Classics or "Must reads" that others rave about but you just don't get

[boogiewoogie]

Mine are the following:

The Great Gatsby - I read this a couple of years ago and was disappointed with it and thought I'd missed the point. Gave it another the other day and finished it in 2 days (short book). No, still not getting the hype. No likeable characters either.

Catcher in the Rye- Nothing really happens.

Middlemarch - My fourth attempt at this... I will finish it this time!

The Time traveller's wife - Page turner, yes but "must read", no, no, no!

Started Early, took my dog - I normally love Kate Atkinson and really enjoyed the first three Jackson Brodie books but I found this dry.

The Da Vinci Code - Couldn't get past the first chapter.

[BitOfFun]

Catch 22. Can't manage it at all, and I've read eighty-odd of that BBC Top 100 list that knocks around facebook.

[Ilovedaintynuts]

Cloud atlas by David Mitchell. What a big load of pretentious, pointless tripe. Life is also too short to read The Shipping News, Beloved and Remains Of The Day. That's a few hours of my life I'll never get back

[piperhaven]

Oh boogiewoogie - I loved Gatsby, Catcher and Middlemarch but there are lots of must reads I never even bother with eg Da Vinci Code and Time Travellers. Read what you enjoy. Life's too short

[Tortu]

Jane Eyre. Yawn.

[beachyhead]

Captain bloody Corelli.....tried three times and then gave up

[madhousewife]

FIL gave me the best advice - there are too many books in this world to waste your time reading something you don't enjoy. He said this after I was complaining about struggling through a so called must read.
Now I'll give a book a good go but if it's not doing it for me I put it down.

[WidowWadman]

Lord of the Rings. Boring. With a capital B

[iwasyoungonce]

So far I agree with "Time Traveller's Wife". I was very underwhelmed.

Catch 22 - also tried to read it, and got to about 50 pages before I gave up.

May I add "Gulliver's Travels", which I hated.

[iwasyoungonce]

But I LOVE "Jane Eyre"!

[PotteringAlong]

Anything by jane Austin - I've never managed to finish one

[ThisIsJustASagaNow]

The Life of Pi. Great waffly long passages about animal behaviour Zzzzz

[ThePathanKhansWoman]

A Suitable Boy, i have gotton about half way twice, starting to think i am a bit thick lack the required concentration.

[Paschaelina]

Oh I agree with Life of Pi. Bored to tears.

DaVinci Code is crap. What a shit ending!

I will give most stuff a go, sometimes it takes a second or third read to really enjoy it. I found that with LOTR and also The Historian.

[LadyDamerel]

The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings - I've tried but I can't get beyond the first few chapters.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc - just don't get fantasy, I think

ALL Dickens' novels - just turgid drivel

One Day - David Nicholls - absolute pile of tosh

[DandyGilver]

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse

We need to talk about Kevin = Lionel Shriver (read it but honestly what a drag)

[Penelope1980]

Shantaram - thought it was too long and the narrator a real pain. Also I second Lord of the Rings as have only ever read the 1st book, and that was a struggle and had no desire to read the second two. Often when I look at top book lists, it's the only book in the top 25 I haven't read.

[mrswoodentop]

Any Tolkein,likewise the Northern Lights series,also cannot understand the attraction of Terry Patchett.

[JemimaMop]

Wolf Hall.

[pearlgirl]

Perfume

[aStarInStrangeways]

Any George Eliot. The Lovely Bones. Frankenstein (I so want to like it, but her writing is just gash). A History Of The World In 10.5 Chapters. The Shipping News. Most things my MIL presses on me as a 'must-read', god love her

I only opened this thread because I thought it was referring to MN Classics or must-read threads - there are loads of those that I think you probably had to be there for, i.e. they are actually a bit shit.

[EdwardorEricCantDecide]

i loved the hobbit but lord of the rings was too long and as a result it was boring,

wuthering heights

if i'm not enjoying a book i generally don't finish it though

[hollygolightlyandcat]

Captain Corelli - very, very dull with a ridiculous and unbelievable ending

DaVinci code - irritating and pointless. The entire book is spent with the main characters trying to find out a secret which the granny knew all along and could have just told them

[eatyourveg]

the curious incident of the dog in the night - just couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Put it down to the fact that we live and breathe autism 24/7 with ds2 and ds3 so everything seemed perfectly rational.