whirl. But it was just to meaty of a book for me at that time. I came back to it a number of years later, and its one of my favorite novels of all time.
Infinite Jest – 5 starts getting 100-200 pages in, starting fresh each time and not getting anywhere. The 6th time was a charm. I burned right through it and loved it.
Much shorter and easier, but for some reason I kept getting stuck – Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. Incredible book well worth the effort.
Underworld by Don DeLillo. Took me a few attempts to get into the groove, but once I got there, it quickly became a favorite.