Top 5 Wednesday: Forgettable Books

Greetings, friends! It’s time for another Top 5 Wednesday! This week’s topic is your top five most forgettable books. These are books you read, but don’t really remember anything about. This topic is a challenge because I often forget books I read that I liked when asked to list them. Now I’m being asked to list books I forgot. But, it’s a challenge I’m up for, so let’s get started:

1. Indian Killer and Reservation Blues both by Sherman Alexie: In college, I took a Native American Lit class. Rather than have us read one book for several different tribes, my professor opted to familiarize us with two. He split the class between two authors: Louise Erdrich of the Ojibwe and Sherman Alexie of the Spokane. And, for the longest time, the only book by Alexie I could only remember reading was The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian (and that was a reread!). I knew I’d read at least one other book by him, but I could not for the life of me remember what. And then, all of a sudden, I remembered Indian Killer. I remember bits and pieces from it, but not enough to give you a summary. For whatever reason, this book refuses to stick with me. Then, when making this list, I looked up Alexie’s books to see if there were any more and— lo and behold— I’d forgotten Reservation Blues as well. Once again, I know I read this, but I retained nothing about it. Call me a killer of dreams, I guess, because neither of these books affected me enough to give me the blues.
2. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: I hate Charles Dickens. He’s been my nemesis since I had to read Great Expectations in the ninth grade. But, despite having read that book far longer ago, I remember it better than this one. That’s probably due to the amount of hate I’ve carried for Great Expectations over the last ten years. But this book? Despite having only read it maybe three years ago, I still only retained what was basically already common knowledge about this book. I know Oliver is an orphan, I know he gets tangled up with some street rats, and I know he winds up with a wealthy family at some point. Other than that? I have no idea. I slogged through that book because I made myself. I retained nothing, and no, sir, I do not want any more.
3. The Young Elites by Marie Lu: I love this series. The story of the birth of a villain? And the villain is a girl? Fantastic. But, for whatever reason, I’d forget a lot of what happened between books. I’d spend a couple chapters lost because I didn’t remember much. Again, I love this series, but I did not retain it well. Unfortunately, I am not among the elite.
4. Jinx by Meg Cabot: This is another book I read in the ninth grade, but this one completely slipped my mind. Well, that’s not entirely true. I remember things about it (namely, reading it in class), but the content is a little harder to reach. This is actually something I had to consider when I made a Flashback Friday post about books I read in high school that really stuck with me. I tried to discuss this book, but I quickly realized that it was the reading experience I remembered and not the book itself. I guess reading it in algebra jinxed me.
5. Amber Brown by Paula Danzinger: I read these books back in the fourth or fifth grade, so you may think it’s obvious I don’t remember much about them. But I remember most of the books I loved as a kid, but I cannot for the life of me remember this. I know I loved the series and read all the books, but I only remember one time she got upset because she met another girl with a color for a name. And that’s it, that’s all I remember. Amber Brown may not be a crayon, but she’s not memorable either.

What are some books you read but forgot? Tell me about them in the comments! That is, if you can remember.