Books I DNF'ed 🚫 ... But Might Finish 🤔

I recently experienced a series of audiobooks that failed to meet my expectations. The first book was an autobiographical account about a black punk artist from Detroit in the early 70s. I was excited to dive back into it after reading a summary, but unfortunately, the audiobook version did not work for me. I couldn't recall much of what I had read, and I found myself wanting to start over and read it physically instead.

As someone who loves books like Daisy, which is another story that explores themes similar to this one, I was initially disappointed by my experience with this audiobook. However, I'm eager to give the book a second chance and explore its full potential. The author's use of storytelling and character development seems promising, and I'd love to delve deeper into their world.

My next pick is "The Need" by Helen Phillips, which caught my attention after Olivia from Stories for Coffee discussed it on her Tick Tock account. She praised the book for its Twilight Zone vibes and speculative thriller elements, which intrigued me since I grew up watching marathons of The Twilight Zone on Saturday mornings. This short book follows a mother who begins hearing strange things and discovers an intruder in her home that knows far too much about her and her kids. I found myself drawn to the premise despite not fully understanding what was happening at first, but I'd love to give it another chance if I were to read it physically.

Lastly, there's "Quite Different" by Lisa Cross Smith, which I DNF'd due to my disappointment with therapists as main characters in media. The book tells the story of a therapist who talks down a man on the verge of jumping off a bridge, but what didn't sit well with me was the complete lack of boundaries and going behind each other's backs by the characters. I'm curious about the author's intentions and would like to return to it to see if my perspective changes or if I can enjoy it more.

If you've read any of these books, I'd love to hear your thoughts! What were your experiences with them? Were there any moments that stood out to you, or did you find yourself struggling to connect with the characters or storylines? Have you also DNF'd a book and would like to finish it later? I'm all ears for your feedback and recommendations.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up hello my name is Emma and today I want to talk about some books that I have dnf'd but would really like to finish back in my early reading days I used to always commit to finishing a book no matter how much I hated it I think I was just always holding on to hope that like what if it turned out to be good in the end I maintained that self-imposed rule when I was like a late teenager but as an adult I do not have time for that anymore so I have become very comfortable with dnfing books that just aren't satisfying me but what I frequently encounter is that I will be loving a book and greatly enjoying it and maybe it has something to do with my ADHD but I just can't get the motivation to finish it I've gone through this with TV shows way longer than it's been a problem for me with reading but I can love a book so much and if I just like have enough distance from it or maybe I just like hadn't been paying as great attention I just like completely lose the ability to finish it so pretty much all of these books fit into that category where I was really loving the book but it just wasn't working for me at the time and I would really like to go back and finish them first up is hell bent by Leigh bardugo and this is a bit of an outlier compared to the rest because I really have only paused reading it I haven't officially dnf'd it it's just that chain of thorns came out and that became my priority but as soon as I finish chain of thorns my plan is definitely to pick up hellbent I did realize though I do not know where my bookmark went I have no clue I really I have no idea where I was in this book so it's probably going to take me some time to figure out where I was but I have been loving hellbent so much I was a little concerned going into hell Bend because ninth house is such a dense and intricate read you really have to pay attention while reading this series and also it had been like three years since ninth house came out and I read it for the first time so what I did which is what I really recommend to anyone that is like the new book in a series is coming out and you're afraid that you don't remember as much from the previous book is that there are so many websites out there that don't just have like reviews of the book but have like full plot summaries so I read like quite a handful of summaries of ninth house so I could really make sure that I had all of the details fresh in my mind before starting hellbent and it made the transition extremely seamless for me I feel like I was probably only about like 100 or so pages into hellbend but I have been loving it so far ugh ninth house is such a captivating read the atmosphere of it it just really hits all of my personal points from what I love in like an urban paranormal fantasy so I'm really excited to dive back into Hal Ben soon the next stop is probably the most like coveted of dnfs on my channel and that is the toll by Neil Shusterman this is the last book in The Arc of a scythe series and I have tried reading this book twice the first time I listened to it on audiobook because I had listened to all of the other books in the series on audio and I've just really enjoyed that experience but my typical audiobook wasn't focusing enough difficulty remembering what was happening in the story caused me to put it on pause so then I was like okay I guess this is one that I need to physically read and once again I only got 124 pages in before I was like I can't do this anymore I need to read something else if you haven't heard of The Arc of a side series because I feel like it's been a couple of years since people were really talking about it but it takes place in this like futuristic dystopian slash utopian world where science has eradicated like all forms of natural death be it disease or accidents like there is the way for you to basically bring people back to life so in order to keep the population under control there is this organization called scythes they are given license to Kill others so that the world doesn't become overpopulated and it follows two teenagers who end up becoming The Apprentice to a scythe if you've been watching my channel for years you know that I love this series series I am so obsessed with The Arc of a side series and that is why it is so perplexing to me as to why I can't make it through the toll things that I think could be contributing to why I haven't finished this book yet is I think the new character that was introduced is named like Grayson and I just really didn't like his character I am like team Citra and Rowan all the way I really don't care for Grayson and I feel like the involvement of the Thunderhead in Thunderhead kind of shifted the tone of the series a little bit and with that being I guess having more of a role in the story it maybe overshadowed some of the things I liked about it but the end of Thunderhead was like mind-blowing and crazy like so many twists happened the entire side world has changed forever and so I really do want to know what happens and it's just like it's so confusing to me as to why I can't get through it I am intent on finishing this like I will finish this one day it would be great if it was this year in 2023 making no promises though but I just I really really want to finish this book the next book I have dnf'd but would really like to finish is Gods and Monsters by Shelby mahurin and this is the final book in The Serpent and Dove Trilogy similar to Scythe I have been a huge fan of this series Serpent and Dove the first novel takes place in a like 15th 16th century Parisian inspired world where we have witches and witch Hunters so because of a chain of preposterous events a witch and a witch hunter are forced to get married in order to kind of save public face and the witch hunter does not know that his new wife is a witch I have really loved this series I feel like it is a little bit more elevated than a lot of the why a fantasies I was reading at least at the time Louise LeBlanc is like an all-time favorite character of mine I love like her hard edgy exterior where she is like super witty and super courageous but she also has this like really soft side that she tries to shove down and that is a character archetype I will always be drawn to I loved Serpent and Dove and I love to blend in Honey pretty much like just as much as Serpent and Dove as of now I am on Page 149 and I had started reading this over like last summer I think but like I I've loved it so far like it's been enjoyable it's been great it hasn't been like the fastest pickup to me but similar to the toll Like Blood and Honey ends as many second books in a Trilogy do unlike big Cliffhangers and major changes so I'm really excited to find out what happens the main reason I have dnf'd this book so far is just because I think at the time like I just wasn't feeling a fantasy I wasn't reading it super quickly and typically when that's happening it's like a good sign for me to pick up something else that's like a thriller or like a general adult fiction but I am very much intent on finishing Gods and Monsters and I know that there is a like sequel kind of spin-off coming out soon that I would also really like to read so I'm very much planning on getting back to Gods and Monsters as soon as I can maybe since reading chain of thorns and then finishing hell then after that this would be a good time for me to transition into another fantasy of another series that I love the next book I have dnf'd but would also love to finish is book of night by Holly black I believe that this was Holly's like first Venture into the Adult World from being such a prolific y a and middle grade fantasy writer book of night has a really cool premise that I feel like I just don't have a great grasp on and that's probably what has led to me having not finished it up to this point it's this really intricate super developed and complex urban fantasy type world where there is this concept of Shadow training I just read the synopsis and I have to look it up again because I just don't get it so it's like Shadows can be altered for entertainment or cosmetic preferences increased power and influence to manipulate people's feelings and memories like already it's a lot but engaging in Shadow training can take like days months and years off of your lifespan and so our main character Charlie has been a con artist when a figure from her past comes back into her life as she is trying to leave this industry it Causes Chaos I have really really loved what I have read of book of night I say this all the time sometimes it's an audiobook that is just not the right format for me to read this story in and that's definitely what happened with book of night I'm not the type of person where I can just like lay in bed and close my eyes and listen to an audiobook I love audiobooks because they allow me to engage in stories kind of like a podcast while I am doing other things like driving and walking and cleaning up my space but sometimes especially with these books that have so much to them and so so many dude tells me to remember it just doesn't work out oftentimes when I start experiencing that I am like super comfortable going back like up to two hours on an audiobook so that I can refresh myself and in some cases it works and in book of night it just did not work book of night has like everything I love about urban fantasy there's nothing wrong with it like I really had no critiques some books like Gods and Monsters I feel like after dnfing and putting it down for a while I can just pick back up where I left off but in terms of things like book of Night and the toll I'm definitely going to have to start those over from the beginning which is totally fine for me but I think that my plan for getting back into book of night is most definitely starting it over from the physical format and I think that I will really really enjoy it I had a very similar experience when listening to the audiobook of in my dreams I hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead it is pretty much the same exact story not like this story isn't plot wise they're very different books but how I was listening to it and rewinding and just like could not get engaged enough to feel like I was really completing the story in my dreams I hold a knife is a dual timeline mystery thriller that follows a group of college friends and it follows them throughout they're like years of college I think it spans like all four years and then in the present it is them meeting back up for their College reunion what happened in the past is that one of the members of the friend group died very mysteriously there was an investigation they never found out how she died and there has been one member of the friend group that most people think that this person did it but there has been no proof and they've never been convicted I really really liked this book like in all of these I'm so pissed that I haven't finished them because these are all books I have really enjoyed y'all know I love a mystery thriller and this one was recommended to me by my friend Sarah from Sarah without an H I know she's a huge Ashley Winstead fan and like really hyped up this book for me and it was really living up to the hype I think also maybe like dual timeline stories don't work as well for me with audiobooks because like it's not just one story you have to keep all the details of it's like two entirely different ones I really like the character Dynamics I love reading about a large group of friends and especially seeing how their friendship changes over the years and it's just got like that classic whodunit mystery feel that I absolutely love what's extra frustrating about this book though is that I was so close to the end I probably had like two or three hours of the audiobook left and I just made the personal decision that I just didn't have the best grasp on the story as I would like to and I felt like I was doing the book and Injustice and myself by not feeling super confident in really getting all of the details of the story it's a book that I had really really enjoyed so I am very intent on going back to it I probably I don't know if I've really thought about if I would read it physically or listen to the audiobook but maybe it would be best for me to just read the physical book so that I don't encounter similar problems with the audiobook but yeah definitely one I want to get back to the next book I have started and would really love to finish is the body keep score by Dr Bessel vanderkolk the body Cape score I feel has been widely known as like the number one book for trauma whether it is people who have experienced trauma that read it or professionals who work with trauma the value I have found in this book so far I've only read like the first three chapters of it is really how it talks about the science behind how trauma impacts brain functioning as well as how it is stored in our body and that is what makes it so complex and difficult to heal from so in recent years I have started to discover a lot of controversy around this book like when I was in grad school I only ever heard positive things about the body keep score and in recent years especially becoming more involved in the therapist Community I have heard a lot of critiques about this book as well as about the author himself I find that it's mostly people who have experienced trauma that have read this book and feel that there are significant problems in how the author discusses trauma and his personal beliefs around trauma which I very much understand and honestly as I started reading this to me this very much strikes me as more of a book for professionals versus people that have experienced trauma themselves and also Dr vanderkolk was fired from his practice because of creating a hostile work environment I feel like this is different from the conversation of like separate the art from the artist because it is indisputable that Dr Bessel vanderkog has completely transformed the way in which therapy approaches trauma and the contributions he has made across his career error are invaluable I have taken a training from the author on trauma and it was extremely helpful for me as I have started to work with more clients who have suffered from trauma but like I will say like he totally is a know-it-all and talks as if he is like the grandfather of trauma treatment and his beliefs and experience with it is the best one and so at the same time with a lot of these negative things that have come from him and this book like there is also so much good and so much importance in the work that he has done and therefore it is a book that I still really do want to read I will be reading so critically but I feel confident in my ability to recognize the problems that I've already seen in those first three chapters but to really pull from the parts of it that I do feel have Merit and that I can apply to my own practice as a clinician if you're interested in the idea of the body keep score and what I have shared or what you may have heard about it does not make you want to read the book as this conversation has been increasing there have been a lot of great lists of books that achieve the same goal as the body keep score and talk about a lot of the same things but are from different clinicians and you know don't have as many controversial aspects to it so if you're interested something I would recommend looking up but it is still a book that I feel really passionately about wanting to continue it's just so hard like I've said it before I spend all day working as a therapist and when I read I want it to be escapism and for fun so it's really hard to get myself motivated to read a full book that is based on improving my counseling skills I would much rather take a training but uh there's so many books that I have that I really want to read that I think will greatly benefit me as a therapist next book I have dnf'd what would really like to finish is the final Revival of opal and Nev by Donnie Walton I have always been drawn back to this book because it seems to have a lot of similar elements to Daisy Jones and the six which we all know is one of my favorite books of all time this story follows a black punk artist from Detroit in the early 70s and just as she is getting her rise to fame and notoriety a band signs to her record label that is brandishing the Confederate flag and naturally as opal is outspoken and begins a protest of this situation it leads to a large chain of events that really transforms the lives of her fans the music industry as well as herself so years later in 2016 a music journalist aims to bring back opal and the person who discovered her named Nev to create an oral history about their experience working together and of course going back into the story it reveals a whole lot of more things I'm very disappointed once again an audiobook that did not work for me in the audiobook format and I don't remember like anything from this book so I definitely do want to you start over and read it but I feel like this is a book that I could really deeply enjoy it seems like you know with what I love about Daisy and I hate to keep comparing it to it because they're obviously two different stories but I don't know a lot about this book because I need to reread it so I'm just really excited to dive back into this one well shit I did not realize how many of these are failed audiobook listens for me but the next book on this list is the need by Helen Phillips I saw Olivia from stories for coffee talking about this book on her Tick Tock that she really enjoyed and said how it has Twilight Zone Vibes and I definitely grew up watching marathons of The Twilight Zone on Saturday mornings and it's a speculative thriller so I was super intrigued it follows a mother who has begun hearing things and she's trying to convince herself that she just isn't getting enough sleep but she ends up discovering an intruder in her home that knows far too much about her and her kids so she is trying to deal with that while also being a mother it seems like a really a weird and twisted book and what I read of it so far it was because I had no idea what was going on the entire time it's a short book so I feel like I would be able to get back into it if I were to read it physically and like really take time to understand the details and nuances of this story but it just seems really interesting and I'd love to give it a second chance and the last book on my list of books I have dnf'd but would like to finish is quite different from the rest of these because all of them as you can tell were books that I really enjoyed I want to get back to and this last one is one that I dnf'd because I didn't really like it and that is this close to okay by Lisa cross Smith I was really drawn to this book because of the premise it follows a therapist who comes across a man that is clearly preparing to jump off of a bridge so she invites him for a cup of coffee talks him down and the whole time she is trying to hide the fact that she is a therapist and like does this for work for fear of a negative reaction from him super interesting book I love reading books about therapists as a main character but they always disappoint me I'm really starting to think that authors like get off on the idea of presenting therapists as bad people and it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth there are terrible therapists out there that do not deserve a license and should not be working with people's mental health but the grand majority of us are really amazing and want to help and I feel like almost every single perspective on therapists in media is negative what I really didn't like about this book was just the complete lack of boundaries and going behind each other's backs that the characters go through as it's told from both of their perspectives it just like made me feel really gross so this is a book that I would like to return to to see if I can enjoy it more I don't think that I will but I just feel like it's so interesting to me that I really want to give it a second chance so that completes my list of books I have dnf'd but would really like to finish so in the comments below number one I really want to know if you have read any of these books what were your thoughts help me decide if like I should go back and try all of these again and also what are some books that you have dnf'd that you also would like to finish whether it's a book that you really enjoyed and a chain of events led to you just not finishing it at the time or you didn't like it but still feel like you couldn't want to return I'm super curious to hear your thoughts but that is it for this video thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you soon for a new one bye thank youhey what's up hello my name is Emma and today I want to talk about some books that I have dnf'd but would really like to finish back in my early reading days I used to always commit to finishing a book no matter how much I hated it I think I was just always holding on to hope that like what if it turned out to be good in the end I maintained that self-imposed rule when I was like a late teenager but as an adult I do not have time for that anymore so I have become very comfortable with dnfing books that just aren't satisfying me but what I frequently encounter is that I will be loving a book and greatly enjoying it and maybe it has something to do with my ADHD but I just can't get the motivation to finish it I've gone through this with TV shows way longer than it's been a problem for me with reading but I can love a book so much and if I just like have enough distance from it or maybe I just like hadn't been paying as great attention I just like completely lose the ability to finish it so pretty much all of these books fit into that category where I was really loving the book but it just wasn't working for me at the time and I would really like to go back and finish them first up is hell bent by Leigh bardugo and this is a bit of an outlier compared to the rest because I really have only paused reading it I haven't officially dnf'd it it's just that chain of thorns came out and that became my priority but as soon as I finish chain of thorns my plan is definitely to pick up hellbent I did realize though I do not know where my bookmark went I have no clue I really I have no idea where I was in this book so it's probably going to take me some time to figure out where I was but I have been loving hellbent so much I was a little concerned going into hell Bend because ninth house is such a dense and intricate read you really have to pay attention while reading this series and also it had been like three years since ninth house came out and I read it for the first time so what I did which is what I really recommend to anyone that is like the new book in a series is coming out and you're afraid that you don't remember as much from the previous book is that there are so many websites out there that don't just have like reviews of the book but have like full plot summaries so I read like quite a handful of summaries of ninth house so I could really make sure that I had all of the details fresh in my mind before starting hellbent and it made the transition extremely seamless for me I feel like I was probably only about like 100 or so pages into hellbend but I have been loving it so far ugh ninth house is such a captivating read the atmosphere of it it just really hits all of my personal points from what I love in like an urban paranormal fantasy so I'm really excited to dive back into Hal Ben soon the next stop is probably the most like coveted of dnfs on my channel and that is the toll by Neil Shusterman this is the last book in The Arc of a scythe series and I have tried reading this book twice the first time I listened to it on audiobook because I had listened to all of the other books in the series on audio and I've just really enjoyed that experience but my typical audiobook wasn't focusing enough difficulty remembering what was happening in the story caused me to put it on pause so then I was like okay I guess this is one that I need to physically read and once again I only got 124 pages in before I was like I can't do this anymore I need to read something else if you haven't heard of The Arc of a side series because I feel like it's been a couple of years since people were really talking about it but it takes place in this like futuristic dystopian slash utopian world where science has eradicated like all forms of natural death be it disease or accidents like there is the way for you to basically bring people back to life so in order to keep the population under control there is this organization called scythes they are given license to Kill others so that the world doesn't become overpopulated and it follows two teenagers who end up becoming The Apprentice to a scythe if you've been watching my channel for years you know that I love this series series I am so obsessed with The Arc of a side series and that is why it is so perplexing to me as to why I can't make it through the toll things that I think could be contributing to why I haven't finished this book yet is I think the new character that was introduced is named like Grayson and I just really didn't like his character I am like team Citra and Rowan all the way I really don't care for Grayson and I feel like the involvement of the Thunderhead in Thunderhead kind of shifted the tone of the series a little bit and with that being I guess having more of a role in the story it maybe overshadowed some of the things I liked about it but the end of Thunderhead was like mind-blowing and crazy like so many twists happened the entire side world has changed forever and so I really do want to know what happens and it's just like it's so confusing to me as to why I can't get through it I am intent on finishing this like I will finish this one day it would be great if it was this year in 2023 making no promises though but I just I really really want to finish this book the next book I have dnf'd but would really like to finish is Gods and Monsters by Shelby mahurin and this is the final book in The Serpent and Dove Trilogy similar to Scythe I have been a huge fan of this series Serpent and Dove the first novel takes place in a like 15th 16th century Parisian inspired world where we have witches and witch Hunters so because of a chain of preposterous events a witch and a witch hunter are forced to get married in order to kind of save public face and the witch hunter does not know that his new wife is a witch I have really loved this series I feel like it is a little bit more elevated than a lot of the why a fantasies I was reading at least at the time Louise LeBlanc is like an all-time favorite character of mine I love like her hard edgy exterior where she is like super witty and super courageous but she also has this like really soft side that she tries to shove down and that is a character archetype I will always be drawn to I loved Serpent and Dove and I love to blend in Honey pretty much like just as much as Serpent and Dove as of now I am on Page 149 and I had started reading this over like last summer I think but like I I've loved it so far like it's been enjoyable it's been great it hasn't been like the fastest pickup to me but similar to the toll Like Blood and Honey ends as many second books in a Trilogy do unlike big Cliffhangers and major changes so I'm really excited to find out what happens the main reason I have dnf'd this book so far is just because I think at the time like I just wasn't feeling a fantasy I wasn't reading it super quickly and typically when that's happening it's like a good sign for me to pick up something else that's like a thriller or like a general adult fiction but I am very much intent on finishing Gods and Monsters and I know that there is a like sequel kind of spin-off coming out soon that I would also really like to read so I'm very much planning on getting back to Gods and Monsters as soon as I can maybe since reading chain of thorns and then finishing hell then after that this would be a good time for me to transition into another fantasy of another series that I love the next book I have dnf'd but would also love to finish is book of night by Holly black I believe that this was Holly's like first Venture into the Adult World from being such a prolific y a and middle grade fantasy writer book of night has a really cool premise that I feel like I just don't have a great grasp on and that's probably what has led to me having not finished it up to this point it's this really intricate super developed and complex urban fantasy type world where there is this concept of Shadow training I just read the synopsis and I have to look it up again because I just don't get it so it's like Shadows can be altered for entertainment or cosmetic preferences increased power and influence to manipulate people's feelings and memories like already it's a lot but engaging in Shadow training can take like days months and years off of your lifespan and so our main character Charlie has been a con artist when a figure from her past comes back into her life as she is trying to leave this industry it Causes Chaos I have really really loved what I have read of book of night I say this all the time sometimes it's an audiobook that is just not the right format for me to read this story in and that's definitely what happened with book of night I'm not the type of person where I can just like lay in bed and close my eyes and listen to an audiobook I love audiobooks because they allow me to engage in stories kind of like a podcast while I am doing other things like driving and walking and cleaning up my space but sometimes especially with these books that have so much to them and so so many dude tells me to remember it just doesn't work out oftentimes when I start experiencing that I am like super comfortable going back like up to two hours on an audiobook so that I can refresh myself and in some cases it works and in book of night it just did not work book of night has like everything I love about urban fantasy there's nothing wrong with it like I really had no critiques some books like Gods and Monsters I feel like after dnfing and putting it down for a while I can just pick back up where I left off but in terms of things like book of Night and the toll I'm definitely going to have to start those over from the beginning which is totally fine for me but I think that my plan for getting back into book of night is most definitely starting it over from the physical format and I think that I will really really enjoy it I had a very similar experience when listening to the audiobook of in my dreams I hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead it is pretty much the same exact story not like this story isn't plot wise they're very different books but how I was listening to it and rewinding and just like could not get engaged enough to feel like I was really completing the story in my dreams I hold a knife is a dual timeline mystery thriller that follows a group of college friends and it follows them throughout they're like years of college I think it spans like all four years and then in the present it is them meeting back up for their College reunion what happened in the past is that one of the members of the friend group died very mysteriously there was an investigation they never found out how she died and there has been one member of the friend group that most people think that this person did it but there has been no proof and they've never been convicted I really really liked this book like in all of these I'm so pissed that I haven't finished them because these are all books I have really enjoyed y'all know I love a mystery thriller and this one was recommended to me by my friend Sarah from Sarah without an H I know she's a huge Ashley Winstead fan and like really hyped up this book for me and it was really living up to the hype I think also maybe like dual timeline stories don't work as well for me with audiobooks because like it's not just one story you have to keep all the details of it's like two entirely different ones I really like the character Dynamics I love reading about a large group of friends and especially seeing how their friendship changes over the years and it's just got like that classic whodunit mystery feel that I absolutely love what's extra frustrating about this book though is that I was so close to the end I probably had like two or three hours of the audiobook left and I just made the personal decision that I just didn't have the best grasp on the story as I would like to and I felt like I was doing the book and Injustice and myself by not feeling super confident in really getting all of the details of the story it's a book that I had really really enjoyed so I am very intent on going back to it I probably I don't know if I've really thought about if I would read it physically or listen to the audiobook but maybe it would be best for me to just read the physical book so that I don't encounter similar problems with the audiobook but yeah definitely one I want to get back to the next book I have started and would really love to finish is the body keep score by Dr Bessel vanderkolk the body Cape score I feel has been widely known as like the number one book for trauma whether it is people who have experienced trauma that read it or professionals who work with trauma the value I have found in this book so far I've only read like the first three chapters of it is really how it talks about the science behind how trauma impacts brain functioning as well as how it is stored in our body and that is what makes it so complex and difficult to heal from so in recent years I have started to discover a lot of controversy around this book like when I was in grad school I only ever heard positive things about the body keep score and in recent years especially becoming more involved in the therapist Community I have heard a lot of critiques about this book as well as about the author himself I find that it's mostly people who have experienced trauma that have read this book and feel that there are significant problems in how the author discusses trauma and his personal beliefs around trauma which I very much understand and honestly as I started reading this to me this very much strikes me as more of a book for professionals versus people that have experienced trauma themselves and also Dr vanderkolk was fired from his practice because of creating a hostile work environment I feel like this is different from the conversation of like separate the art from the artist because it is indisputable that Dr Bessel vanderkog has completely transformed the way in which therapy approaches trauma and the contributions he has made across his career error are invaluable I have taken a training from the author on trauma and it was extremely helpful for me as I have started to work with more clients who have suffered from trauma but like I will say like he totally is a know-it-all and talks as if he is like the grandfather of trauma treatment and his beliefs and experience with it is the best one and so at the same time with a lot of these negative things that have come from him and this book like there is also so much good and so much importance in the work that he has done and therefore it is a book that I still really do want to read I will be reading so critically but I feel confident in my ability to recognize the problems that I've already seen in those first three chapters but to really pull from the parts of it that I do feel have Merit and that I can apply to my own practice as a clinician if you're interested in the idea of the body keep score and what I have shared or what you may have heard about it does not make you want to read the book as this conversation has been increasing there have been a lot of great lists of books that achieve the same goal as the body keep score and talk about a lot of the same things but are from different clinicians and you know don't have as many controversial aspects to it so if you're interested something I would recommend looking up but it is still a book that I feel really passionately about wanting to continue it's just so hard like I've said it before I spend all day working as a therapist and when I read I want it to be escapism and for fun so it's really hard to get myself motivated to read a full book that is based on improving my counseling skills I would much rather take a training but uh there's so many books that I have that I really want to read that I think will greatly benefit me as a therapist next book I have dnf'd what would really like to finish is the final Revival of opal and Nev by Donnie Walton I have always been drawn back to this book because it seems to have a lot of similar elements to Daisy Jones and the six which we all know is one of my favorite books of all time this story follows a black punk artist from Detroit in the early 70s and just as she is getting her rise to fame and notoriety a band signs to her record label that is brandishing the Confederate flag and naturally as opal is outspoken and begins a protest of this situation it leads to a large chain of events that really transforms the lives of her fans the music industry as well as herself so years later in 2016 a music journalist aims to bring back opal and the person who discovered her named Nev to create an oral history about their experience working together and of course going back into the story it reveals a whole lot of more things I'm very disappointed once again an audiobook that did not work for me in the audiobook format and I don't remember like anything from this book so I definitely do want to you start over and read it but I feel like this is a book that I could really deeply enjoy it seems like you know with what I love about Daisy and I hate to keep comparing it to it because they're obviously two different stories but I don't know a lot about this book because I need to reread it so I'm just really excited to dive back into this one well shit I did not realize how many of these are failed audiobook listens for me but the next book on this list is the need by Helen Phillips I saw Olivia from stories for coffee talking about this book on her Tick Tock that she really enjoyed and said how it has Twilight Zone Vibes and I definitely grew up watching marathons of The Twilight Zone on Saturday mornings and it's a speculative thriller so I was super intrigued it follows a mother who has begun hearing things and she's trying to convince herself that she just isn't getting enough sleep but she ends up discovering an intruder in her home that knows far too much about her and her kids so she is trying to deal with that while also being a mother it seems like a really a weird and twisted book and what I read of it so far it was because I had no idea what was going on the entire time it's a short book so I feel like I would be able to get back into it if I were to read it physically and like really take time to understand the details and nuances of this story but it just seems really interesting and I'd love to give it a second chance and the last book on my list of books I have dnf'd but would like to finish is quite different from the rest of these because all of them as you can tell were books that I really enjoyed I want to get back to and this last one is one that I dnf'd because I didn't really like it and that is this close to okay by Lisa cross Smith I was really drawn to this book because of the premise it follows a therapist who comes across a man that is clearly preparing to jump off of a bridge so she invites him for a cup of coffee talks him down and the whole time she is trying to hide the fact that she is a therapist and like does this for work for fear of a negative reaction from him super interesting book I love reading books about therapists as a main character but they always disappoint me I'm really starting to think that authors like get off on the idea of presenting therapists as bad people and it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth there are terrible therapists out there that do not deserve a license and should not be working with people's mental health but the grand majority of us are really amazing and want to help and I feel like almost every single perspective on therapists in media is negative what I really didn't like about this book was just the complete lack of boundaries and going behind each other's backs that the characters go through as it's told from both of their perspectives it just like made me feel really gross so this is a book that I would like to return to to see if I can enjoy it more I don't think that I will but I just feel like it's so interesting to me that I really want to give it a second chance so that completes my list of books I have dnf'd but would really like to finish so in the comments below number one I really want to know if you have read any of these books what were your thoughts help me decide if like I should go back and try all of these again and also what are some books that you have dnf'd that you also would like to finish whether it's a book that you really enjoyed and a chain of events led to you just not finishing it at the time or you didn't like it but still feel like you couldn't want to return I'm super curious to hear your thoughts but that is it for this video thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you soon for a new one bye thank you\n"