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I have trust issues when it comes to books that I find hard to get into because one of two things happen. I either a) end up loving the book and thanking myself that I didn't cave and DNF or b) kicking myself for wasting time reading 400 pages of a book that I ended up hating, or worse, feeling apathetic about.
There have been several books that I struggled to get into - a fair few of these that I was contemplating DNFing - and ended up loving...then on the other hand there are several books that I struggled to get into and struggled to get through. However, it's because of the books that I ended up loving that I'm now super wary about DNFing...because what if it ends up being a firm favourite?!
Don't let it be said that the nerd life is the easy life.
So, without further ado, let's get into the seven books I loved but really struggled to get into...
THIS BOOK. There was a lot of hype in the blogosphere about it at one stage so I then decided to give it a go (naturally) even though I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I feel like this is also one of the first YA books I ever read so maybe that's why it also took me a while to get into it? ANYWAY. I hated the first 80 pages and I was very near to DNFing it, SO CLOSE, but I decided not to AND IT WAS THE BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. After the first 80 pages, I was completely sucked into the story. I cried (read: I bawled my eyes out. In the dentist waiting room. Awkward doesn't even begin to describe it) and I felt SO MANY EMOTIONS and it ended up being one of my favourite books ever. It's because of this book that I'm wary of DNFing. Thanks, book.
I utterly love Cassandra Clare's books but I used to find them so hard to get into and I'm not particularly sure why this is. I first read The Infernal Devices and although I absolutely adored them it took me a long time to get into them. City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass all took me quite awhile to get into as well...I don't know if it's maybe because Cassandra Clare details her books hectically and it's hard for me to get into that but I don't know. I love these books but I wasn't sucked into them from page one.
This book was epic and it's definitely one of the best theology books I'm sure I'll ever read. It's creative and it's mind-blowing but gosh, it's hard to get into. The ideas and thoughts were quite abstract and his writing style wasn't very concise so I often had to spend time picking apart his sentences trying to figure out what he was expressing but when I did, it was great and kind of life changing, to be honest.
I will squawk about my love for this book until the cows come home (where does that saying even originate from??). By the time I had finished it I had laughed, cried and nearly fell off of my bed from shock numerous times, however, it took me around 200 pages to fully get into this book. It's formatted quite differently to most books and it took me awhile to get used to that but boy, once I did, I was utterly hooked.
I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK (and the whole trilogy, you should go read it asap). I struggled to get into this book for the first 20-30 pages and I'm not particularly sure why. I think it's perhaps because there are quite a lot of important characters, all with story lines that are essential to the plot so I think it was because I had to try to keep track of that? I CAN'T REMEMBER. All I know is that the writing is brilliant, the plot is brilliant, all the story lines of the characters are brilliant and YOU NEED TO READ IT, BASICALLY.
Fun fact (okay, not really "fun" but FACT IT IS): I never used to like Sarah Dessen's books, which made me super sad as pretty much everyone had crowned her the queen of contemporary books and I just wasn't getting the hype. I had read Dreamland and The Moon and More and I disliked both of them. I was near to throwing in the towel...but I persevered. There is nothing more determined than a reader who wants to love a hyped author (or maybe that's just me). So the next book of hers I picked up was This Lullaby and I don't think I loved it at first but more than halfway through I fell in love with it...and all her other books I've read since, I've adored. YAS. FINALLY.
I loved this book from the start but I did find Ray Bradbury's writing a bit unusual to most books I've read so it took me awhile to familiarise myself with it and fully get stuck into the story but once I did....I loved it so much and it made me think so much and AHHH, it's so brilliant!
Which books did you struggle to get into but ended up loving? Do you have issues with DNFing? Has there ever been a book you almost DNFed but ended up loving? Let's chat!