Doomsday Book

I almost consider my aversion to spoilers as an integral part of my identity, but there is a point where I am so desperate to want to read a book but find myself so unable to that I voluntarily spoil myself so I'd be more motivated to find out how the characters get there.Doomsday Book was just such an example.And guess what, after reading the spoilers, I decided just to DNF it.This was the first book from Connie Willis I purchased because I was so intrigued by the ploy synopsis and it had every element that usually interests me - fantasy, historical fiction, time travel, academia-setting. Well, I found myself DNF'ing it within 10% of the book. At that time, I attributed it to my lackluster knowledge of and interest in the Middle Ages.In the intervening years, two things happened to motivate me to give Doomsday Book another go: 1) I purchased To Say Nothing Of The Dog and thoroughly enjoyed myself. 2) I started learning much more about the Middle Ages and got interested in that period of history.I excitedly started Doomsday Book again, convinced that I would enjoy myself this time. After all, it had 4 stars on Goodreads, right?!I struggled so hard to get to the 25% mark that I find myself at. With any other book, if I find myself thoroughly uninterested and unengaged by the plot and the storytelling by 10-15%, I'd just DNF it and not waste my time. It's reflective of how much I wanted Doomsday Book to work out for me that I persevered past the boring first 10-15% and even at 25%, I was still on this page reading all the raving reviews about how awesome the book was, trying to convince myself to get back to it. At this point, though, I was so bored by the book that I allowed myself to get distracted by a random 400-page book in the library which I snapped up in less than 2 days.After finishing that one, I found myself dreading the prospect of returning to Doomsday Book. Why can't I get through it!? What am I missing about this book that everyone seems to be getting?That's when I decided to read the spoilers and, well, while I'm curious about how certain events unfolded, I decided that the payoff for all the boring build-up is just not enough and I'm probably going to DNF this book for good now.But no shade on Connie Willis though. For anyone who feels the same way as I do, don't write her off as an author and try [b:To Say Nothing of the Dog 77773 To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2) Connie Willis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469410460l/77773.SY75.jpg 696]. Now that was a great book with the same time travel premise, and I would gladly re-read.