Because breaking up is hard to do.

It takes a lot for me to break up with a book. As in life, I am someone who perseveres, who sticks things out. In the past I’ve stuck with jobs, relationships, friendships and projects long past their sell by date.

My book break ups don’t happen often, but post pandemic I have become a bit more discerning in terms of doing things that bring me joy and not continuing with things that don’t.

Nevertheless, it rarely gives me any pleasure when I make the decision to put a book down and move on.

There are no bad books. Reviews and opinions are subjective – I’ve read books that reviewers loved but I disliked, and books that were deemed terrible by the wider world, but I enjoyed. Not every book will be to our taste.

Despite my best efforts, here are 5 books I couldn’t finish:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I had a stage of working my way through all the books recommended by Oprah Winfrey as part of Oprah’s Book Club. This book is (so far) the only one I could not bring myself to finish.

Set in 1956, it takes the form of a letter from the elderly Reverend John Ames to his young son. In the letter, the reverend reflects on his life, his Christian faith, spirituality, community, love, death and loneliness. The plot is thin, and it is largely a religious text.

Gilead started off well, but I found that every few pages I would find that my mind began to wander. I would begin contemplating my to-do list, what to have for dinner or thinking about work. On a couple of occasions, I drifted off to sleep (not a good sign at 3pm in the afternoon!). With so little plot to become absorbed in, it was rambling, ponderous and downright dull.

After 110 pages, I’d got the gist.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut’s masterpiece is a semi-autobiographical account of the Dresden firebombing by British and American air forces in 1945. That’s the first I’ve heard of it.

I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing when I tried to read Slaughterhouse 5. What I do remember is that somewhere around page 30, I realised that I had no idea what was going on or what the book was about.

I took that as a sign it wasn’t for me!

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

This one started off well. I took it with me on a work trip to Stavanger in 2018 and read the first few chapters quickly. But the was no movement in the plot and I quickly realised that each evening, the same events were going to happen (I am aware that this is most likely a plot device by the author to reflect the repetitive nature of military service). I found that I had no idea what order events were taking place, I would wonder if I’d missed something important, and the main character would begin to irritate me after about 10 minutes.

I persevered until about halfway through, before I couldn’t take it anymore and found something else to read instead.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

I tried. I really did.

I read this at the end of 2019, at the beginning of a long period of illness. At the time, I wasn’t sleeping or eating very well, and my mind was filled with worries. I tried my hardest to focus my mind on the exciting tale of Captain Ahab and his quest to kill the whale, Moby Dick, but I just couldn’t do it. There was simply no room in my brain for such a lengthy, complex and intricate novel. Of course, I didn’t realise this at the time, and I became angry with myself for failing to grasp the language or plot, and failing to enjoy a novel that, at another time in my life, I should have enjoyed.

Perhaps now that my brain is back to full capacity, I will revisit Moby Dick and give it another go.

Every text on the Medieval Literature module of Newcastle University’s BA English Literature course

Yes, you read that correctly.

I have never struggled with so many books in succession as I did on the unfortunate occasion I chose to study Medieval Literature as part of my degree.

In my defence, at this time I was also working nearly 30 hours per week, struggling to support myself and stuck in an unhappy relationship that I didn’t know how to end. I just didn’t have space in my brain to decipher The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Morte D’Arthur. To me, it was like reading in a foreign language. I still have no idea how I managed to pass the module!

Are there any well-known books you couldn’t finish?