Books that were recommended to you but turned out to be absolute pointless drivel - the wasted hours you'll never get back - a warning list for others!

Hardy would be ok if he didn't keep just making the storyline more and more and more incredulous.

the mayor of casterbridge is ridiculous.

he could take out 75% of the twists in the story and it'd actually be ok!

Why do so many people hate Perfume then?

Agree re Ann Tyler - soooooooooooooo dull.

I loved Memoirs of a Geisha and The Curious Incident with the Dog.... A Spot of Bother, though, was so bland that I for the life of my can't remember what it was all about. How people can claim this as their favourite book is beyond me. Same with White Teeth.

Read Veronika Decides to Die and was completely incredulous. My dog could have written with more depth. If people start gushing on about Coelho's spirituality and how his books have given them a new meaning in life, I go like this: I will never, ever read another book by him even if I get it recommended by every person in the world.

Agree on the need for Hardy's characters to just get a grip. As for Robinson Crusoe, well, there are no words

Read Time Traveller's Wife because it was recommended on here. It was ok, but lacked something, I thought. Which is why I also read the symmetry one, thinking she might've got it now. But no. It's just so weird! And not in a good way, it's weird in a 'let's see, how can I make these characters and this plot as odd as possible so that the readers will understand how great literature this is'. And the ending? Very unsatisfying.

I love children's literature, and try from time to time to read up on things I haven't read before. I started on Little Women a while ago, I just couldn't go on, it was so saccharine. Someone who loves these books, please tell me why I should persevere..

I may get shot down here, but have tried three Anne Tyler books and hated every one of them (only managed a few chapters). And yet she's feted as the most amazing wonderful incredible unbelievable observer of American life in existence. Please someone tell me why.

Perfume here, too.

Alongside Hothouse Flower (I am actually getting ANGRY at the thought of it, stupid rubbish thing that took up some of my life!) and The Time Traveller's Wife.

Another one for Perfume.

I love I Capture the Castle!
also loved Catch-22 when I last read it (many years ago) - but my (fairly old) children love it now too (I think it must be an age thing)
Catcher in the Rye (ditto)(ditto)

I Capture the Castle

Dull as fuck

Lovely Bones - found it nauseatingly bad and long. Sorry!

Yes, you've killed it.

And Catcher in the Rye is brilliant, by the way

Oh no - have I killed this thread?

Arthur And George = bloomin' brilliant imho! Flaubert's Parrot brilliant too but he disappointed me beyond those. England England was ridiculous and the next one I tried was unreadable.

oh no no. I loved George and Arthur.

The House at Riverton

The Ukrainian Tractors

We need to Talk About Kevin

George and Arthur (Julian Barnes)

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Lost Symbol was a waste of time, as was The Davinci Code but I loved Angels and Demons.

The first few Jodi Picoult books I read I liked but after the 3rd one they got very samey, The worst one being Songs of the Hump Back Whale which was terrible!

Suspicions Of Mr Whicher - I liked the first half and hated the second half.

Hardy - irritates me more and more the older I get: I loved him as a teenager but now I just think all of his characters need a good slap.

Catch 22 - I can't read it - am obviously not clever/warped enough.

Pmsl about The Tenderness Of Wolves - it was drivel.

What was that Elory one as well - A Quiet Belief In Angels??? God that was shite.

Catcher In The Rye - boring teenage angst shite.

Crime And Punishment - good but not fun!

That's Jude the Obscure Bamboo and I didn't finish it either!

george eliot?! doesn't ring a bell. it might have been a different book i read.

it was about some guy who has a crappy life for most of the book and then his children hanged themslves in the wardrobe.

i stopped reading it after that.

The Lovely Bones - gave up after a couple of chapters because it was so dull.
Lord of the Rings - managed about a quarter of an inch before flinging it away in disbelief at the utter tedium of it.
Does my bum look big in this? by Arabella Weir. A load of smug, "aren't I jolly funny?" bollocks.
Da Vinci Code - realised a couple of pages in that I was going to hate it, so got rid pdq.
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - see Da Vinci code!
Predator - loved the earlier Scarpetta books but this was bloody hard work, so I gave up halfway through. I don't think I'll bother with any more after reading above that Marino rapes Kay; that's completely out of order and I don't want to read it.

I wouldn't even start trying to read Her Fearful Symmetry because the title winds me up with its pretentiousness and the synopsis sounds dire.
I have to stick up for Catch-22 though, it's one of my absolute favourites and I could read it over and over (and have).

i read a couple of thomas hardy for 6th year english and was sent out the class for saying aye well.. it dragged on a bit .. I mean the story is there but he could have told it in about 20 pages the rest was just boring description.... apparently you dont say stuff like that about classics

I didnt like capt correlli or jump either .. dh says I'm a phlistine for not liking capt correlli.. I have been proved right on here!

The one book I couldnt finish was lord of the rings.. wtf is that about????

I have become a lee child's fan. Jack Reacher is just a great hero

Many of these, plus

Middlemarch

The last two Jilly Cooper's. Jump and the school one.

Goodnight Mr Tom (dragged through it at school where it was commonly known as The Wet Bed Book).

Angela's Ashes

George Eliot, bb

who wrote adam bede then? anyhoo it was depressing dross which is why i thought hardy wrote it.

I read a Kate Mosse years ago, before she became Someone Important...I bought it from one of those remainder shops where you get 3 paperbacks for £2. 'Nuff said.

The Forgetten Garden (or whatever it was called ) by Kate Morton

another book by Kate Morton (God knows why I read 2 - you'd think i'd have learned)

The 13th Tale by Diana Setterfield.

Labyrinthe - I suspect Kate Mosse must be mates with all therse literary critics and newspaper editors...