Multi Book Review: Books I did not finish in 2016 – Part I

I typically have a personality quirk whereby I feel compelled to finish books, after I open them. This has over time led me to devote rather a large portion of my time to reading things which I frankly didn’t like, and in many cases actually disliked.

I have thought quite a bit about this problem,indeed a part of me feels like through this venue I should also discuss those books at length here. However, I have chosen to have this outlet be the curated best of what I consume, in the hope that this will excite you into reading some of those books, that I found brought me the most joy.

Therefore, periodically I will have a post such as this where I will discuss some books, which at great pains, I put back on the shelf. This is not meant to imply that these books would not be enjoyed by others, merely that they were not by me. Thus, take with a grain of salt my opinions in cases where you feel that a book may be a better fit with your own tastes.

1. Brotherhood of the wheel– by R.S. Belcher.  I really did enjoy the first book by Belcher that I read (subject of a future review, Nightwise) and thus had high expectations of this one. However, for me, there was too much an attempt here at being dark and edgy, with not enough emphasis on the plot and character development. Indeed, in parts I felt as if the author were trying to see how far he could push and still have me continue reading. This one I put down after 20% or so.
2. Britt-Marie was here – by Fredrik Backman. As you likely know from my enthusiastic review, I was captivated by Backman’s earlier story “A man called Ove” and will likely feature the absolutely spellbinding “My grandmother says she’s sorry” in a future review. However, no matter how hard I tried I could not get excited about this story, featuring a character spun off from MGSSS, the hard to like, Britt-Marie. I stuck this one out for a number of chapters before I was forced to admit defeat. Perhaps some of you will take to poor Britt-Marie more than I was able to.
3. Triggers – By Marshall Goldsmith & Jack Schafer. The jacket for triggers had me interested from the start with its discussion of how certain situations and factors can be associated with and ultimately subconsciously cause specific behaviors. Often in business books authors stretch a specific observation over numerous chapters and call it a book. Unfortunately, this was the case with Triggers, which repeated the same few facts and findings enough times in the initial few chapters to turn me off completely.