Books I like to have read but didn't

I could have titled this as Books ruined by movies but it's not entirely true since most movies inspire me to read the book and sometimes they are better than the book. I had seen at least one movie adapation of all these books except The Woman in White. These are the books that I have been trying to read more than once but I finally gave up on them. But that still didn't mean I won't try to read them again. Here are some books I like to have read but didn't.

01 - Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
This is my type of book - a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of wackiness - that would naturally drawn me in but somehow I started it, stopped, started again, stopped, never returned to it. I may have seen a few move adaptations that may have repelled me from reading the book. I think I know the story because of so many references to it.

02 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 
I thought I wanted to read this but then I found there seemed to be different versions and also, the original is written in older English (properly not the correct term) and is probably not as easy to understand so I tried the 'Grey Translation' and I got past maybe a few chapters and then just couldn't mustered the interest to continue. Another book that is sort ruined by watching a couple of movie/tv adaptations and hearing how great the book is and how people constantly referencing this book and how great Shelley is. Maybe I should try again but perhaps read the original version.

03 - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
This should've been a book I could have breezed through (like the other Austen novels I had read) but I never finished it even trying to read it three or maybe four times. I have a paperback version which I still have a bookmark in it. And sometimes I just pick it up and check to that bookmarked page and then tried to read a few words and then gave up.
    I think if I had not seen the 1999 movie adaptation which put me off reading the book for years, I might have already read this. But it's the ending, the conclusion to the romance of Fanny (the main character) and a certain gentleman that annoyed me in the movie which I'm sure will annoy me in the book. Mostly, I found this boring and tedious and long and why is it so boring to read about a bunch of rich, spoiled people trying to put on a play?

04 - His Dark Materials book 1: The Golden Compass (original title Northern Lights) by Philip Pullman
This is the first book in a series which it's exactly the type of book I would like but somehow I never could finish reading it. And yes, I also saw a movie adaptation which may have influenced me to read the book. The book was slow-moving and somehow it just seemed like there are a lot of boring parts to get through along with politics which I never liked.

05 - The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The main character was so unlikeable which shouldn't deter me from reading this book but it did. At the beginning of the book, when Walter (the main character) came across a woman in white, he was thinking he could possibly do something to her (ie, assault her) and no one would know. Sorry, what? If a man thinks he can do whatever he wants to a woman simply because there is no one around, then that guy is an a-hole. And then he just becomes much more unlikeable when he met the unpretty sister who was kind and courteous to him but he keeps wishing he was meeting the pretty sister. I know you don't have to like characters to read a book but I just could not stand to be in this guy's head.
 

06 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I think I would have easily devoured this and even liked it if I had read it earlier and if I have never seen the 1994 movie. And knowing what happened to Beth makes it less enjoyable because I found her end so depressing that I really didn't want to read that part. This is probably why it's a bad idea to watch a movie before reading the book.

What books you like to have read but didn't?

Book Rants - July 2026

I pretty much spent July reading book samples and I barely finished any books but I re-read a lot of books. I'm not listing all the books I didn't finish since returned them (I read borrowed library books) and don't remember their titles. Here are the books I unfinished and a few I did finish. (P.S I'm using a hide/show script for book #4, let me know if it works.)

Books I Unfinished:

01 - We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda
What's it about: cats, temporary cat owners, cat therapy
Quit at: 38%
It's not a novel as it said on the cover, it's short stories connected by the idea of being prescribe a cat as therapy. I think I had expected it to be a novel and maybe a little disappointed it wasn't.
    I thought the first story I read was rather dull and meaningless where things just happened to this particular temporaty cat owner and it involved the cat a bit. I tried the second story but I just didn't care. There is some paranormal elements but that doesn't come until later in the book. I really did try to finish this but I just couldn't do it.

Fiction: Bad Hair Day

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are supplied by Charlotte and hosted at River's blog here. This week's prompts are: snake, linen, cake, tired, letter, clip and/or brush, matter, rake, blue, bush, read.

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Fiction: Bad Hair Day
10:22 AM
Tess Mercy didn't need to rush but she didn't want to see Rob turned into a donkey or a snake or some other animal.

10:01 AM
Twenty-one minutes ago, Tess and Rob were at Ingrid's Diner having some cheap but decent coffee. After some small talk, Rob said, "Tess, I think we should go our separate ways. I'm sure you'll find someone—"
    "Better than you. Thanks for saying so, Rob." Tess smiled.
    "I didn't— Never mind. I thought you were going to throw something at me or even hit me." Rob chuckled and raked a hand through his blond curls. 
    "Why would I do that?" She grinned. "Thanks to you, I'm a free woman." 
    "I'm so glad you understand, Tess." He grinned.
    She should be angry at Rob, her boyfriend of almost a year, engaged to another woman since last year and was breaking up with Tess as if she didn't matter.
    But Tess never liked to fuss in front of people especially since she worked with some of them. She dabbed her mouth with the napkin and dropped it on the table. Smiling, she stood up and said, "Goodbye, Rob. Have a nice life," and lightly tapped his hand. She half-ran out the exit, toward a subway station, down the stairs through the turnstile and in a few moments a train arrived and she hopped inside.