Books you wish you'd never bothered to finish?

Another one for Cloud Atlas. What the bollocks was all the fuss about? It was crap!

The Crimson Petal and the White - kept reading as it was highly recommended, but it was just long and dull.

I hated the Kite Runner but am glad I finished it. Wasn't very happy with the ending but it could have been worse. Never bothered with 1000 Splendid Suns because of it (Possibly silly but I don't care. Life's too short)

I also hated We Need to Talk About Kevin and wish I'd never read that. But again I had to finish it to get some resolution. I hate books like that. I can't read anything more by Karin Slaughter either after the first one of hers (no idea what it was called and I don't need to be reminded). My imagination is too vivid to cope with the sort of violence that is encapsulated in these books, so I avoid them to save my sanity.

I barely managed to start Captn Corelli, felt like I needed a book of Ancient Greek legends and a dictionary to unravel what the first few pages were on about.

I didn't get far with One Day either. I know a lot of people who've read out and it send to be a real 'Marmite' book.

I enjoyed The Kite Runner, but found it more of a struggle to plough through and ultimately disappointing compared to A Thousands Splendid Suns.

Captain Corelli's Bloody Mandolin. Stupid book with a stupid ending.

kite runner
boy in the striped pyjamas

I've avoided these because I KNOW they will irritate me:

50 shades
twilight
time traveller's wife
eat pray love
the room

The Time Traveller's Wife. I actually read it twice because so many people expressed astonshment that I hadn't enjoyed it, so I thought I ought to check that I'd not missed something compelling. I hadn't, if anything it was even more trite upon second visit.

The Notebook. As fat as a pamphlet, thank God, and that's the only nice thing I can say about it.

So surprised that more than one person has named Brick Lane, I love that book, I think the writing is wonderful!

SlightlySuperiorPeasant My Lord John was what I was reading during early labour with DS3, I always thought that was what put me off it but maybe it was, as you say, just not readable. Wasn't it unfinished?

It's a shame because John of Bedford was an interesting character. I would love to read a good novel about his life.

Chesapeake by James Michener.. I was bleeding from the eyeballs reading all his dreary scenery descriptions. But his book Caravans is one of my favourites.

Thanks leecoakley it is The Summons and I bought 2 others as they were on special offer at Sainsbury's. Its been gathering dust for 3 months.

The girl with the glass feet - the most terrible book I,ve ever had the misfortune to read

Labyrinth held the spot before it

Stephen King once said that life was too short to spend reading books that are rubbish, and after reading the girl with the glass feet I agree

greenhill - I noticed you mentioned a John Grisham. If it's The Associate put it down now and drop it off at the nearest charity shop. Read the Amazon reviews if you are in any doubt. Shame as some of his stuff is quite enjoyable.

This is soooo interesting! All the books people can't stand are my faves!!! I loved the lovely bones and room. And girl with the dragon tattoo is in my top 5 can't put it down -ers! I also liked 50 shades and dan brown! Clearly i have really poo taste!!! Tge number one hate book for me is lord of the rings. I tried and tried to make it through the endless walking through the forest bit but failed :(

P.S. I love you - I'd suspected it would utter tripe but a friend whose opinion I used to respect on these things recommended it.

One Day - took me ages but I kept hoping it would improve. I could not give a monkeys what happened to either of them. I was truly angry that I'd wasted so much time on that bilge.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is my school gate read atm. A couple of pages a day only but I quite like it so far. Not a difficult read.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Sadly I had to finish it as it was part of my GCSE coursework. 20 years later I am still gobsmacked at what a tedious pile of drivel it was.

Far From The Madding Crowd - I am glad I finished it, but it took about 5 months (I'd normally read a book that size in 5 days!). What really got to me was Hardy's long-winded intricate descriptions of the geology, geography, history etc of Wessex - soooo boring. Yet his characters and dialogue when they got going were brilliant. Apparently it was a kind of insecurity thing with him as he wasn't particularly well-educated and so felt the need to prove himself by adding all this superfluous rubbish .

I am now even more in awe of my Dad who left school at 14 with little formal education, and when I was growing up read pretty much everything Hardy had ever produced.

I love Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels but Widacre was pure dross - I thought I would like it - I didn't.

SlightlySuperior - yes! I have a copy of it but it's not one I choose to re-read, unlike all the others bar Penhallow, a terrible book with no sympathetic characters in it at all. Apparently she wrote Penhallow in spite, because her publishers wouldn't let her out of her contract with them. They did after that.
And of course she died before she finished Lord John, so I like to think that she would have gone back over it and made it better if she hadn't died.

Beebaw thanks for that, I'll maybe get it from the library then and that way I won't feel so cheated if it's crap!

ullena at least Perfect People was a quick read. My DH rarely reads fiction but managed it in 4 hours too. We thoroughly enjoyed ripping the plot flaws to pieces, was it the James Bond style set up a the end or the irritating thickness of the couple you disliked most?

Oh God, we did Z for Zachariah too! It was horrible. I spent years blanking out the memory of when my Darling Mother made me sit through 'Threads' as a 9yo! only to have it all brought back into focus by that book!

Z For Zachariah, by Robert C. O'Brien. Awful book - was made to read it at secondary school. Really creeped me and my friends out...

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen. There were no positives to this apart from the fact that it ended. Again, I had to read it for school. Twice...

Kill Me Once, by Jon Osborne. Completely unbelieveable plot, nasty, far too graphic scenes of murder, etc. Also had an unconvincing female lead, and the bad guy had way too much in common with the author's own backstory. The message seemed to be that horrible things happen to nice people for no reason and there is no justice...

Perfect People, by Peter James. Started well, then just ran out of steam and the ending was a complete let down! Also, poor guinea pigs...