October/November DNFs

I've been in a pretty big reading slump lately. I was a reading machine in September & October - I think I was reading a book every 3 days or so. I haven't finished a book since October 30th/31st (I forget the date). It seems like forever. Since then, I've actually quit reading 3 different books, which actually got me down on reading a little bit. It was really disappointing to pick up the books and not enjoy any of them. I actually ended up going to an old, familiar stand-by - The Long Walk.

Turns out I actually quit 6 books in October and early November:
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Spandeau Phoenix by Greg Iles
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
The Nicholas Effect by Reg Green

Wow! Honestly, they were all so disappointing to me. And I feel really bad about The Nicholas Effect - it is such an inspiring story, but the book...ug. I just wasn't feeling it.

There are a couple that I plan on trying again eventually - most likely Spandeau Phoenix and The Night Journal. I'm not sure if I'll ever revisit The Jane Austen Book Club - that was seriously painful for me. The same is true for The Liars' Club. Holy cow, that book was annoying! It's weird - I really think it's because there are a couple of things I just can't get a grasp on - first, that there are really families out there like that (yes, I certainly understand that there are, it's just so hard to fathom), and second, and more important - I really can't see how people can "remember" things from so long ago. I think I made it maybe 40 or 50 pages into the book, and the author was still recounting things from her childhood in vivid detail. I can barely remember last year, let alone when I was 4.

So, anyway, I have been a little bummed the last week or so. I was really trying to get back into reading, but hated that I gave up on 3 books recently. I was actually feeling a tad guilty, and that's why I didn't move on to my next book. Yesterday, I decided to say screw it and just pick up a new one - why waste time on a book that I dread picking up?

The good news is that I just started reading a FABULOUS book yesterday - Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I am loving it so much. I'm about 70 pages into it and relishing every moment that I'm reading it. I can't wait to review it - I hope it continues to be as good as it has started out to be.