Ending It All With a Gunshot to the Face!

To your relief, this is not another entry on death and self-destruction–I just felt like writing that title. This is instead a confession on the numerous books I have not finished reading. I had my book ravenous days, when I would read and finish everything, even the most boring and annoying ones. I once told Namtab Pots that the reason I would not stop reading the horrible Andrew Vacchs book Flood years ago was because I bought it for 90 pesos in Booksale, but he retorted that the hours I’ve spent reading that crap is worth more– I could have flossed instead, or wrapped my comic books in plastic and arranged them chronologically. Here are the books with whom I have unresolved issues:

1. Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg- The two people I know who read it called it a classic, but so is Anna Karenina of which I’ve read 1 page. Anna Karenina is not in this list because 1 page did not create enough of an issue between us. Everything about Smilla is just so detached and… cold. Hoeg could have deliberately been going for that feel, so in that respect he succeeded, but I still fell asleep. Dropped at: 200 pages.

2. Something Happened by Joseph Heller- After reading Catch-22 and enjoying it immensely I’ve tried to get as many Heller books as possible, then found that the other ones don’t possess the same gravitas that Catch-22 has. Dropped at: 94 pages.

3. The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith- I realized that I don’t really need to know anything more about Tom Ripley, because if at some point I discover that he’s been abused as a child in an attempt to explain his deviance I would laugh non-stop. Dropped at: 28 pages.

4. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut- and the other Vonnegut books I’ve tried. He’s actually very fun and interesting. Call me a moron–there are some things I just don’t get, and after a few pages I get distracted and revert to reading Batman. Dropped at: 13-42 pages.

And tons more. But there are some books that I’m thankful I’ve read and worked through the difficult parts, having been greatly rewarded at the end, such as Atonement by Ian McEwan, Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Dune by Frank Herbert, and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.
I need some comments! Tell me about the books you’ve dropped and why.