Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons Why I Don’t Finish a Book

I may be becoming the person who never follows the exact prompt of Top Ten Tuesday! But, while today’s official prompt is “Books I Did Not Finish” I don’t like to be so negative on my blog and while I may not have liked some books, that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right book for someone else. So I’m turning this theme on its head a little bit and sharing ten reasons why I don’t tend to finish a book.

And there are plenty of people who can’t stop in the middle of a book no matter how much they don’t like it. But, I’ve learned that there are too many books and not enough time to waste on the little reading time I have on things that I don’t enjoy.

Reasons Why I Don’t Finish a Book

Boring

This is probably the most obvious. But, if a book doesn’t get my attention, I’m more likely to put it aside. There doesn’t have to be nonstop action, but something needs to catch my attention like character development, setting, or the plot.

Life distractions

Sometimes, life just gets in the way and no matter how much I want to read, it’s just not going to happen. In these instances, my goal is to always try to return to the book again once life has calmed down again.

Form/Writing style

There are some writing styles that I just can’t read. Long ongoing sentences that last a paragraph long are not my favorite. The same with books that don’t include a lot of punctuation like double quotation marks. Sometimes the writing style or form is just too disruptive for me to enjoy the actual story.

Concept goes over my head

There are some books that I’ll read and just don’t understand – sometimes even children’s books! I’ll do my best, but sometimes it’s just too much and I decide it might not worth be my time.

Audiobook narrators

I’m a very picky audiobook reader and the narrator is key to making an audiobook experience a good one. If the narrator doesn’t click, it’s hard for the book to be something I want to read.

Too long

Some books are asking for too much investment, especially the long ones! And if a book is too long it might just not be worth the time it takes to read it.

Little investment in characters 

I really like characters and want even the secondary characters to be fully-realized and interesting. If the characters are too flat or don’t have enough back story, the book will most often not get read.

Long series

Series are another area of my reading life where I am super picky. I find that most series don’t tend to stay as strong as they are when I enjoy the first book! I often end up frustrated and annoyed in the middle of a series.

Personal mood

And honestly, sometimes the book just isn’t going to click with my own mood when I pick it up. It might be something I can come back to later, but sometimes it just goes by the wayside permanently.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.