The ninety-ninth book: #1017 The Monastery - Sir Walter Scott
I try to make not finishing a book a rare thing, but I couldn't quite get there for this, and some device switching meant I wasn't interested in trying to transfer my slow progress. The Monastery is a throwback, describing a semi-mythical medieval time that was, in some ways, really well researched (in the "I want to show off everything I know" way that can get annoying) but also romanticizing in a way that gets tedious for me to listen to. I'm playing Pentiment at the moment, with similar levels of research, but its focus on the 'lower' classes in addition to the more revered nobles and religious leaders makes it more interesting and accessible, and feel more real than I think The Monastery ever entirely gets. There's not much for me to grasp, and starting and finishing with epistles as The Monastery does didn't help me place the story. I can see where it can be revered, but it's not a type that appeals to me.