Introducing a New Category: DNF

I didn't think about this before, but we need to have a category for books that we decide-- for whatever reason-- not to finish. Introducing DNF, or Did Not Finish.

I wish we didn't need this category. Mainly because I really wanted to like the last book I started reading, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. But I just couldn't.

This book has won all sorts of awards, it was even a finalist for the Pulitzer. My problem is I have no idea why. The premise is very intriguing-- I only read a synopsis and thought it sounded awesome. Here you go, if you're interested. From Goodreads...

The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

Sounds good, right? That's what I thought. Instead, it's just ... not. I was not a fan of how much swearing Eggers threw in there, for seemingly no reason at all. And what put me off right off the bat was the huge Preface/Contents/Acknowledgements section that dragged on and on and on ... and seemed to be partly a sarcastic reaction to critical reviews of the book. Yeah, not a fan. I even gave it about 120 pages worth of a chance to impress me, to give me a reason to finish all 437 pages, and I never found it. In the end, I concluded it's just not worth my time to keep slogging through a book that I'm not enjoying at all. After reading a few books that I LOVED, I just want to get into another excellent read.

Oh, well. Better luck with the next one.