DNF I was a bit harsh on a few of my DNF books this year. A couple I gave another chance and one I have now quit multiple times. I quit or didn’t finish 20 books in 2024.

These are the previous posts of books I didn’t finish:

I have really enjoyed keeping a list of the books that I stop reading. It helps me to reference if I am in a reading rut and will sometimes go back to ones I quit. Or I’ll put it on my holds list again and give it another try when it’s available. Sometimes I just can’t get into the story/characters, sometimes the book doesn’t hold my interest, sometimes I’m just not in the mood for that kind of book. So I choose to just move on.

Read whatever you want and makes you happy. But never feel guilty to quit if it’s not for you (even if everyone is reading it and talking about it, or it was a gift, or your book club is reading it). I think if you continue to read books that don’t make you happy, then you are going to start to dislike reading. And we can’t have that!

Here are the books that I DNF and just couldn’t get into this year - with a few notes on some of them.

  • The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
    • I tried this one a few times. It was everywhere and I really wanted to enjoy it, but I just could not get into it at all.
  • The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm
  • Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Cunningham
    • I listened to a fair amount of this one, but then realized I had no clue what had happened and I wasn’t listening, so I quit.
  • A December To Remember by Jenny Bayliss
    • I think I was just over the holiday season at the time I read this and figured I might come back to it at a later time.
  • The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser
  • Clover Hendry’s Day Off by Beth Morrey
    • I really wanted to love this one, and my come back at some point, but I just couldn’t get into it at the time. It was a bit slow.
  • Argylle by Elly Conway
    • This was a book club pick, but I didn’t enjoy it at all and I had others I wanted to read, so I decided I wasn’t going to stick this one out.
  • Vampires Of El Norte by Isabel Canas
    • Same as above. Just not into it at all.
  • I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
  • The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot by Marianne Cronin
    • I started this one during the summer. I even remember gardening when I was listening. I figured out very early what was going to happen and I wasn’t invested, so I quit. Then a friend said I should read it and was horrified that I quit. So I finished it up. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it anymore after I finished. It wasn’t bad per se, but I just was not connecting to it at all.
  • Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
  • Assistant to the Villain AND Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
    • Admittedly, I didn’t finish the second one. The first one was too juvenile and I didn’t enjoy the writing at all. So I declared that I DNF both of them. (At the time I added them to this list, the 3rd book hadn’t come out yet or I would hav added that one, too.)
  • Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
    • I felt like I was a little too old for this or not at the right time of my life to enjoy this one.
  • The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
    • I really wanted to like this one, but I would be listening and realized I hadn’t been paying any attention to the book at all. So I decided I would be done.
  • All Fours by Miranda July
    • Oh this book was a weird one. I really wanted to see how it ended, but stopped about halfway through because it was just weird. But I decided to finish it up at the beginning of the year. I honestly don’t think I would have missed much if I had just skipped finishing it.
  • The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
    • I did go back and finish this one at the beginning of 2025, but meh. Nothing super exciting about it. I had high hopes since the reviews were good, but I didn’t love it.
  • Of Literature And Lattes by Katherine Reay
  • Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
    • I started this, but I think I maybe didn’t care very much because I don’t have any sisters. I don’t think I related to the overall story very well and therefore didn’t really enjoy it.
  • The Christmas Book Hunt by Jenny Colgan
    • I tried to get this done during December, but I was so bored and I didn’t like the narration.

Andi

header Ponder This:

  • What are your feelings on not finishing books?
  • What are some books you never finished?
  • Have you ever gone back and tried again with books you couldn’t get through the first time?
  • Have you read any of these books I didn’t finish? Did you like them? Dislike them?