Do you ever start a book and abandon it at some point along the way? I don’t like doing that but I confess it has happened from time to time. In fact it happened today when I abandoned 2666 by Roberto Bolano. This is a novel that has enjoyed tremendously positive critical response. Friends of mine whose opinion I respect greatly have told me what a great book it is. It may in fact be a great book, and at some point I may regret abandoning it. Or perhaps I’ll pick it up again to give it another go. Maybe I’m just not in the right frame of mind to tackle this one right now. At over 900 pages, it’s quite a commitment, and the first 100-odd pages did not capture my imagination. I found I was avoiding reading opportunities and I didn’t like that one bit. so for now, I’m putting 2666 aside.
It isn’t the first book I’ve abandoned and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I tried 3 times to read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. For some reason I thought I’d like this one or I should like this one or something like that. Each time I got to about the same spot before giving up the ghost.
I only tried to read Moby Dick once. I suggested it for a book club I was part of for a while and it ended the book club. Nobody finished the book. My fellow readers were not very happy with me. I know people who claim to have actually read this one to the end but I’m suspicious they’re just funning me, knowing there isn’t anyone around to challenge them on it.
I abandoned Kenneth J. Harvey’s Blackstrap Hawco after hardly giving it a chance. I know it was unfair of me but life isn’t always fair. Sorry about that Kenneth J. I don’t even remember why I abandoned ship and in fact I don’t even remember anything of the book.
And yet there are other books I have read two or three times, books I can’t seem to get enough of. I suppose all of us relate to some works of literature or art or music more than other works. That’s likely a good thing.
So, what books have you abandoned?
27th Street 
You have mentioned very interesting details ! ps decent site. “To grow mature is to separate more distinctly, to connect more closely.” by Hugo Von Hofmannsthal.
Don’t feel too bad about abandoning Moby Dick. It is, apparently, one of the five books that are most frequently abandoned! http://www.businessinsider.com/most-abandoned-books-list-on-goodreads-2013-7
I feel much better now.
I didn’t even start Moby Dick! I tend to abandon non-fiction books, and I do so more now than I used to. I may get back to them at some point, but lately have abandoned Dave Bidini’s On a Cold Road and David Byrne’s How Music Works. Shame on me.
I haven’t read that Dave Bidini book….I did flip through it once though, but I don’t think that counts. I loved How Music Works, even though there were bits here and there which were a bit tiresome. It got me thinking about how I listen to music and what’s important to me in music.
A Mother’s Gift by Britney & Lynne Spears and Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer and I have yet to finish The Tempest or The Quran. I’ve read both the Old and New Testament cover to cover twice in my life so far and wanted to compare the two but for some reason I simply can’t get though The Quaran…might have something to do with what Britney’s “novel” did to my cognitive functions……..surprised Foucault’s Pendulum gave you trouble BUT NOT Moby Dick which yes, I have finished!
I don’t know what it was about Foucault’s Pendulum that stopped me in my tracks. Twice at the same point I simply tired of it. I think you should be awarded a special trophy for plowing through all of Moby Dick. I had no idea that Ms Spears was a novelist and not just a pop sensation. You learn something every day.
she isn’t and the prose made that SHADES OF GREY junk look like Pulitzer material! As for the special award on Moby, I received that in being able to date this extremely hot Catholic girl back in high school who earmarked this as her fave book (up to that point)