Reading vlog: DNFs in 2022 so far & climbing out of a reading slump

Some [good] books I haven’t been able to finish so far this year + trying to get out of a reading slump. Let me know what books have gotten YOU out of slumps before! Let me know the ones that put you there! Tell me why I'm wrong to have dropped the books I did!

Books I mention:
🐡The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing (2013)
🐡I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins (2021)
🐡The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight (2022)
🐌Essays Two by Lydia Davis (2021)
🐌Speedboat by Renata Adler (1976)
🍋Homesick for another World by Ottessa Moshfegh (2017)
🍋McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh (2014)
🍋The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (2018)
🍋Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu (2022)
🍋Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman (1999)
🍋Look at Me by Jennifer Egan (2001)
🍋Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen (1971)
🍋The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt (2014)
🍋The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)

Other mentions:

Me elsewhere:
StoryGraph: @sdelphis

[ameliareads]

All through the video I adored your different chairs which seem to be perfect reading nooks.

[RachaelsReadingNook]

First video I've seen of yours and starting with gin on the rocks has me subscribing immediately 😂 It's so frustrating when you go through a reading slump and just can't seem to get into anything. "The Trip to Echo Springs" cover is amazing, I hadn't heard of it before. Great vlog!

[Shellyish]

I swear reading slumps are going around Booktube. It’s a thing.
A Life of Colette’s cover is stunning.
Empire of Pain tore my heart into very tiny pieces.
I quite liked the drinking themed vlog. Also, love your apartment.

[TwoForAFiver]

In the middle of a brutal reading slump atm - interested to see what book will break it!
Good to hear your thoughts on Echo Spring. Had a copy for years and just always seem to pass on actually reading it.

[ameliareads]

I always love to hear which books people don't finish. So I really enjoyed this video.
My personal approach is a bit different from yours. I only consider books as dnf'd, if I put them down unfinished for good. Your cases would be paused or tbc books for me.

[SpringboardThought]

Egan so far has been pretty hit and miss, mainly because all I’ve read is Goon Squad and Candy House. Loved, then hated. Lol
I have Speedboat! I’ve been waiting for my high expectations to settle on it. It’s so well lauded.
Essays 2 is the only one I can’t find around here, it’s weird. I have 1 and collected stories but 2 is like, just something no one decided to stock at the library or otherwise.
I’ve only read Lonely City but no other Laing. Sure liked it! I can see why people like her.
I really want to read The Premonitions Bureau too! From the same video. I’ve got a hold on it but it’ll probably be a while.

Interesting about the Laing turning out better than expected!

I love you but I’ve chosen darkness didn’t do much more for me. I was super into the vibes and premise too. Didn’t know she was a big deal! Or bigger deal… than I knew, anyway.

I’m curious what I’ll make of this premonitions thing. Glad you tried it as well. I haven’t read anything like it so it’ll be a roll of the dice for me, nothing to gauge it against.

[linenlibrarian]

Omg! Scumbag mother narrative! That really describes the genre! I feel you with this too, I’m also a little over the self-destructive mother/millennial woman novel. And Darkness was my least favorite out of her three published works. Gold Fame Citrus was way better!