There's a sad truth in my pile of to-be-read books. Some of the books in my pile just aren't the kinds of books I enjoy reading.

Even some of those that were good just couldn't hold my interest long enough for me to make it to the end of the book. Some books stalled sooner than later, and some I consider only temporarily stalled.

I've been known to stop in the middle of a book and then go back to it later and enjoy the book more than ever. I've even recommended some of those books, because who knows why I stopped reading in the first place? When I went back, I really did enjoy the book.

When I pick up a book I've put down unfinished, I never start reading back at the beginning. I prefer to make my way through the book from where I stopped previously. And maybe that's some of the problem. If a book is that easy to start reading from the middle why was all that stuff included at the beginning anyway?

Don't you often find that many books start too early in the story? I enjoy the occasional slow build up in a book, but most often, I find that some authors don't want to leave anything for me to assume or conclude on my own. They want to explain every aspect of the story and characters, to the point where there's no mystery left in the book at all. But I enjoy just jumping in and figuring out some of this stuff for myself.

In fact, I enjoy mystery in my reading, and I'm not talking about whodoneit. I'm talking about the mystery of uncovering character motivations. I don't want to know everything at the outset of the book. I enjoy coming up with my own thoughts about why the characters might be doing whatever it is they're doing and to have those assumptions either confirmed or ripped apart later by a great author who's willing to leave a few things up to my imagination. What about you?

I thought it might be interesting to list a few of the books I haven't finished so far this year and give some of the reasons why I put them aside. I make no judgment of the books that haven't held my interest, because I haven't finished them and because someday, I still might make it to the end.