Shelving Choices: Do Not Read & Did Not Finish

Books come in all shapes and sizes. Good stories, bad stories, and in between stories. We’ve read them on our own, we’ve had to read them for school or various other reasons. Some we will read again, others we will never come near again unless we are desperate for something to read (and even then we may consider other sources before touching these books). I’ve noticed a trend of some people starting what is essentially called a Do-Not-Read list, and I was currently browsing a shelf with this particular title on a goodread user’s profile and several of the books on this shelf are on my to-read shelf and I’ve no intention of removing them from my to-read shelf (and I will read them eventually).


Beyond that, I do not understand why some of these books are on there. They are good books, they are best sellers and look very, very interesting. I have actually seen an author’s entire collection of stories on this shelf and it disturbs me to think that someone would slight an entire author for whatever reason. There is some drama with a NYT bestselling author over her husband calling a reviewer a psycho on an amazon.com review, and the various atomic bomb size fall out and drama that came with that, but other authors I don’t understand. Someone explain to me why you would blacklist all of an author’s work without any reason that I can think of?

Difference in opinion aside, what would make you shelve a book “Do Not Read” or “Did Not Finish”, or would you simply not do such a thing? I’ve one book that I’ve shelved “did not finish” or “abandoned” simply because I couldn’t get past some of the issues with it and my review reflected that. Beyond that, I’ve finished everything else I’ve been given to read, and ultimately I will not shelf a book “do not read” or “did not finish” unless there is a lot of problematic errors and issues with the writing style that I simply cannot get past. If your book drives me crazy (and not in an “OMG I LOVE THIS” type of way) it will be made known in my review, and ultimately in various shelving choices when I choose my options on goodreads.

Do you have books like this? Are they all in a specific genre or by a specific author? Inquiring blogger wants to know!