Books you hate reading aloud to your children

Sam Pig and his fucking Fiddle. My kids loved it. It was looooooong and mind numbingly boring Having evil thoughts about buying it for DGS so my daughter can fully appreciate the horror that I endured night after night

I find Harry Potter really difficult to read aloud as well - unfortunately DS has just got into them so I'm having to read them aloud a second time.

But my current most hated book is a favourite of DD2 - a PJ Masks books that I couldn't even tell you what it is about because I just glaze over and read it on autopilot. It's truly terrible!

Does anybody else think that The Tiger That Came to Tea is rather disturbing?

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I hated reading Mr Men and those silly Misses; sadly we lost them (!). What I hate now is Harry Potter. Some books' prose just rolls off the tongue, some is virtually impossible. I find J K Rowling very hard. Much prefer Artemis Fowle and Northern Lights (yes, I know, dd's 8 and I still read to her!).

miffy is translated from dutch : nijntje in het ziekenhuis

but i think some are better translated than others.

I can't read "comic strip" books aloud - DS3 loves Tin Tin and Asterix - I love them too, but find them impossible to read aloud. It's made worse by the fact that DH can "do" accents and voices, so when he reads them all the characters sound different - I have a dull monotone and it's never quite as pleasing for DS3.

casbie -I agree with Miffy. We have a few that don't rhyme or scan well at all -they sound really disjointed

at dissing of Bear Hunt and Dear Zoo

firm faves chez Enid

The Naughtiest Girl at School

DAted and horribly moral and bullying

Ohhh I love the Bear Hunt.

Hated Snail on A Whale though and gave it away.

Also loathe anything to do with Dora.

But most hated (by me) is "Miffy" specifically for the following:

"If we could have a baby now,
how lovely it would be,
said Mrs Bunny, I could shop
and cook and sew for three."

aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh

As it was a present from mmy much-loved sister, I can't bring myself to bin it so I have added in pencil,

"And I could become the chief executive
of a large blue-chip company"

BadZelda, I have indeed mentioned the Charlie and Lola books (huffy), am relieved I am not the only one. I'd rather gnaw my own arm off, then willingly read a Charlie and Lola book. Blardy Lauren Child!

We're going on a bear hunt... I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!!!

Would endorse the hatred of the Thomas books. Got them for ds and even he (who likes every other book on the planet) can't be bothered with them.

puppy, we have Daddy Island and The Greatest Gift from Barefoot and they are wonderful books
I think Anita Jeram is overrated too berolina

i think i love every barefoot book we have though.

i won't do mr men or beatrix potter. i feel a ban on the large family is on its way soon. am getting heartily sick of the meg and mog flap book we got from the library last time because she's beginning to 'read' bits of it so just wants it over and over again and there's no story to it. is difficult to get a balance between something that's too long and wordy and takes too much effort (voices, accents, singing ) and things that just aren't proper stories. dd has a load of traffic club books that she loves and wants over and over and i do not.

miffy at the playground - not translated as well as later editions and it doesn't ryhme or any rythum at all.

all the others are a pleasure, mixed with pain and LO hits me over the head with them in the morning!!!

Agree with Dear Zoo - should be 2 pages long, with the 2nd page being the zoo writing back to confirm they are not a petshop. It's like an unfunny version of the Timewaster letters.

Oh (am on a roll here), we had Dear Sodding Zoo today. Dreadful. The content makes me shudder too - what a spoilt brat.

Guess How Much... is one of the few books I have 'lost'. Quite apart from the mind-numbingness of it, the message of 'big always trumps little' really began to bother me quite a lot.

I think Dr Seuss is fab - so does ds1 - but they are long... and then he wants them 'again' - The Cat in the Hat three times in a row is what purgatory must be like, I think.

ds1 is currently obsessed with bloody Mr Men. A few I enjoy, some are absolutely dreadful - no plot, over-egged moral, clunky language. If it's not Mr Men it's often bloody Thomas. Fortunately he will usually respond to appeals to 'get a different book' and bring me a nice Donaldson or the Pooh book (slightly abridged orinigal text, beautifully presented) ds2 'gave' him when he was born. He's only 2.5 and can't possibly understand it all, but he listens with rapt attention. He also, happily, loves me reading him children's poetry.

Oh Rachel and Kirsty...

Fucking bastarding big overbearing purple fucker Barney! Erm it is after the watershed innit?

Oh AND the Mr Men too, you're right they are awful and so much PADDING in the text