Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This topic, about books we meant to read at one point, but are no longer interested in, is a hard one for me. I rarely change my mind on reading something once it’s made my list. But these are ten that I’ve decided to let go on.
My Absolute Darling: Bad reviews, particularly from Queen Roxane Gay, turned me off.
Heather the Totality: A trusted reviewer (Jessica Woodbury) said that it wasn’t only bad, it was offensively bad and very reductive about its central female character. The book turned out to be a massive flop so this was apparently the right call.
I Am Charlotte Simmons: My rule is that I give authors two tries. If I don’t like one book, it just might have been that particular book, or the time that I read it. Twice, though, almost certainly means that author isn’t for me. Tom Wolfe has two strikes.
Nutshell: I’m usually here for Ian McEwan, but I heard this novel is very weird and not in a good way…in a “fetus judges the crap out of his mother” way. Which doesn’t sound like anything I’d particularly enjoy.
Portnoy’s Complaint: There are several other Roths on my TBR, but given that I’ve heard this book is basically about one guy obsessing over sex for a couple hundred pages…unless I start to read him and turn into a completionist, I think I’m good.
My Sister’s Grave: This was a book I got from the Kindle First program, but realized I don’t actually want to read and I don’t have to.
The Killing Kind: Pretty much exactly the same as above. I don’t really like mystery-thrillers, so no reason to force myself to read mediocre ones just because I got them for free.
Younger: Same.
(R)evolution: Same.
King of Taksim Square: I thought I should keep this on my list just to get some more exposure to Turkish literature, but honestly, the not-great Goodreads reviews turned me off. I’m sure there is much better Turkish work out there (I’ve read some of it!).