Flashback to 2020: Did Not Finish
Dec. 11th, 2024 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melreadsOK, when I get to the actual old journal entries I'm going to have to resist the urge to editorialize better. But DNF's are something where I always feel like they need comments. Just posting a list without commenting on it leaves a lot hanging - mostly, why did you quit in the middle of the book? Did you hate it? Get bored? What?
(This is the problem with this whole idea about my old journals, I can't seem to do this without criticizing my own writing and opinions.)
But anyway, here we have the dreaded DNF list. Did. Not. Finish.
I actually don't put everything I don't finish on my main DNF list. This list is the stuff where
I made a conscious decision to stop reading, for one reason or another. I made up the concept (for myself, anyway) of type 1 and type 2 DNFs, to reflect this difference. Type 1 is what I'm talking about here, the ones you stop for cause. Type 2 is the ones you just drift away from and may come back to later. I do this a lot, the drifting thing. I don't feel like that's the same thing as going, "I hate this," and quitting.
Twilight - ok, this one illustrates the line, a bit - or, I don't know, maybe it makes it less clear, because I stopped and started on this about four or five times, I think. I said I was quitting and then I came back. Several times. But I did finally go, "NO" and quit for good, which makes it a type 1. Just a weird one. (Rob & I actually did make it through the movie, one time in the interim, with much giggling.)
A Discovery of Witches - Now this one is different, because I really liked the first half of this, but then they went off to... was it France? and it turned into a sort of Interview with the Vampire kind of thing (added: actually, I don't even remember what I meant by that, but that was how I thought of it!), and anyway, it completely changed tone, and I decided I was done.
Then I need a category for "I liked these authors until I read this book":
(OK, that's probably phrased badly. I don't hate the author, I just don't like the book. It's just that you tend to think it's a good way to find good books, to go with authors you like. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.)
A couple of examples here:
Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson - to be fair, I think this may have been a really old book, but the edition I have was published well after he died (which was in 2001). Anyway, totally hated it, couldn't stand to keep going. (I think I remember thinking it was really, really sexist.)
A Curious Beginning - I don't even remember the name of this series, but there are more of them, so I guess somebody likes them. It was the same author as the "Lady Julia" mysteries (Deanna Raybourn, I think) which I did really like.
(I'll put the whole list somewhere else, since this mostly turned into a rant!!)
(This is the problem with this whole idea about my old journals, I can't seem to do this without criticizing my own writing and opinions.)
But anyway, here we have the dreaded DNF list. Did. Not. Finish.
I actually don't put everything I don't finish on my main DNF list. This list is the stuff where
I made a conscious decision to stop reading, for one reason or another. I made up the concept (for myself, anyway) of type 1 and type 2 DNFs, to reflect this difference. Type 1 is what I'm talking about here, the ones you stop for cause. Type 2 is the ones you just drift away from and may come back to later. I do this a lot, the drifting thing. I don't feel like that's the same thing as going, "I hate this," and quitting.
Twilight - ok, this one illustrates the line, a bit - or, I don't know, maybe it makes it less clear, because I stopped and started on this about four or five times, I think. I said I was quitting and then I came back. Several times. But I did finally go, "NO" and quit for good, which makes it a type 1. Just a weird one. (Rob & I actually did make it through the movie, one time in the interim, with much giggling.)
A Discovery of Witches - Now this one is different, because I really liked the first half of this, but then they went off to... was it France? and it turned into a sort of Interview with the Vampire kind of thing (added: actually, I don't even remember what I meant by that, but that was how I thought of it!), and anyway, it completely changed tone, and I decided I was done.
Then I need a category for "I liked these authors until I read this book":
(OK, that's probably phrased badly. I don't hate the author, I just don't like the book. It's just that you tend to think it's a good way to find good books, to go with authors you like. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.)
A couple of examples here:
Three Hearts and Three Lions - Poul Anderson - to be fair, I think this may have been a really old book, but the edition I have was published well after he died (which was in 2001). Anyway, totally hated it, couldn't stand to keep going. (I think I remember thinking it was really, really sexist.)
A Curious Beginning - I don't even remember the name of this series, but there are more of them, so I guess somebody likes them. It was the same author as the "Lady Julia" mysteries (Deanna Raybourn, I think) which I did really like.
(I'll put the whole list somewhere else, since this mostly turned into a rant!!)
