Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Took A While To Get Through - Some Paid Off, Others Not So Much

 

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly book blog meme hosted by the lovely girls over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is books you had a hard time with - tweaked however works best - so I chose to feature some books that took me a while to get through. Some of these books were worth the slog, but others... well, I wouldn't want to pick them up again.There are quite a few books in this list that are really popular, so that makes me just a tad bit nervous to share them, but hey, we all have our own opinions, right? Let me know what books were a slog for you to get through -- or if any of these were the same for you!

Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco: The story and content itself is fascinating, but this graphic novel just has so much information and the way it jumps around can be confusing. I liked it overall, but getting through it was challenging.
(Review)

Chronicles of a Last Summer: A Novel of Egypt by Yasmine El Rashidi: Something about the writing style of this book just made it impossible for me to enjoy, and I ended up DNF-ing this book. I really wanted to like this one, but I just didn't.

The Once and Future King by T.H. White: I hated that I didn't immediately love this book. I wanted to so badly. There were parts of this book that I loved and enjoyed, but there were more parts that just seemed dry and seemed to be a bit of a slog to get through. I don't know, I was disappointed. Would I still recommend it? Absolutely.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley: The cover alone is enough for me to love this book, but unfortunately the content was just.. disappointing. I wasn't that engaged in the story and it just felt rather odd and disjointed; it ended up taking me longer than normal to get through this one.
(Review)

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: Look, I'm glad I read it, but... I wouldn't do it again. And I'm hesitant on whether or not I would recommend it.

Wildwood by Colin Meloy: This book... I don't even know. The cover, the premise, everything just screams amazing middle grade fantasy. The reality? Something extremely long-winded and, quite frankly, rather boring. I also DNF-ed this one.

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie: This is one of Rushdie's weaker works, in my opinion. I just didn't care about anything that was happening, nothing really made sense, and I really had to force myself to finish it.
(Review)

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: I couldn't find the plot! It had such a fantastic concept and strong start, but it just fell flat int he middle and didn't seem to pick itself back up.
(Review)

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen: I actually might consider rereading this one someday, but as of right now I just found this incredibly slow and uninteresting.  I would like to give it another chance, though.
(Review)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Over the years, I've discovered that Kurt Vonnegut is just not for me. I had to force myself to finish this one. I won't say that Vonnegut isn't talented,because he clearly is, but his writing just isn't for me.

The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak: I was so hesitant to include this one since it's such a beloved book to many people, but my god I hated it. I thought it was extremely gimmicky and confusing and just not at all interesting. I didn't care for any of the characters and I ended up DNF-ing it. If you love it, that's awesome and I completely respect that, but I personally just didn't get this one.

S. by J.J. Abrams: To be clear, the marginalia story in this book was incredibly interesting and entertaining, but the main story itself was such a drag to get through. 

What books have you struggled to finish? Did it pay off in the end? Let me know in the comments!

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