Top Five Wednesday: Books That Took Me the Longest to Finish

Today’s Top Five Wednesday post is all about the books that tend to sit in our “currently reading” piles for weeks or months. I really don’t mind DNF’ing books. Although yes, I feel guilty DNF’ing a book that I’ve already read the first 100 pages or so, or have spent quite a bit of time reading, but I’ve learned over the years that I’d much rather read a book I actually like than struggle through one I’m not enjoying too much. However, books for today’s Top Five Wednesday could also be ones that just genuinely took us a long time to read. I usually fall into this category when it comes to audiobooks or longer books. In most cases, I end up reading 2 other books on the side when I’m also reading a lengthier book. 

Becoming by Michelle Obama –  It took me about 7 weeks over this past April and May to listen to Becoming as an audiobook. While the physical book is slightly over 400 pages and I believe the audiobook is about 19 hours long on a regular speed, I blame taking this one slowly on the fact that I was reading Becoming during the height of the pandemic and was rarely driving anywhere. I was then only really listening to Becoming on walks or during the occasional adult coloring book session. You might know that while I love listening to podcasts and have grown to enjoy audiobooks, but I have to be doing something that forces me to focus only on the audio (aka when walking and as something to listen to while driving). 

Supernova (Renegades #3) by Marissa Meyer – I’m probably cheating with this one because Supernova only took me about 2 weeks to finish, but compared to the first two books in the Renegades series, I slugged through it. These books are on the longer side for YA at about 400-600 pages each, but I distinctly remember laying in bed at home during Thanksgiving break and winter break respectively bingeing Renegades and Archenemies.  My mistakes with Supernova were that I read Renegades and Archenemies fairly back to back and then read Supernova two months later, I read it during a super busy time during the spring semester and couldn’t fully dedicate myself to it…and I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the first two books. Read More »