h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's rare for me to give up on a book part way through, vowing never to touch the book again. (There are a few that I've struggled to get through, and a few that I've read once and decided that was enough. The only other book I can remember giving up on is Fluke by James Herbert, which I couldn't get into.) Today I gave up on a book without finishing it - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The protagonist is an overweight, self-centred slob with no redeeming features. The other characters aren't much more interesting. I can't find any humour in the story, despite the introduction describing it as a farce. Maybe it's the setting - downtown New Orleans is too alien for me. I couldn't work up enough interest to stay with the book to see if it got any better. It's now on the pile of books waiting to be taken to a charity shop.

I'm currently reading Modern Baptists by James Wilcox (print) and A Dance with Dragons: Part 1 Dreams and Dust by George R. R. Martin (Kindle). Not that I'm reading as much as I was. I'm too busy knitting teapots!

Sounds like you did the right thing to give up on that and move on to something else - no fun indeed if it is supposed to be amusing but you're not amused... A rare event indeed, though...

I managed to struggle through to the end of Dickens - the faux suspense that was introduced was amusing but not amusing at the same time (to paraphrase: 'he was never ill as a child (except when he was ill)' and 'he never went out again (except when he went out)')

I'm just getting to the end of a 'Gordianus the Finder' Roman Mystery book by Stephen Saylor - not one of his best books, as it could have been more tightly edited, but still very readable

Good luck with the teapots!

I gave up on Catch 22 for much the same reason, regarding humour. I also gave up on The Da Vinci Code - to say it could have been more tightly edited is like saying that quite a lot of people registered for Glastonbury this year. He never used one word where twenty would do. I also gave up (though will try again one day) on The Fellowship of the Rings, because the detail was as thick as treacle and it was taking far too long for anything to happen (I saw the films first, so that probably didn't help in that respect).

Those are the only books I can recall deliberately stopping reading. I never quite got to the end of A Thousand Splendid Suns. I don't think it was a conscious decision, I think that the story got the better of me and my emotions.

I've stopped reading The Beach several times (but have read it all the way through at least once). This is partly because I've often taken it away on holiday with me, and then RL has got in the way before I've finished it. It's also because there comes a point when I know it's going to end, in much the same way as the characters came to realise, and I don't want it to. The Beach is one of my top ten books. I wish Alex Garland would write more novels, instead of messing around with movies. I started reading The Tesseract, and it's on my bedside table. I haven't picked it, or any other novel, up in a while. It's not The Beach.

I'm a bit that way with War and Peace. I've read it a number of times, but there have also been times when I've started it and then put it aside without finishing it.

I recently started The Judas Pair by Jonathan Cash, the first of the Lovejoy novels. He's not quite the loveable rogue of the TV programmes. He hits a woman twice in the first few pages, the kind of behaviour no one would accept nowadays. The book was published in the mid 1970s, I think. How things have changed in 40-odd years!

"to say it could have been more tightly edited is like saying that quite a lot of people registered for Glastonbury this year."

Well said! I haven't read 'The Da Vinci Code', because I read 'Digital Fortress' and that was quite sufficient

Years ago I read Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, the author of which tried to sue Dan Brown for plagiarism. I recently saw a programme that said that one of the central tenets on which Holy Blood was based was actually a hoax! I know that research was a lot harder in the 1970s,but even so...

I have read The Da Vinci Code, btw. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Fortunately it belonged to one of Hubby's colleagues, so I didn't waste any money on it.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail - yep, there's another one I'd forgotten about, that I didn't finish reading. I was enjoying it (considerably more than The Da Vinci Code), and I think it was one of those 'life got in the way' things. Always meant to get back to it. I'm seriously considering taking a year off work, to study (and redecorate) and maybe just read all the books I never seem to get around to any more.

What I /am/ reading at this time is The Once and Future King by T H White (and by reading I mean audibook-ing). I read and really enjoyed The Sword in the Stone some years ago, but never got beyond that first book. Merlin in this book is one of my favourite characters, ever.

Thinking of which immediately makes me think of Arthur Dent, another favourite character. Some correlation there?!

The standalone The Sword in the Stone shouldn't be compared with the version in The Once and Future King. (That's information for anyone who has only read one of those books, or neither of them.) There are significant differences. I think the standalone version was written first. It's definitely more fun than the other one, and possibly aimed at younger readers.

The Once and Future King is another book that I've read more than once, but also start without finishing from time to time.

One habit that stops me finishing books is my tendency to have a number of books on the go at the same time. I start a new book whenever I can't settle to one I'm currently reading. At the moment I have eleven books started on Kindle, plus one print book. One of the Kindle books is a collection of short stories, so I'm happy to dip into it as the mood takes me. I'm determined to plug away at the others and try not to start anything else until I've finished some of them. But then, I've said that before.

"At the moment I have eleven books started on Kindle, plus one print book."

Wow, that is impressive - I have three Kindle books and one print book on the go, as I made a specific effort last weekend to finish two print books. Does depend on mood indeed

Actually it's only ten books on Kindle as I'd finished one recently. I'm close to finishing another, so I should start the weekend with just nine Kindle books. I'm halfway through The Judas Pair, so that won't take much longer. If I think in those terms, ten books doesn't sound so bad.

I am reading the book: "A very late diagnosis of Asperger syndrome (autism spectrum disorder) - how seeking a diagnosis in adulthood can change your life by Philip Wylie.

This is the best book I have read as it written from the viewpoint a middle aged autistic adult and it is for those who either thinking of getting an ASC (Autism spectrum condition) diagnosis or have already received a diagnosis. It is filled anecdotal stories and helpful advice. Most ASC books are written are autism professionals and are very difficult to read.

I know that I said I would try not to start any more books till I'd finished some of the ones I already had on the go. Unfortunately I was unable to stick to that plan. Modern Baptists isn't an easy read, so I've started two more print books: Dictator by Robert Harris and Dynasty by Tom Holland. The problem with Modern Baptists is that I can't relate to any of the characters, or work up much interest in what happens to them. None of them are objectionable like the protagonist of A Confederacy of Dunces. They're just not very exciting. I'm about halfway through, and I'll finish the book by reading a few pages per day. It's not a book I want to keep, so it will end up on the charity pile.

I've finished Modern Baptists sooner than expected. The setting, small town Louisiana, is as alien as the setting of Dunces. The characters are ordinary and nothing exciting happens. Yet the story managed to hold my interest enough for me to get to the end of the book. As I said, it's not a book I intend to keep, but it's not too bad.

Back to Dictator, Dynasty and the eight books on Kindle.

Isaac Asimov, "The End Of Eternity"

I've read quite a bit since I last posted, including Asimov's Foundation, I Robot and Foundation & Empire. I'm trying to limit the number of books I have on the go, so it's just Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset, and Ivan the Terrible by Robert Payne on Kindle. I'm also reading The Affair of the Poisons by Anne Somerset as my ongoing print book.

I keep getting the feeling that I've read Childhood's End before, but I can't find it in my book catalogue. The first few chapters were definitely familiar, although later chapters aren't quite as familiar. Maybe it's a book I started reading years ago and didn't finish.

Odd, re-reading Asimov stories I haven't read since my pre-teens, I find I'd apparently not read "Pebble In The Sky". Though I thought I had, I remembered none of the action.

I find that I Robot has dated badly while others of Asimov's stories haven't. His robots have a futuristic positronic brain but rely on old-fashioned tubes for the other circuits. I know Asimov was a bio-chemist not an electronics expert, but I'm surprised that he didn't gloss over the circuitry so that it fit in with the advanced brain.

He didn't see microcircuitry coming but also didn't yield to the the temptation to do a belated re-write after the fact.

I'm reminded of the Japanese "Giant Robot" movies, done at a time when the smallest computers available would have required a robotic body of the size to make them mobile... compared against the present day child-sized Asimo robot.

My recent inability to settle to anything has had me flitting from book to book, dipping in briefly before moving on to something else. The only book I've finished is Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett.

Right now I'm suffering from a surfeit of 16th century. On Kindle I'm reading The Tudors by Peter Aykroyd, Ivan the Terrible by Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff, and Revelation by C. J. Sansom (a murder mystery set during the reign of Henry VIII). My current print book is Shakespeare's Science by Dan Falk. My only relief from the 16th century is The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. I think that I'll turn to sci-fi or fantasy for my next read.