Reading Wrap-Up for October 2025

 

Life's Too Short to Stick With a 'Bad' Book

 

I really don’t like putting a book on the DNF shelf. I’ve always felt that if someone put in the effort to write a book the least I can do, after picking it up, is finish reading it.

But over the last few months I’ve come to the realization that life’s too short to stick with books that aren’t touching me in some way. I’ve DNF’d more books in the last 6 weeks than I have, probably, in the last 6 years. (I’m not including “paused” books in this note. I’ll touch on that some other time.)

Before I DNF a book, though, I do go to a site or two to see what other people think of it, and I usually go to the one- or two-star reviews to see if any readers are picking up the same vibe I am. It makes me feel better (kind of) when I discover that they are.

It’s especially hard to DNF a best-seller or anything that’s beloved by readers. I start to think something must be wrong with me if I don’t like it. Then I remember that not everyone has the same taste in books. I also try to remind myself that if someone challenges me on why I didn’t like or didn’t finish a book, “not everyone has the same taste” is all I have to say.

Wouldn’t the literary world be boring if we all like the same thing?

(I have finished all the books pictured.) 

Let's Try This Again ...

I've read 57 books so far this year and, I'm confident that by the end of the week that number will be 60. It was not that ago that I couldn't even read 26 books a year. That's only 2 books a month, which makes me feel much better about the only 7 I read last month.

I do have an excuse for September, though. I was without a car for most of the month, meaning my audio book "reading" was cut by 40 minutes per workday. Also, my Bona Girl Trip was in September so my nighttime reading was cut down by a little. 

At least the majority of the books were good, though. 

For the first time ever I was disappointed with a Lisa Gardner book. I love Frankie Elkin but One Step Too Far just didn't do it for me. I will keep reading Lisa's books, though. And, after all, 3.75 is not a bad rating. I just thought the last 1/3 was too slow-paced.

I've never read Stacy Willingham before but had read good reviews of her books so I chose the audio book of Forget Me Not for my Book of the Month Club selection. (I was not impressed by another selection. For October, I was so unimpressed that I'm skipping this month.) It was OK but -- and sorry for this -- forgettable. It was very slow for the first 3/4 then had too much jammed into the lat 1/4. I might read her again. I'll decide when and if I get to that point. 
 

Mary Higgins Clark (who I still miss) and Alice Feeney haven't let me down yet. (I know All Around the Town is quite old, and I don't know how I missed it when it first came out. I am, however, grateful that I was able to pick it up at the Bemus Point Library book sale.) 

It's very unusual to have more than one 5-star rating in a month. I had 3 in September. Jane Eyre. Need I say more? I was late to the party for Remarkably Bright Creatures but so glad I finally got to it. The Secret Book Society, although historical fiction, is very relevant for the times in which we are living. It's the current selection for the Sounds Novel Book Club. This month's meeting will be my first and I'm looking forward to it.  

I'm keeping track of my reading on Storygraph and Goodreads (Fable, too, but I'm going to leave there after my reading streak gets to 366 days.) I also have a physical book journal. Why I need to keep track here, I don't know (Compilation of everything, I guess). And, I don't know if I'll keep up with it. But I do love reading and books, and looking at books, and talking about books, and writing about books, and going to libraries, and searching Libby for books ... You get the idea. So, we'll see what happens here. I'm hoping I don't go 11 months without posting like last time.

Note: The August graphic is to show that I have been doing better than 7 books a month.