I Thought It Would Be a Good Book . . .

I haven’t read too many books that I regret . . . I don’t think.  At least, in comparison to the entire list of books I’ve read, there are very few that I wouldn’t consider reading again.  There are some books I’ve never finished reading.  Those also are fairly rare.  At least, books that I have no intention of finishing are rare.  I do have several books that I’ve started over the years and I just get so occupied in another book that I forget to ever go back and finish. 😉

That to say, today I’m sharing with you some books that I’ve read or started over the years that I wish I had just bypassed.  Without further ado, let’s go check out that cobwebby back shelf in my library.

• The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
  Who would have thought, right?  We all love the movies.  Anne Hathaway was the perfect actress for Mia and who doesn’t love Julie Andrews?  I’m pretty sure we all wanted to find out we were Genovian princesses after that movie.  However . . . the book left much to be desired.  I had walked past the rather large youth series on the shelves at the library numerous times, and finally one day just decided to try the first book.  I’d never heard about them from anyone, but the pink covers were getting to me (I believe I was a high school freshman).  After about 5 pages I started taking notes.  I quickly started spending more time writing down inappropriate and crude happenings then I did reading it.  I was disgusted and dropped out before page 50.  I will stick with Andrews and Hathaway, thank you very much!

 

• The Real Wizard of Oz: the Life and Times of Frank L. Baum by Rebecca Loncraine
  Talk about real-life creepy, Frank L. Baum and his entire family were . . . um, weird.  I have never read The Wizard of Oz and I have only watched the movie once or twice.  I have no care in the world for what I believe is rather an odd story.  But for some reason I decided to try reading his biography.  Aside from being supremely boring, I discovered that I don’t much care to read about people who were involved in the occult.  Yes, you read that right.  The Baum family enjoyed (if you can call it that) delving into the spirit realm and attempting to revive ghosts and talk with the dead.  Again, I quit before 50 pages was up and I don’t ever plan on finishing.

 

• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
  I wrote a full review (probably more like a rant . . .) on this last week so I won’t say much here.  Basically, it’s a thriller with some horror / paranormal elements that I was not aware were going to be in the book.  Much to my chagrin, I ended up pushing through the whole book anyways and was greatly disturbed by the ending and supposed reconciliation of the entire plot.

 

• The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner
  The mysterious cover of this book (and the vague summary on the back) made me think about reading it.  When I found out that some close friends of ours had this series as their #1 favorite of all-time (and they are serious LOTR fans too), I decided to take the plunge.  It was a waste of my time.  I read through all three books, attempting to chase the ever-elusive plot.  I reached the finale of book 3 and was literally scratching my head trying to figure out what it was that I missed.  I still can’t tell you what the point of those books were.  It is so easy to go wrong with a dystopian series, and James Dashner did it very well, and very quickly.

 

• The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
  When I first started this series I was drawn in very quickly.  I think most dystopian novels have the natural ability to draw you in, even if the stories themselves are sub-par.  I vividly remember being completely caught up in Divergent so much so that I finished the book in days, if not hours.  Insurgent left a bitter taste in my mouth, from some suggestive material,  but also from a highly circular plot arc.  It was just lie followed by confession and promises followed by another lie with more confessions and promises.  It was just boring.  Allegiant was just plain out anti-climactic.  I’m just going to come out and say that you do not kill your main protagonist in dystopian dramas.  Although I basically enjoyed the series (mostly and especially Divergent) when I first read it, when I re-read it in late high school / early college I couldn’t even make it past the first book.  I will just stick with The Hunger Games!

 

Your Turn!

Whew, there were more of those than I remembered!  Are there any books you’ve never finished that you won’t ever finish?  What about books you read completely that you wished you hadn’t read?  Leave a comment below!

Have a happy Wednesday and go read a book!