---
title: "Books I Gave Up On"
description: "I realized today that I had had a book on my currently reading list for just over a year. And so I gave up on four books in my Goodreads list. I may come back and pick some of these up..."
url: https://bookwi.se/books-i-gave-up-on/
date: 2016-10-29
modified: 2016-10-29
author: "Adam Shields"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Books I Gave Up On

I realized today that I had had a book on my currently reading list for just over a year. And so I gave up on four books in my Goodreads list. I may come back and pick some of these up again later, but I am not going to finished them now. So I thought I would leave a few notes about them here. I picked up all of these on sale, but none of them are currently on sale.

[![41rjaxwb1tl](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/41rJaxWB1TL-99x150.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/Fragile-Things-Short-Fictions-Wonders-ebook/dp/B000JMKTAU/)[Fragile Things: Short Fiction and Wonders by Neil Gaiman](https://www.amazon.com/Fragile-Things-Short-Fictions-Wonders-ebook/dp/B000JMKTAU/) – I love Neil Gaiman. I am not particularly a fan of short stories. There were a few here that were really good. But a lot of them that were really depressing and about unlikable characters. I made it about 65% through the book before I realized I didn’t want to listen to the book any more.

[![51wpoimauwl-_sx331_bo1204203200_](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/51wPOimAuwL._SX331_BO1204203200_-100x150.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830839976/)[Reading the Christian Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830839976/) – I picked this up because I thought it was a guide to reading Christian Classics. In other words I thought it would be guiding the reader through some of the Christian classics. Instead it is a collection of essays about how to read Christian Classics. There was much more skepticism about the Christian Classics because of their pre-reformation (Catholic) theology than I was really comfortable. Clearly we need to read the classics with an eye to their own context. However, I think the level of theological skepticism in the book seemed to excessive since our faith has passed through them to us.

[![41nguxalyl-_sx318_bo1204203200_](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/41NGUXalyL._SX318_BO1204203200_-96x150.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004INHHBA/)[The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004INHHBA/) – a friend is a huge Tillich fan. And I do not think I have read any actual whole books by Tillich. So I picked this up as an introduction to him. I will probably come back to it. But it didn’t engage me. I started it on audiobook. I will probably try again in print.

[![12971423](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/12971423-100x150.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TLVNHU/)[Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book by Walker Percy](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TLVNHU/) – I really liked [Love in the Ruins](https://bookwi.se/love-in-the-ruins/) and [The Second Coming](https://bookwi.se/the-second-coming/). But I gave up on Moviegoer and now Lost in the Cosmos. Lost in the Cosmos is written as a satirical self help book. I don’t particularly like self help books. I can see the satire, but what I don’t like is the actual form and structure of self help books. And this has all of what I don’t like about self help books.

[![510t5awdwxl-_sx311_bo1204203200_](https://bookwi.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/510T5AWDwxL._SX311_BO1204203200_-94x150.jpg)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1472925270/)I should also probably give up on [Rowan Williams’ On Augustine](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1472925270/). This is a fairly dense book of essays about Augustine. I was expecting more biographical content. I am not sure my background on Augustine is really sufficient to get this. I need to read another good biography of Augustine before coming back to re-start this. If anyone has a favorite Augustine biography let me know.