What books are you slowly resigning yourself to never reading?

[ProneUponHerUnmadeBed]

OK, maybe I'm a being a tad dramatic, but in my mid 40s I'm beginning to think that perhaps I may never get round to any Dickens. Particularly not if I have to read Proust too. (And, OK, if I spend reading time on the likes of Gone Girl.) What books do you feel you must read before it's too late, and what are you prepared to let go?

[LackaDAISYcal]

Dickens, Harry Potter, anything Russian (have tried soooo many times), Vanity Fair (ditto)

I would rather spend my time re-reading cherished books or books I have found really clever and engaging (The Magus: four times and it's on the ready to read pile still), The Secret History, The World According to Garp, The Gruffalo and Room On the Broom )

[Chopsypie]

I've just started a thread about 100 books to read in a lifetime. It's an amazon list with a good mix of recent novels and classics that I'm going to attempt to read all of!

I'm no good with dystopia type novels. I read to escape not become miserable...

[Salazar]

50 Shades. Boo hiss.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I suspect I will never manage to finish a book by George Eliot.

'Catch 22' and I are unlikely to ever become friends.

After a brief fling, I realised that Kazuo Ishiguro is really, really boring, despite sounding a bit sexy in the Lonely Hearts column of the blurbs.

I tried living with Dickens, but he insisted on being paid for every word - and he never bloody stopped talking.

And (sorry Cote) 'Cloud Atlas' and I have resolved, after another trial separation, to consciously uncouple.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Any chick lit shite.

All the pride and prejudice sort of stuff.

Dickens, Shakespeare, that middle english one (Chaucer).

I would like to read some modern stuff like catcher in the rye, bell jar, long walk to freedom, more Orwell, Jean Paul Sartre....

[Ewieindwie1]

Hi, you've got me thinking and I'm sadly realising that I shall probably never set aside the year I would need for Anna Karenina and Vanity Fair. On the other hand read To Kill a Mockingbird aloud every year and absolutely love it. It makes me laugh and it makes me sad.

[BasketzatDawn]

I think my Dickens days may be over.
And chick lit type stuff (though that maybe depends on definition?).
Ulysses
Wuthering Heights

Not sure exactly, never say never maybe should be my motto.

[BasketzatDawn]

And Fifty Shades of Greyness
and the We need to talk about Kevin woman annoys me, so I'll give that a miss I think.

[ProneUponHerUnmadeBed]

Ewieindwie1, despite its length I found Vanity Fair a relatively quick and enjoyable read. (And Anna Karenina. Ish) So maybe not give up on those yet?
But I don't think I'll ever finish anything by Orhan Pamuk.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Not sure I'll finish, 'And the Mountains' echoed, which I've just started. The first fifty pages have down precisely nothing for me.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Agree re, 'Vanity Fair' but think, 'Anna K' was harder work for less satisfaction than VF.

[gamescompendium]

I don't know if I'm slowly resigning myself to it or quite content but I'm never reading any more Thomas Pynchon. Also happy to not read Dickens again.

[joanofarchitrave]

Ulysses.

I still have some hopes of reading Proust [delusional]

[MooncupGoddess]

The Brothers Karamazov. I tried, really.

Also not sure I'll ever manage to read the war bits in War and Peace.

Proust, though, I still have hopes of...

[blueshoes]

American Psycho

[MrFranklyShankly]

Will never read anything by Cormac McCarthy ever again!!!
Dickens, Tolstoy, James Joyce, although i did manage to stick 'The Artist as a young man' when I was younger.

I have been looking at the Luminaries and thinking will I just leave it,Is it I worth it??? And Donna Tarts Goldfinch??? Should I bother??

But I could (and do) re-read Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights every year, I love them. Will def read more Daphne Du Maurier this year and Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

[MrFranklyShankly]

And the mountains echoed is one I have high hopes for, but I've just seen your post groupie will see what you make of it first, I've heard it's better than kite runner which I loved to bits

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I'm 200 pages in now and hating it. I'll finish it, but only because it was a freebie copy from here so I feel compelled to comment on the whole thing not just half of it.

It's really badly written and still unclear which character, if any, is the main one because it's leaping about so much. And it pays lip service to war/women's rights/homosexuality and various other 'issues' without actually saying anything about any of them. I'm finding it trite and lazy, tbh.

[Parliamo]

Don Quixote. I keep looking on amazon and get confused by how to choose the best translation, then give up, aware that I'm just being a bit pretentious. Anna karenina I also thought was pretty easy going really, but a bit tragic. I loved the Goldfinch but am finding the luminaries much more hard going.

Proust I started at uni and last touched about seven years ago, but I will finish one day. Dm loved it on audio book because it didn't matter if she dozed off, when she woke up he was still going on about the same thing! Ulysses I might have another go at one day...

The cazalets on the other hand I am rationing myself, otherwise I wouldn't speak to my family at all for a few weeks.

[hackmum]

There are several:

Moby Dick
Tristram Shandy (I've owned a copy for about 25 years, so it seems unlikely)
A la recherche (tried it once, didn't get past page 4)
Felix Holt (bought a copy when I was 17, eventually gave it away unread in my 40s)
The Idiot - got half way through once, and gave up. And I rarely give up.

It's possible I'll read Anna Karenina - I read War and Peace last year, so I suppose AK will be like running a half marathon after you've already completed a marathon.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I ifnished, 'Moby Dick' - just to prove to somebody who claims to love it that it is, indeed, crap. I liked the bits about whaling but hated the story.

[CoteDAzur]

"And (sorry Cote) 'Cloud Atlas' and I have resolved, after another trial separation, to consciously uncouple."

Why don't you just read the last two stories, the dystopian and post-apocalyptic ones? Read them whole. You know you want to

[gamescompendium]

I wish I'd consciously uncoupled with Clout Atlas. I still don't know what was the point of the second half of the book.

Hackmum I love Tristram Shandy. It is completely off the wall and very modern feeling. Watch Cock and Bull story so you know your way around the story first.

[thegambler]

Infinite jest by david foster wallace. Infinite quest more like, started it 3 times and without disliking just get bored by a third the way through.

[CoteDAzur]

Games - 2nd half of Cloud Atlas was the conclusion of all the stories. Would you rather the book ended with only the first half of all 6 stories?