DNFing Audiobooks - Should I?

Every now and again, I like a good audiobook. Sometimes, it can't be helped. And most of the time, I get sucked into an audiobook and I just can't stop listening.

But the last few I tried to listen to, I've just stopped. I've DNF (Did Not Finish, for those you who aren't aware of the shorthand) them. And it's a mix of reasons. My mood or me just going "Are you kidding me?!"

And, oh the guilt!

Now, I always feel like I'm writing these types of blog post every now and then, in a way to be more honest. An Open Letter, explain why I've stopped reading a book, whether that is a book I have bought or a book I have requested for review. I will link you to both posts here (An Open Letter about Delirium) and here (When Is It Time to Stop?).

But these are books or ebooks. I have never had this problems where I want to DNF an audiobook. I have been very lucky to find audiobooks where I get so caught up in the moment. But there have been a rare few times when I had to stop because I was getting angry or quite upset over it and I had to stop. Am going to talk about the only 3 audiobooks this has happened to (and two of them were for review, which makes this oh, so much worse!), but there are more and I might list them before.

The first was an audiobook I bought. Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty. Now, I really listened to sampler of this and this was one of those books where everyone seemed to be talking about it. Everyone. So I bought it and listened. I got to around the three hour mark and I had to stop because I was getting so angry with the story. Angry and frustrated. I didn't like the main character, I hated the "It was only an affair, but look how bad it turned" storyline and I loathed how the story was told: the main character talking to us as if we were the person she had the affair with.

The second was Your Are Dead by Peter James. I'm a fan of crime and this just sound perfect for me when I was offered to review it. I was really excited as well. But I got over an hour into it and not only was i beginning to feel that this was going to become predictable, but there was one scene that I found quite disturbing. Now, I have quite a strong level to things like this, but for some reason, this unnerved me. And then the predictable storyline began again and I felt began to go "Am I enjoying this?".

When you ask yourself this when reading/listening to a story, that's not a good sign in my opinion. You're second guessing yourself. With a story, you shouldn't be thinking that, you should be in the story.

The third audiobook is Finders Keepers by Stephen King. This is the sequel to Mr. Mercedes, an audiobook I forced myself to finish as it's my first Stephen King and I wanted to finish the audiobook before I passed judgement. But when this came up for review, I was a little hesitant over it. I struggled with Mr. Mercedes, but I thought, as I found my stride quite late in the audiobook that I thought this would carry over into Finders Keepers. This isn't the case, sadly.

Now, these are still on my iTunes and I'm not completely ruling out returning to them (expect Apple Tree Yard - sorry, but no. Just no). But is the same rule I have for DNFing books and ebooks carry over to audiobooks? Or, because it is a different format, I should try and continue onwards?

What do you guys think? I feel guilty over this as it's audiobooks and I love a good audiobook, but it feels weird quitting audiobooks. I have this attention that life is too short to read crap books and I want to read stories that get me excited and I want to share with you guys on my blogs. I would like to read stories that I can have discussions over due to issues raised in the stories.

But to force myself to read/listen to stories that doesn't grab me or hold my attention... that's where I feel uncertain as a book blogger. As a reader, I wanna quit and move onto the next books, but as a book blogger... I feel like I'm second-guessing myself.

So, am turning to you. When you are reading a book, an ebook or listening to an audiobook and it's not grabbing you, do you stop and move on or do you power on through?