Lucia’s Reviews > Florence Adler Swims Forever > Status Update

Sounds just like my current read lol. I'm trying to learn to quit books like this a lot faster rather than pushing through to the end.

Hopefully this picks up for you or your next read is a lot more fun!

Gavin wrote: "Sounds just like my current read lol. I'm trying to learn to quit books like this a lot faster rather than pushing through to the end.

Hopefully this picks up for you or your next read is a lot m..."

One of my this year's resolutions is to DNF books more often rather than waste my time. It is very freeing to be honest LOL My reading challenge looks bad since I do not finish that many books but at least I feel good :)

Lucia wrote: "One of my this year's resolutions is to DNF books more often rather than waste my time..."

That has been a goal of mine since I slogged my way through the duo of Snow Crash and The City & the City. I've actually done OK with it though it is still rare for me not to finish a book. I think I've only not finished one or two books this year. Weirdly I did pull the plug on my most recent read at the 60% mark. It does not hurt my reading challenge though as I mark them all as finished and they still get their reviews and everything lol. My feeling is that if I've committed to a book than it counts as me reading it even if I only end up wasting a few hours of my time on it. Anything I mark as "currently reading" here at Goodreads is a book I've fully committed to reading. I do not tend to mark books I'm just sampling. I can tend to listen to anywhere between 2 to 30 minutes of audio for a book as a sample before committing to it. I can sample a whole bunch of potential reads before I pick a new book. It helps me pick the right book to match whatever mood I'm in and also just lets me set aside books I'm not in the mood for at the time but still intent on actually reading at a later time. It is a system that has always worked for me:) Even back when I was a teen grabbing books from the library I could read a chapter or two from a whole bunch of books before dragging the ones that caught my interest to the check out lol.

Gavin wrote: "Lucia wrote: "One of my this year's resolutions is to DNF books more often rather than waste my time..."

That has been a goal of mine since I slogged my way through the duo of [book:Snow Crash|830..."

Looks like you have really good system! :) I need to learn thing or two from you ;) If I DNF book under 30% I dont mark it as read. And this has been case with too many books this year so my reading challenge is rather pathetic this year LOL. I seem to pick All the wrong and boring books :/

I feel like I've properly committed to a book if I've given it 100 pages or 3 hours of audio. If a book has not won me over by that point then it is just never going to do so. I tend to read until then before I quit a book I've marked as "currently reading".

I'm sorry to hear you have not had much luck with your book choices of late. Hopefully you find some fun new books soon. Have you tried rereading a few old faves? That usually helps me get back into reading if I'm slumping. I even hold unread books by favourite authors in reserve just for a time when I feel like I've read too many dud new reads on the trot!

I went on a bad run late last year and had a very slow end to 2019 hardly reading at all because all the books I picked turned out to be dull and disappointing. I'm out of the slump now! This quarantine has been great for my reading challenge as I've been blasting through a ton of books without any work or sports to suck on my time. Last I checked I was 30 books ahead in my challenge:)

Your end od 2019 is exactly like my whole 2020 LOL. I reread Red Rising trilogy couple od weeks ago and it really helped. But then I got back to reviewing ARCs and news books and my slump returned back :( I think I am going to read only backlist titles that have been on my shelf forever and forget about ARCs for the rest od the year.

Anyway, I am happy to hear you are rocking it with your challenge! I need to check all what you read to find some gems ;)

I do love Red Rising! Dark Age might even be the last truly great book I read and I did that back in 2019. It is my fave sci-fi series of the lot and I'm glad we will be due another instalment in 2021.

Most of my favourite authors are taking 2020 off by the looks of it which makes Stormlight 4 by Sanderson my most anticipated read of the year. I hope it lives up to my high expectations lol.

I'm doing great with my challenge but I'm not sure you will find any gems on my reading list. I've mostly been reading short self-published stuff. Most have been fun without being anything overly special. I'm not complaining about that though as at least I'm finding stuff that is holding my attention unlike the stuff I was trying at the end of 2019. I go into my self-published (cheap) books with lower expectations than I tend to go into big releases from the big publishers. With them I expect decent level of quality and am bitterly disappointed if I do not get it lol.

I did read a bunch of historical romance books a month a go that was a lot of fun. Not high concept stuff but most of what I read was cute and compelling and that is what matters most in my eyes:)

I've been struggling with new releases even more than you have. I read The Kingdom of Liars a month or two ago and it was actually the first fantasy debut I'd tried in nearly two years after I struggled badly with the stuff from 2017 and 2018 I tried to read. I've sort of lost faith in the big fantasy publishers in recent years as most of what they are churning out seems to be pretty poor. I still read new books from my old faves but I'm struggling badly to find the enthusiasm to try anything by new authors.

Hopefully you find a fun new book/series soon as being in a reading slump is the WORST!

Oh yes, reading slumps are the worst and I seem to be experiencing a very long one now :( Same as you, I feel like giving up new authors conpletely because all the new published fantasy paranormal and fiction seem to concentrated more on being "politically correct" than on writing and storytelling. Guess I need to read all the backlist titles from my favorite authors that I have been postponing to read over the years :)

Lucia wrote: "Guess I need to read all the backlist titles from my favorite authors that I have been postponing to read over the years :) ..."

Do that for sure! It always helps me get back into reading when I read a few new books from old favourite authors. One gets a fresh new story but still has the familiar feel of an old favourite when it comes to the writing:)

I'm OK with politically correct messages in my stories but I hate any story that values its "message" above the characters and story. If I feel like everything is just a vehicle for the authors voice or message then everything feels too throwaway for me and I find it impossible to invest in the story. I've not had too many issues with coming across this type of book lately but that is not saying much as if I get the impression I'm heading for a "message" story while reading the blurb then I'll not even bother to start the book lol. I've actually had more issues with misogyny and the like in my recent reads. Though that might just be because I've been reading a lot of self-published stuff. When it comes to big publisher fantasy debuts my main issues have been gimmicky story structures or writing styles and a general tendency of the genre towards spitting out stories that feel like they are trying way to hard to be cool and gritty. There is also the fact that a lot of the new stuff I've read of late has just been boring and unsatisfying which definitely does not help lol.

Lets hope we both find a fun new read soon!