Hehe - it's very interesting that so many people struggle with the same books. I've just read the whole thread and all of the books I've given up on have already come up.

100 years of Solitude - gave up 1/2 way as I just got so confused as to what was going on, although some of the writing was fabulous.

Vanity Fair - again got 1/2 way and then gave up and watched the ITV adaption (although this was so appauling that I may as well not bothered!)

And I ploughed through The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations but I may as well have given up as I nearly lost the will to live!

LOTR... I read about halfway through and just gave up...

Harry Potter-- I tried but i just couldn't get into it at all...

All Quiet on the Wester Front...

Jane Eyre... ugh no

twilight..though I did read it I skimmed through some of it and wished i haden't ... I'll take Spike or Angel or anyone of the mistery, burns in the sun, does not sparkle variety

there are loads of other soppy books that I tried to read but life is too short to read drivel.. hmmm well obviously not to short to read paranormal romances though

thats why Frizbe and I started our own book group .. so that we would choose the books and they be of the sci-fi/fantasy/horror/graphic/paranormal variety not just oprahs book club sort of thing!

There's only one book that has ever defeated me - I have an unfortunate affliction of being incapable of not finishing a book I start, even if I hate it...but Titus Alone (third in the Gormenghast series) completely nailed me. I enjoyed Titus Groan, struggled through Gormenghast but found Titus Alone completely incomprehensible and impossible to follow.

I know this is sacrilege, but Harry Potter. Wonderful ideas, but terrible writing. Made it halfway through the first one......hmm

I enjoyed, if that's the right word, both Lolita and Trainspotting. The latter is hard going at first, you have to sort of put on an accent in your head as you read it, but once you get the rhythm it bowls along OK.

I started 'Our Mutual Friend' again last week and have read about 10 pages, before getting distracted by a copy of Private Eye, a recent gas bill, my how-to-be-pregnant book etc. etc. anything except what I'm supposed to be reading.

I love Possession & Wuthering Heights, & think that Lolita is well worth reading, although difficult to 'enjoy'.

I'm definitely refusing to read a word of this nonsense about Possession not being very good, though

You have to read it understanding Byatt's motives - she was proving that the Booker Prize is given to the most pretentious book of the year. It was a technical exercise. & the farcical ending(s) (such as the 'episode of Midsomer Murders') are mocking the reader - one of the messages of the story is that academics always want to know more about their study. It's a criticism of biography & its intrusive nature. But the readers of Possession are just as bad & want to know every last detail, to the point of reading complete trash in the hope of finding out just that little bit more.

<<forces self to stop enthusing>>

I can't finish Beowulf. & haven't yet found the energy to force myself through Trainspotting, because I find it almost impossible to read in dialect.

I haven't started lots of the books listed here, but have wanted to. One day!

& oh, I totally despise Thomas Hardy too. Yeugh.

Another Catch 22 over here

I must have started "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" 20 times. This was a few year's ago but I still remember the first chapter very well

I would love to give Don Quixote a better chance but i can't even get beyond the first 3 pages before i realise i don't have the time for it.

And i just don't get Captain Correlli or the God of Small things

Poisonwood Bible is one of my favourites. Jo's Boys always bores me to tears, despite loving Little Women and the other 2 in the middle.

Quite a few romances have defeated me. I get the first kiss, go 'awww' and then it gets out down and that's it.

I despise Thomas Hardy. I was forced to read 'Far From the Madding Crowd' for GSCE and spending 2 hours a week for about 6 months discussing a book that I would never have picked up in the first place almost made me suidical.

I started to read LOTR before the first film came out, and got as far as the Chapter: The Council of Elrond. I read it about 4 times and could not get my head round the staid chapter. Then I watched the film and that got me through. I read FOTR in 3 weeks, TTT in one and ROTK in a few days. Thank god for the film getting me through!

I feel like a betrayer of womankind here but I have yet to finish an Austen book. I know all the stories but I cannot abide reading the books. Sorry!

Wilfred Thesiger by ALexander Maitland.

Well, I haven't given up on it just yet, just posted a thread asking if anyone has read it and can tell me it improves?!

panic by some author, both me and my mum wasted money on it, without realising it and we both thought it was crap and couldn't even get halfway into it. I think they both went to a charity shop.

the only book EVER to defeat me (3 times) is Vanity Fair!

donnie am reading THAT book am over half way through will let you know if I finish
feel like I have been thrown a challenge

LSIND - couldn't you just watch the film & wing it? (Can't believe I'm an English teacher & recommending this course of action)

I have joined a new book group. First meeting is Tuesday - and the book is 'Empire of the Sun' by JG Ballard. It is unbearable -the kind of book I would never, ever choose to read myself and I so want to drop it.

But that would make me look like a total twit at the meeting - epsecially as the organiser has emailed everyone saying how lovely it will be to introduce a new member!

A clockwork Orange.

Nope.

LightSIND - totally agree, it's sooo tedious. Studied english Lit so it's not like I haven't done my fair share of the classics. I've just never understood why it's so popular.

Love in the Time of Cholera - really enjoy reading it, but just never quite make it to the end.

Having been pre-warned, I persevered with Captain Corelli, and loved Midnight's Children.

DH has Catch 22 as an audiobook, so won't attempt to read it!

ljhooray - I think you and I are the only people on the whole planet who have got (dare I say it?) bored with 'Little Women'. It crops up all the time on those 'books you must read' lists all the time.

JeffVader - The Dubliners is a good intro to James Joyce. It's short stories, so if you don't like one you can just go on to the next one. I really like Evangeline.

Another one for captain corelli here. When I moved in wth DH he had a copy too - we had both started it and not been able to continue (one copy was put in a charity bag, the other is gathering duston our bookshelf).

Read catch 22 when i was a teenager but tried to re-read a couple of years ago and couldn't. Think I also read a lot of tolkien when young but could't do it now i don't think.

Agreed on Little Women, LOTR, also a Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore (just about got through Norwegian Wood although felt utterly depressed afterwards!)

Tom Jones. It was a set text for both my a levels and my degree and I tried, I really did but it is the only book that has ever defeated me.

Although it may be the way I get weird flashes of my old a-level teacher's face as he goes on about its 'earthy sensuality' to a group of sniggering 17 year olds that does it.

Little Women
Midnight's Children
I Capture the Castle
Captain Corelli's Mandolin

that Joanne Harris one set in France, with 'Beach' in the title...

Underworld by Don de Lillo.

I mean, please. I defy anyone - ANYONE - to actually read this from cover to cover and get the whole bloody thing.

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse; I have made two attempts so far.

I have no intention of ever trying anything by James Joyce because I know that it would drive me mad!

I did find the new AS Byatt a bit of a struggle, although I love all her others.

I loved Jonathan Strange though, couldn't put it down in fact!

Sarum by Edward Rutherford.

A saga from the stone age to the present day. I get as far as the Romans and then..................<snore>

Tried it 4 times now.

You see - I LOVED Poisonwood Bible. I rest my case.

Oh yes Spillage - Poisonwood Bible - aaargh!
I'm not generally one for abandoning books but couldn't get it.
Or Captain Corelli but they were both a while ago.
I'm saving Ulysses for when I have nothing but time on my hands but fast running out of years!

Just found this thread

I finished Possession by A.S. Byatt last week. Very tricky read and whoever said it needs a good editing is spot on! I found, if you skip all the poetry, only read the last paragraph of the letters and just read the prose, you get through it very nicely and I really enjoyed it .

OP, I'm at that point in Middlemarch for the 4th time! I'm determined to finish it though before the end of the year!

The Poisonwood Bible - I have tried and tried, but nope...

Hundred Years of Solitude - just got fed up of having to look at the family tree

Catch 22 - Didn't even get halfway
The Magus - will finish one day, even if it kills me!

I would say persevere with We Need to Talk about Kevin.

It took me several attempts to get into but really worth it in the end.

very few things i haven't finished, i tend to just plough through it all.

but i didn't manage "being and nothingness"

must have another go at that one of these days.

There are definitely themes here! I loved: Wild Swans, Middlemarch (read it in one sitting, right through the night, just could not put it down), Time Traveller's Wife (finished it, then went straight back to the beginning & read it again; anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Anna Karenina - but agree about the peasant farming bits, Vernon God Little.

BUT

Have tried Ulysses 2 or 3 times - nope, not for me. Likewise Catch 22. This thread has made me want to try Captain Corelli's Mandolin and a couple of others, just to see whether I can finish them or not!

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Larkrise to Candleford
Master and Commander
Atonement
Shogun
Is Everything Sh*t or is it Just Me?
Eats Shoots and Leaves

- although they haven't officially defeated me yet - I just put them down a few months / years ago, and haven't picked them up again yet...

He, She & It by Marge Piercy. Read another one of hers, Woman on the Edge of Time and really liked it, but for some reason the other one has defeated me at least 12 times.

Vikram Seth - Suitable Boy. It is huge!!!! There is a big family tree at the beginning and a character list. I kept on having to refer to this over and over as there are a hell of a lot of characters in this book. I got fed up and put it away.

Most recently, Beijing Coma.

When a smug undergrad Finnegans Wake.

Twilight. It's awful. Vampires that can go out in the sun?

Anna Karenina. Have tried it twice and each time I get bogged down in the endless discussions about Russian peasant farming methods. All those people who blither on about it being such a great love story, etc etc obviously skipped those bits.

Also Catch 22. And Ulysses. But I am determined to get the the end of them all one day!

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I have 2 copies, read it 5 times, get a little further each way, then I get stuck. Don't know why as its a really good book. I have accepted that I am not ready to finish it yet.

A suitable bride. Tried and failed many times

made it to the end of wild swans though. God that country has had a terrible history.

glasjam I agree about Possession- it's beautiful! But takes some getting into... My Mum always says it needs serious editing but I loved the sprawling nature of it.

mumofapickle - Lolita really drags in the second half doesn't it! I struggled on to the end though and it was v good overall.

Whoever hated Sense & Sensibility have you seen the film? Book and film are among my favourites. Although I probably prefer Persuasion out of Austen's novels..

I want to get the prize for most tenacity in trying to finish a book I thought I "should". Possession by A S Byatt - tried it first in about 1991/2 - hated it and couldn't make it past the first two chapters; tried again in 2000 thinking I might have changed and would appreciate it more - hated it - thought it was fusty, up its own a**e and unreadable; was reluctantly forced to borrow it off someone for a book group this year and LOVED it!

I think over the years I was less intimidated by all the literary references and didn't feel stupid because I couldn't work out what was real and what was made up - I just got on with the story and really got into it. I remember feeling decidedly inferior because I didn't have a Masters in English Literature or Women's Studies when I read it the first time - this time I couldn't give a toss and took it at face value and "found" the story. Thought it descended into something resembling an episode of Midsomer Murders at the end (without the murder of course).

Also did not get Cloud Atlas until quite near the end. Stick with it, it's a grower.

I can pretty much plough through anything as I am not averse to skipping bits.

Love all the George Eliot's , even Romola (anyone?), can do Dickens (but a bit more slowly).

And Moby Dick. It's great!
Vernon God Little perks up at the end too.

But even I - the Great Skippy - cannot get into Ulysses. He was frying something, and I just thought 'what the hell am I doing?' and shut the book.

Sophie's World

Yep Mrs Happy, just told dh about this thread and he was shocked no one else loved Underworld, he thoroughly enjoyed it...Pickle - SO true about the Alchemist, what a load of crap!!!! My best friend and I (she's brazilian they are really into that book) have agreed we don't trust anyone who liked it....I liked Captain Correlli too...hmm will try cloud atlas now, wasn't sure about it.

I used to be one of those people who could never give up on a book and as such have limped to the end of a couple which I wish I hadn't, like American Psycho (I did completely skip pages and pages describing various shite 80's albums) and The Alchemist (which was complete and utter tosh).

Then I had my DS and since then I've given up on: Lolita, The Shark Diaries, The Vesuvius Club, The Little Friend...I'm sure there's more. I'm currently ignoring reading The Pupil by Caro Fraser and I'm just not sure I care enough - should I give up? The next one on my pile is Revolutionary Road...should I swap?

FWIW, Catch 22 is brill, love LOTR and Captain Correlli was quite nice. Oh and whoever gave up on Cloud Atlas should try again because I thought it was an amazing, unique book

8oreighty I never thought anyone (other than a critic or someone else paid to do so) would have actually read the thing. Crap. Now I am going to have to have another go...

Totally agree Infin on Time Traveller's Wife - couldn't read it, couldn't stand it - despite people I know and love telling me it was brilliant and even made them cry. It was so ikky I felt like desperately brushing it off as if someone was sneezing snot on me. Devotees said it would get better after 'the first 80 pages or so'. I still resent the waste of my life I spent trying to get through it.

Also, London Fields - the odious central character was too like a boyfriend I had just broken up with. If it was satire it wasn't satire enough for me.

Proust - Remembrance of things past.

The ONLY book that has ever defeated me and I've waded through many a boring one (see above posts!)

perhaps it's better in French....?

MrsHappy, my dh read that one too! He loved it...very annoying as he is supposedly dyslexic and I did English lit...

Great thread.

Midnight's Children - about four times
War and Peace
Catch 22
Anything by Dickens, although I've loved the TV adaptations

Underworld by Don Delilo. Three hundred pages in none of the main characters had met and I lost the will to live.

Captain Corelli comes up again and again on these threads, and I take people's point about it; but it is a beautiful book in the end, I absolutely loved it.

I LOVE Ian Mcewen... especially SATURDAY (presumably the one before 'Sunday' that some of you couldn't finish?! )

I wish i could but i just can't get on with Will Self's novels. I'm pretty sure they're the literary equivalent of some really pretty questionable class A drugs. The type of drugs carried into the country by feckless students up their jacksies...

VintageGardenia-me too!

I read excerpts of TSOMW in a newspaper,read the reviews and got very over excited when I found it in the library.I was looking forward to reading it so much,but it was as dry as old farts.
Other unreadables are
Wild Swans
LOTR
Ulysess
Catch 22
Tess of the Durbervilles
Heart of Darkness

I enjoyed Life of Pi, but couldn't be doing with Captain Corelli. Have never managed to plough through anything by Umberto Eco or Will Self either.

Another vote for Life of Pi here.

I think I got 3/4 way through Captain Corelli and gave up.

Have currently abandoned "The Inheritance of Loss" but I might get into it.

I would say "Cloud Atlas" was really really worth perservering for.

NEVER read any Jane Austen

Good thread!

Agree with lots already mentioned: Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Lawrence and Tolkien just too dull for words

On the other hand, love Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Ian McEwan.

Lord of the Rings - couldn't get into it at all. It's dh's favourite book - one of our dcs is even named after one of the characters I fell asleep in the cinema during the first film & couldn't for the life of me see the point in all that trudging & fighting. The beginning & ending were the only good bits.

Didn't read Captain Corelli but went to see a dramatisation of it. We thought we were going to see a play but it turned out to be a guy telling the story with a few props - it was brilliant. The film wasn't so good though as they changed the ending

Captain Corelli - and yes I did try, I read well over half way but just got bored.

Cold Comfort Farm - I found it dull and just didn't get the humour.

Sense and Sensibility. Really disliked the Dashwoods

Anything by Charles Dickens.

Middlesex.

so sorry about your husband lottiejenkins hope you are coping ok

Underworld - Don Delillo
Ulysses - James Joyce
Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
This Charming Man - Marian Keyes

The first three were genuinely unreadable and the fourth was just tosh.

The first three are among DH's all time favourite books so I rely on him for the Dummy's Guide to Blokes' Books.

Foucault's Pendulum...tried and tried...when met my dh he told me he'd read it, so I knew he must be smarter than me.

The foot binding made me feel very ill as well. I didnt get to the other bits thankfully. I am reluctant to give my copy away as it was a present from my late dh!

Wild Swans for me too - i was put off by all the long names so bought the audio version. I stalled at the binding feet part (at the begining) had a hiccup at the starving peasants with their stomachs full of straw & then the blood fountains (cracking their heads open) was it. Anyway one want to borrow it before it goes to the charity shop ?

I really cheated with the Secret Scripture,only finished it through desperation - either that or the Danielle Steele DH bought me for my birhtday - knows me so well..............

Wild Swans by Jung Chang........... I tried, i really did...........several times! Just couldnt get into it!

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, it's a genre I like, the reviews were all fantastic, on paper it was perfect. In the hand it was like chewing Ryvita.

Yes, I read Sophie's Choice, almost 30 years ago when I was a teenager. I certainly read it before the film came out. As it was so long ago I can't remember whether it was a great read but it certainly had a profound affect on me. More recently, I read 'Lie Down in Darkness' by the same author and thought it was an extremely well written, tragic tale.

Ah yes, Great expectations is one of the few I didn't finish... it got so boring halfway through!

Beaniebaby I agree, The Child in Time is prob the best McEwan I've read but it's barely known for some reason. I looooved Atonement but hated On Chesil Beach (what tosh!!) Have just bought Amsterdam so will see what I think of that

Anyone read Sophie's Choice? I borrowed it from my MIL months and months ago and haven't been able to face it yet...

Catch 22 - tried three times.
Currently Great Expectations.
Lord of The Rings; the last two.

Should never force yourself to read a book.

I just read every other chapter of Captain Corelli and ignored the bits about war!

Margaret Atwood doesn't do it for me, despite everyone always telling me she should. I keep trying

All those not convinced by Ian McEwan, try reading his Child of our Time (I think it's called) - one of my favourite books ever. Much better than the others, which I admit can be a little slow and difficult to get into. Try this one though, you won't regret

I also loved American Psycho, but you just have to skim through the clothing references. It's integral to his character but once you 'get' that, you don't need to read every single description otherwise it becomes mind-numbing. Great book, not so keen on the film though.

Books that I've never got through? Another vote for Catch 22 here. I have a stack at home that I mean to read (many mentioned here already), and have started several of them but not 'got into them' yet.

Note to self: must try harder!!

A lot of these books I managed to get through by skipping huge chunks of them, like all the hideous violence in American Psycho or the battles in LOTR. Editing as a reader works quite well. You don't have to finish a book and you also don't have to read every word.

Wuthering Heights gets loads better after chapter 4, if you can stick it out until then, it gets much better.

That Swan one about China....I have tried and tried.....

And Wuthering Heights

I also struggle to leave books unfinished and I agree with you cupcakefairy that it has its rewards e.g. Captain Corelli although I have ploughed through some miserable and unrewarding stuff, most notably Always the Sun by Neil Cross. I began Ulysses a couple of years ago with the attitude that I could force myself through anything even if I didn't really get it. In this case though, apparently not... I don't say that I've given up, just that I'm "still reading it".

One other that I never finished is The Name of the Rose. Started it for book group whilst pregnant 7 years ago, left book group and didn't finish the book before DD arrived. Now whenever I look at the cover I'm overwhelmed with nausea at the memory of the horrible morning sickness and can't carry on

Catch 22, Captain Correlli, anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez I absolutely LOVE! Please persevere, they are worth it.

Agree that Jodi Picoult is rubbish.

American Psycho - can't say I really "enjoyed" it but I like Brett Easton Ellis's style.

I cannot get through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand although I have tried many times. A year or so ago I read that they were making it into a film with Angelina Jolie but it doesn't seem to have materialised.

Also Sophie's World I have never managed to finish.

Ulysses I keep meaning to start but have never even managed to! It just looks too big ...

Oooh spotted this topic on the day's picks and had to come and join in.
I unfrotunately have a disease whereby I CANNOT leave a book unfinished...so even ones I've hated I just have to finish them.
Examples-
Dune (forced upon me by sci-fi mad members of my book group)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Then there are others I didn't hate at all but it was a long haul to the end-
Possession (soooo worth it in the end!)
Captain Correlli's Mandolin
Dracula
The Beautiful and Damned
etc...

Am reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt at the moment...absolutely loving it! And I thought Great Gatsby was a relatively easy read...
Agree that Jodi Picoult writes trash but am quite looking forward to the film of My Sister's Keeper

Is American Psycho really all that bad PrincessLayer? Have been wanting to read it for ages cos I looove the film.

I'm put off Jodi Picoult because they all sound like they're about "people coming to terms with stuff" (to quote that fine literary critic Homer Simpson).

White Teeth again. It was just some one chuntering on and on and a way that is meant to be dazzlingly insightful, but is actually just tedious.

Also Catch 22.

I second whoever said Jodi Picoult was dreadful. My Mum brought in My Sister's Keeper when I was in hospital after having dd.Awful, clunky and unbelievable.

I would have rather read the lettering on my catheter bag.

The Great Gatsby

Was utterly defeated, but did try

LOTR - Couldn't cope with the books, hated the films. Although loved the Silmarillion.

Have tried to read The Great Gatsby about 20 times and always give up about 1/3 of the way through. I would love to finish it, but well, never seem to get there.

Love Captain Correlli, Hitchhikers', Ian McKewan and Zadie Smith. But agree with Catch 22 haters.

Oh yes, Heart of Darkness defeated me.
And anything by Ian McEwan, have tried 3 and not finished any. Did about 5 pages of Sunday.
I forced my way through Anna Karenina whilst on mat leave after ds1. Thought it was crap, and all that 'best novel ever' stuff is a smug conspiracy by literary types showing off that they got through it!
A F Scott Fitzgerald one not Great Gastby, Tender sonmething?
Hmm, probably a few more. i used to refuse to give up, but now agree life too short.

Captain Corelli really good after the first few chapters. I loved the English patient on the second read after watching the film (gave up first time)

Don Quixote. Couldn't do it. God, the pain.
Now just looking at the cover makes me shiver.

American Psycho. It was far too descriptive for me, and I don't mean the graphic violence (although I gave up before most of that) but the boring shit describing his tie and shirt and such, and then there was the mind numbing chapter about a Genesis record (I think it was genesis anyway) It was about there I packed it in.

am trying to read Blindness by Jose Saramago for my book group. BLIMEY ( pardon the pun). am going to have to read the reviews and bluff it for the talk, it's a stinker.

Pride and Prejudice
Catch 22
The welsh girl

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (even though Apocolypse Now was based on it I still couldn't get through it).

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (given to me by a friend and described as the 'best book ever'). I thought it was shite (well the bit I read was ).

Have not tried to read Ulysses but as I like punctuation I won't be trying any time soon.

Another vote for Catch22 - just couldn't stomach it.

Kate Mosse Labyrinthe is the only other book I couldn't bear to finish.

Another vote for Life of Pi.....tried a number of times, just cannot get past first few pages for some reason.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith, after feeling like I was wading through treacle for ages, got a quarter of the way in and then couldn't put it down.

Loved Middlemarch, Catch 22 and Crime and Punisment.

I couldn't bring myself to even crack Middlemarch open, lol. It sat by the bed for a month before I gave up and took it back to the library.

Anything with very small text, really (I am getting old). I am a terrible one for reading the first 50 pages or so of a novel and then skipping to the end to see what happens, then skimming back thru for an hour or so for the interesting details. I did that recently with Kiterunner: I just found it so formulaic and trite, I couldn't be bothered to read the narrator's anguished details any more.

LOTR Book2, like others have said!!!

But no regrets.
I have managed to properly read a lot of the others, I even read Crime and Punishment in my 2nd language (with English copy nearby for tricky words, you understand ).

Nobody mentioned Moby Dick! I loved it, but I bet it belongs on the list, too. Or Anna Karenina?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

With all it's awards and glittering reviews, I got completely bored of it. I found it very hard going and tedious. I would like to finish it one day though..

another White Teeth here....

Catch 22

White Teeth - absolute rubbish. what was all the fuss about?

Ulysses
Orlando

Loved catch 22 and loved Captain corelli from the first page.

oh no, I've just bought Blonde Roots

Catch 22 is BRILLIANT, but you really need to stick with it

There should be an uncaught by Catch 22 club - I couldn't get on with it either, and quickly abandoned. Also had big problems with Heart of Darkness and Underworld, although I intend to return to both (someday).

Oh, and there is one that I really wanted to like, called 'Blonde Roots' by the lovely Bernadine Evaristo. But I just cannot get past the first third or so. Really hard work.

Oh god, is Mumsnet discreet?

Oh, I loved 'The Road'. And Middlemarch. And pretty much anything by Marquez.

I bloody hated Tristram Shandy, though. I had to study it for my degree and it was a struggle, I tell you. I still shudder at the thought of it. Pretentious, unfunny guff.

I find most Ian McEwan a struggle to get through. As a rule, I throw Martin Amis novels down a third of the way through in disgust. I tried reading a few 'Richard and Judy reccomends' books once as an experiemnt. That bloody Cloud Atlas and The Time Traveller's Wife.

<adopts Catherine Tate's nan's voice> Whatdda loada shit.

Talking of Marquez, I have also given up on 'Love in the time of cholera' but may make another attempt on that.

When I've finished Middlemarch.

can i nominate an audio book wuthering heights narrated by martin shaw threw a book at it 2 minutes after it started yes i do get the irony

for the most part, I found "The Road" compelling, but also a bit monotonous at times, wondered whether that was intentional? Thankfully it was short enough to get through whether the repetitiveness was intentional or not!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is soooooo bleak and nothing actually happens.

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (sp no doubt ) - I made it to about 50 pages from the end but it's so impenetrable I couldn't get over the line.

Surprised at the number of votes for Catch 22, I read it when I was a teenager and really loved it.

I gave up on "100 years of solitude". I think it'll be another 100 years before I attempt it again.

Ulysses by James Joyce - I hate giving up on books but this one was just beyond me. Life is too short!

I'm thinking of audio books for middlemarch. I 'read' loads of unabridged novels when I had a really long drive to work.

I couldn't do Angela Carter either. Whichever one it was actually gave me bad dreams, but then she was a fan of the Marquis de Sade.

I'm reading Middlemarch ATM. I started with story tapes and then am finishing with the book!

Cannot get into Diana Gabaldon - have some book the size of a brick DH bought me because I like reading and he thought the bigger the better. Is not the start of the series and makes no sense.

Currently limping through Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, but may finally be cracking it as have staggered to just over halfway. Bookmark is train ticket from last year's summer holiday... Other impenetrable volumes were Doris Lessing The Syrian Experiments and something by Woolf (can't even remember what). I can't get over the feeling that I have to struggle on to the bitter end, but I've never picked up another Lessing or Woolf, and Angela Carter may be going the same way - when I do finally finish this marathon. Wouldn't touch LOTR, but did read Ulysses some years ago, also Crime and Punishment, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Middlemarch - and The Hobbit when I was 8 and off school because I sprained my ankle!

I can't agree with Captain Corelli, I struggled through and didn't enjoy a bit of it.

Mine would be Ulysses, managed half I think, then lost all momentum.

The Silmarillion, I'm pretty sure there's virtually no punctuation, but I could be wrong. That's how interesting it was.

Crime and Punishment, I nearly made it through, but surely that book should be 10 chapters shorter anyway? I just wanted to shout 'I GET THE POINT' at the pages after a bit.(Not advisable in a public place I can tell you....)

I suffer from the Curse of Mastermind - 'I've started to I'll finish....' which has meant I have spent too long on awful books expecting them to get better. Stand up dave Eggers !!

captain Corelli - you have to get about 1/3 of the way in before it gets fab.

But as get older I agree with whoever said life it too short.. so I gave up on

Cloud Atlas

One of the few books I didn't finish was Vernon God Little. found it tedious but DH and DS loved it.

If you gave up on Captain Corelli - do try again. I almost gave up after a couple of chapters but DH persuaded me to keep going and it was well worth it.

Middlemarch for me too,but in my case it was that I just couldn't seem to care what happened to any of the characters. Perhaps I should try again...

Sort of got halfway through The Alexandria Quartet and even that was a struggle.

Some truly awful thing called Christopher Unborn, can't remember who it was by. Totally unreadable, gave up on page 2.

Otherwise, I find Dickens boring, and James Joyce annoying and mannered, but I have forced myself managed to read through to the end of their stuff.

you could always read the cheat's way and look at the ending first, then decide if you can be bothered trawling through the rest of it. Not that I ever do that. Oh no.

Catch 22
Various Ian McEwan
Midight's Children
Life is too short and too full of wonderful books to persevere with any of these!

am scared now SGB... the 2 books I've never been able to get more than a couple of pages into are Dune and Captain Corellis Mandolin... eek...

I have actually managed the whole of Moby Dick- was hard going, but I learned quite a lot.

Anything by Henry James or Virginia Woolf. Sorry, I know its supposed to be great literature, but it's like an allergic reaction, my ability to give a damn about any of the characters justs gets completely swollen and useless.

I have read quite a few books mentioned here but 'London fields' defeated me just don't get Martin Amis

"Vanity Fair", "The Rainbow" and Middlemarch. Like the OP I have tried Middlemarch 3 times and stopped at roughly the same time, I have had similar struggles with "The Rainbow" and couldn't even get through the TV adaptation of "Vanity Fair"

Oh, also The Colour of Magic - read other Terry Pratchett books (many of them) but could never finish that one for some reason.

Midnight's children.

The Silmarillion and The Illiad.

Persevere with LOTR and Tess, they're great.

Oh The Hobbit, I can remember trying to read that as a young teen - made it to about page 4 I recall.

I love Tess and Mansfield Park

yama, I just can't seem to help myself, I keep trying and then when reading I start to think "yes, I remember why I don't like him now..." and then trudge on hoping it will be alright until I give up....

And then buy another.

Donna Tartt - everything she's ever written.

The girl with the dragon tattoo - I flicked to the end, became bored of all the Nordic angst.

Gormenghast.

Loved it, but stalled three times.

anything by ian mcewan esp sunday
Thomas hardy Tess
JJoyce Ulysses

Life of Pi?

Not compulsary to finish books you hate anyway - made such a difference to my quality of life when I realised that

Loved Mill on the Floss, The Hobbit and The Travellers Wife. Am now feeling like I have some kind of reading defect

Mill on the bloody Floss.

Torture.

I also failed to finish Wuthering Heights , still managed to write an essay on it. Ditto Moll Flanders. Someone will be along to take my degree certificate soon

Can confirm I fell at the first chapter/hurdle with both Corelli and Possession...

(I did enjoy Dance to the Music of Time though)

The Hobbit - can't get beyond p1 and don't really care

Mansfield Park
Don Quixote (it's so bloody LONG)

Ha, another 18th century unreadable. Yes Tristram Shandy is impossible. Really truly impossible.

Recently, Post Birthday World and the most recent one by Zoe Heller - although both recommended to me

Tristram Shandy, by Lawrence Stearne

Agree with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance - just didn't get it.
Managed Rushdies last one The Princess of Wotsit. Had to force myself though, terribly wordy.

Don Quixote.

Took me over a year to get 2/3 of the way through, before giving up in sheer desolation at the repetitive-ness.

Tried to read the Hobbit years ago and gave up, but recently read LOTR and enjoyed it so gave Hobbit another go.

Nope, still can't get into it.

Anything that's been written by Jodie Picoult. I know she's a bestselling author, but crikey, she writes shit.

A Dance To The Music Of Time (part 1 - it horrifies me to think there are three more to go).

It's not that it's badly written - it's well written. I just fundamentally can't give a fuck about it. I'll put it down and then have no urge whatever to pick it back up again.

Oh and Ulysses, obviously.

Captain Corelli does get much better though.

I loved Middlemarch! But I had to do it for A level, so I guess it was kill or cure.

Have tried to read Captain Corelli's bloody Mandarin 4 times now and can't get past the first 2 or 3 chapters. Affected, pretentious twaddle.

PfftTheMagicDragon - I agree with Coupland. Why o why do I keep buying the latest one?

And Salleroo - everyone I know who has read Hitchhikers ... has raved about it. I'm with you I just don't get it.

Right, I must think of my own ones now.

ha, QotH - I just saw your thread title and clicked through to say "Middlemarch" myself. I read a lot and am a literary type, but I just couldn't get past the first 100 pages. Glad it's not just me

Fahrenheit 451... just.... boring
Schindlers Ark - just couldn't be arsed, but I tried (a bit)
Catch 22 - yawn
Googlewhack Adventure - bought based on the reviews, got to about 1/3 of the way through and decided it was the most pure unadulterated tripe and gave it away

Haha, yes, I hate LOTR. I only finally knuckled down and read it just before the film came out. But I did, at least, finish it, grumbling throughout about the turgid prose, ludicrous plot and trite characterization.

I guess if I can tackle umpteen pages of tom fecking bombadil, the corn laws ought not to be that much of a stumbling block...

Oh, that's a shame re CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. I found it gripping. Very chilling. G'wan, give it another go!

The Hobbit (any of those Tolkein books)

I am defeated as soon as I see those maps and explantions in the opening pages.

I thought 'great they made a film instead..' But then all that yackety yack about middle earth and rings for hours. Nah.

crime and punishment. I have now definitively given up trying to read to the end.

THE FAMISHED ROAD by Ben Okri - even though I was supposed to read it for professional reasons, I'm afraid I just couldn't.

I gave up on THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James.

Haven't even attempted ULYSSES. It has a reputation for this, doesn't it?

LOTR

Crime and Punishment

Hemingway

I read more than anyone I know, but the majority of 'good' books I don't bother with as they hold no interest for me.
Stuff I have actually given up on incudes:
Tolkien (far too twee and fusty)
Dune (managed about a page)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (it's blatantly obvious from about page 2 that nothing intersting is going to happen).

Libra, it is written by someone with the initials CS- I assumed it was you (because you mentioned you gave lectures on this topic and it's pretty specialist)- then again, I might be confusing you with another libra on here?

Midnight's Children and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Tried a few times as well.

It took me a loooong time to read Crime and Punishment too, nearly six months, but it's one of the best books I've ever read.

Can't you skip a couple of chapters (and yes the agri-bits of Middlemarch are dull) and get on with the rest of the book?

There are books that have defeated me but tbh they were never books I wanted to read - only those I had to read for courses etc. Clarissa, for instance. And just about EVERY eighteenth century novel apart from Gulliver's Travels.

American Psycho - just could not turn the pages.

Anything by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Am glad it's not just me who failed with Cranford

I got about 2/3 way through and then couldn't be arsed

Babbity Then, whilst you're waiting to get around to it, may I recommend you don't watch the film, thinking it might help - it's awful!!!

minesacheeseandpicklesandwich well maybe... but my TBR pile is 30 or 40 books high at the moment, and growing by the week

White Teeth; Zadie Smith - I read about half of it and couldn't force myself to continue it was so rubbish. I think that is the only one... oh, except the random Krishna book that I found and started reading - but even that was better than White Teeth

Please finish Hitchhikers, it is soooooo wonderful and sooooooo worth it!! And Babbity, Captain Corelli gets better, much better. I wasn't sure at the beginning but by the end I loved it.

I won't say it's defeated me (it hasn't, it hasn't)

<blows raspberry at bookcase>

but I have been reading Shogun for about four years now, possibly five...

Possession. I didn't get people raving about it...

Moby Dick. I'm bored after 3 pages.

Banjo I can quite safely say that you have got me mixed up with someone else . I am intrigued to know who you think I am however!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, it's rare a book defeats me, but I just couldn't waste my time on this. No regrets either, I'll never try again.

Youve written a book haven't you Libra? I think I've bought it if I've got that right. I must confess it is a bit on the academic side for me so I can include that as a book defeat

I used to be able to do academia, but my brain appears to have rotten of late

Iron Council by China Meville. I LOVED both PSS and The Scar but haven't yet been able to finish Iron Council despite starting it 3 times.

Mine is Tom Jones. I have started it at least twice a year since about 1980. I read the first few chapters then get engrossed in a new Lee Child or other murder mystery. Need more staying power!

Nope, Captain Corelli defeate me too. I got four or five chapters in and then gave up. Also Salman Rushdie - I got about 2/3 through Midnight's Children before I lost patience.

Ulysses, simply confuses me and sends me to sleep (like almost everyone I know who's tried it!)
Also, and somewhat bizarrely as I was expecting to love them:
Captain Corelli,
Time Traveller's Wife
Brick Lane
Red Earth and Pouring Rain

Perhaps defeated is the wrong word for these last 4 although I did give up on them, so perhaps not!!

All Couplands.

I start them, get about 5 chapters from the end and then die of boredom. I give up. Then, for some inexplicable reason, 3 months later, I'll start another, and do the same thing all over again!

I have read all of LOTR- but I did have glandular fever and no telly at the time...and I glossed over the Elvish poems and what not....

Frustratedmom, I did LOTR after watching the movie and managed to read it just fine. Couldn't get past the first chapter with the book originally....Hope you manage to read it next time.

Ulysses - can't get beyond about chapter 3.

Lord of the rings

Got to 2nd chapter of 2nd part and discovered i had no idea who any of the characters where or their significance to the story.

Gave up. Just enjoying film version now -too chicken to retry

I struggle with catch 22 actually as well now you mention it. But that's not so much as a defeat as a rout! I've yet to get past the first five pages.

Yes Catch 22 was another one for me too.

A Brief History Of Time. Turns out it's not nearly brief enough.

Catch 22

Catch-22 has defeated me at least three times. I don't know why, because I always enjoy the first couple of chapters and then somehow lose it.

I always have a book I want to read, and a book I feel I ought to read, on the go at the same time.
Sometimes, (but not very often) I get completely hooked on the "worthy" one and it takes over my life. But more often than not, I think "not another feckin bonnet" and chuck it back on the pile....

I've never got through any James Joyce actually. Many others too - Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marques to name a couple. I loved Middlemarch tho'.
I used to try to read books I considered "worthy" (not sure what criteria I used!) but now think there are lots of good books I still havent read, so if I struggle it means its not for me. Perhaps I am being lazy, but I dont wantreading to be a chore.

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien. Have reluctantly conceded life's too short.

(Middlemarch is brilliant though, I loved it. Why not just skip the corn laws bit)

Most books involving bonnets tbh.
The TV series defeat me too. I still have the last 2 episodes of Little Dorrit to get through enjoy.

Cranford was the worst. Started it (the book) about 4 times. And 4 times it's gone back on the shelf.

Ulysess by James Joyce

Middlemarch.

I've tried reading it three times now, and enjoyed it right up to the point where Dorothea gets engaged to Casaubon. And then, for no reason hit a stumbling block.

It's always the same point in the story as well. I think it's when there's some protracted discussion of the corn laws / agricultural practice.

Has anyone else encountered this? A book you really want to finish but that just defeats you?