New year, time for a new thread in which I collect all the books I decided not to finish this year (for now or for forever). Please don't read this if your heart hurts reading harsh words about certain books, haha. The books I decided to quit in January: 🔵 “There Is No Antimemetics Division” by qntm Chapter one: That was somewhat fun. Chapter two: Kind of same-ish, but okay enough. I guess. Chapter three: Oh hey, is that you, the same gimmick? Again? Chapter four: Hello gimmick, my old friend. I’ve come to read about you again. You know what? Let me just see myself out. 🔵 Several books by Ruta Sepetys What I expected: European history in YA format. What I actually got: One-sided European history as seen through an American lens that was badly written and riddled with inaccuracies. Pissed me off. 🟢 “Waar ik me voor schaam” by Sheila Sitalsing (title means: "what I'm ashamed of") A book in Dutch about the author finding out that her grandparents were happy nazi collaborators. The history parts and finding out parts were very interesting, but I grew tired of the endless philosophizing about what it means for her, should she be ashamed, should she distance herself, is it not that bad if others did it too or not, why couldn’t she just have a family history to be proud of, what does this mean for her children, will she be discriminated against for having bad genes, etc., etc. With everything going on in the world I wasn’t in the right headspace for it. People can be kind to a family member one hour and a genocidal terror to others the next hour, it happens. I kept thinking: my god, just say that their actions sucked, that you’re disappointed in them and give it a place within yourself -no excuses, no identity crises. Lots of people are related to neo-nazis right here right now, we have to find ways to deal with it. Focus on stopping the cycle of abuse and hate and indoctrination. Be glad when families don’t carry on being nazis but manage to change throughout generations. 🟢 “Indignity: A Life Reimagined” by Lea Ypi Lea Ypi’s other work, Free, was one of my favorite reads last year. I was desperate to read Indignity, which promised to be a deeper look into her grandmother’s life, a search triggered by someone posting a suspicious picture of her online. It pains me to put it on this dnf list. Less than 20% of this 400+ page chonker is Ypi talking, non-fiction style, about her visiting the archives and puzzling her grandmother’s life together. Those parts are great. The rest is her grandmother’s life, reimagined, fiction style. Ypi’s fiction writing is… not great. A slog to get through. It’s personal history mixed with general history mixed with imagination and I can’t believe such an interesting topic wasn't enough to get me to finish it. It needs to go back to the library and I’m too demotivated to try to continue. Maybe I’ll give it another go at a later date… But the tl;dr is: read her book "Free"! Do it!