Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

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!

230 replies

MadreInglese · 28/02/2011 14:37

These immediately spring to mind:

Kate Mosse - Labyrinth
(also her The Winter Ghosts - should have known after I read one of hers that another would be just as crud)

Paulo Coehlo - The Alchemist

Audrey Niffeneger - Her Fearful Symmetry
(first half was readable then she appears to have taken some strange pills before embarking on the rest of the book)

Stephanie Meyer - The Twilight Trauma Saga

OP posts:
Runoutofideas · 28/02/2011 21:32

I must be easily pleased as I liked lots of the ones listed on here!

The one I failed dismally with recently was The Lacuna, dull, dull, dull - gave up about halfway through. None of the characters gripped me in any way.

I have also given up on the White Woman on a Green Bicycle - again I have no interest in any of the characters.

MyMamaToldMe · 28/02/2011 21:31

Eat Pray Love - what a load of crapola! I RESENT having paid money for that rubbish!

berylmuspratt · 28/02/2011 21:17

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Wasp Factory and the Red Riding Books by David Peace, I read them all and they were urgh!!!!

Drmelons · 28/02/2011 21:17

sorry- LOVE (and slightly freaked out by) The poisonwood Bible!

AimingForSerenity · 28/02/2011 21:16

Ooh Drmelons I agree wholeheartedly on "We need to talk about Kevin" and I too wanted to slap the mother till her teeth rattled!

But I loved a prayer for Owen Meany, it was slow but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have just finished "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher" which was soooooo boring I feel like I deserve an O level for reading it!

pointydog · 28/02/2011 21:14

Thanks for recommendation staines

Ponders · 28/02/2011 21:13

The Lacuna was another it took me a long time to get into but was glad I persevered Grin

(DrM, do you love or loathe poisonwood bible? Wink)

stainesmassif · 28/02/2011 21:11

i can remember reading the secret history whilst walking down the street, literally couldn't put it down. however, i have owned the little friend for 10 years and it's effectively a bookend and nothing more.

enduring love, god, they're all so annoying. and the post birthday world. grrrr.

pointydog · 28/02/2011 21:11

Rabbit Run - is that one of the Updike ones? I loved those books as an impressionable teenager (older than 14 mind you).

Drmelons · 28/02/2011 21:04

Hate (and all were rec. to me)
need to talk about Kevin- just hated the way it was written, though itself far too clever. Hated everyone in it, and the self indulgence of the mother- wanted to slap her continually.

La Lacuna- apparently we have waited 10 years for this 'masterpiece' was a real disappointment, as I loved the poisonwood bible.

A prayer for owen meany- rec. by a normally sane and lovely friend- a moment of madness fro her I assume, I was delighted to hand it back

Love
Hardy ('specially Tess)
Attonement
Poisonwood Bible
Behind the scenes of the museum
Gone with the wind

BelligerentGhoul · 28/02/2011 21:03

I liked Memoirs of Geisha and The Kite Runner but was v bored by A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Read The Little Friend and The Secret History and didn't think much to either of them but remember v v little about them tbh - something about a water tower?

stainesmassif · 28/02/2011 20:57

oh, another one, charlotte bloody gray.

recommended to me by the stepdad of my bf at the time. he said 'he really gets inside a woman's mind'.

at the time i was too clueless young to question how exactly a middle aged man would be able to judge.

rightpissedoff · 28/02/2011 20:55

Oh gah Kevin was dire dire dire

rightpissedoff · 28/02/2011 20:54

love TT's wife and don't understand why so many people think it's a waste of time

Anyway yes labyrinth and girl with a pearl. Though girl with a pearl was about 40 minutes wasted rather than hours and hours.

PlanetEarth · 28/02/2011 20:53

A River Runs Through It.

Boring, boring, all about fish!

wolfbrother · 28/02/2011 20:51

Never managed to get through Wuthering Heights or The Leopard (which my English teacher said was one of the best books ever written, so I felt I ought to persevere.) Tried again with The Leopard as an adult and gave up very quickly.
Hated the Kevin book. Finished it and gave it to Oxfam the next day as I couldn't bear to have it taking up space on my bookshelf.

But I love Captain Corelli!

harpsichordcarrier · 28/02/2011 20:49

God I SO agree about that AWFUL Labyrinth. I read the fist four pages with my mouth open... how the HELL did that get past the editor??
Also Time Traveller's Wife. utter shit.
Anything by the unspeakable Vitoria Hislop. I had to read the Island for Book Group and threw it across the room hard when I finally finished it BlushGrin

Anything by Ernest Hemingway. A VERY bad writer indeed.

Rabbit FECKING Run what a load of misogynist tripe. I couldn't even bear to read it as an impressionable 14 year old.

Tillyscoutsmum · 28/02/2011 20:49

Quite enjoyed "Kevin" but I started it a couple of times before I finally persevered with it. Hated Time Traveller's Wife and Lovely Bones.

Couldn't get into Donna Tartt Little Friend and ploughed through The Secret History after being told it was amazing. It was dull.

I liked the premise of Memoirs of Geisha but I skipped whole pages of lengthy description of how to tie a kimono etc.

BestNameEver · 28/02/2011 20:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FourFortyFour · 28/02/2011 20:41

Fuck, I have quite a lot of books mentioned on here in my pile to read.

stainesmassif · 28/02/2011 20:38

Also, i managed about 4 pages of labyrinthe before giving up. it just reminded me exactly of the da vinci code

i once found myself on holiday at a friends' parents house and the only books they had were the entire collection of paolo bastard coehlo and judith krantz. not good.

LadyBiscuit · 28/02/2011 20:37

Spot of Bother made my teeth itch (and not in a good way :o)

HumphreyCobbler · 28/02/2011 20:37

yy to Kate Moss
Da Vinci Code
Her Fearful Symmetry
That Victoria Hislop one about leprosy

Also hated
Jonathon Livingston Seagull (or anything by Richard Bach)

couldn't read more than a chapter of
Lovely Bones
House at Riverton
Anything by Hardy

BelligerentGhoul · 28/02/2011 20:36

Spot Of Bother - yep. I hated all of the characters and didn't actually care a hoot what happened to them.

Ponders · 28/02/2011 20:34

I liked both Shipping News & Life of Pi (though Pi is another that I really had to work at until at least ¼ way in)