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 you wish you'd never bothered to finish?

166 replies

FuntimeFuschia · 04/09/2012 22:46

Hello, hope its ok me posting on here, I very rarely post. Had a chat with a friend today which has made me think - have you ever finished a book and then thought what a phenomenal waste of my time that was? I recently read 'The Haunting of James Hastings', which I wanted to bin about halfway through, but persevered and regretted it.

I read a lot, many different genres and have never actually thought anything I read was a waste of time before this book. I would be very interested to hear what books anyone actually resents giving the time to and if anyone can tell me what the hell actually happened at the end of the above mentioned novel I'd be very grateful

OP posts:
Original poster
FuntimeFuschia · 05/09/2012 21:16

Ooh wow, loads of responses! I am slightly ashamed to admit I have read quite a few of the rejected books, and even enjoyed some of them Blush but also heartily agree with others...I am plodding through Wolf Hall at the moment, oof, it's a toughie.

OP posts:
Nigglenaggle · 05/09/2012 21:13

Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie - dont know what all the fuss was about with him, his books are far too dull to ever be read!!

RedBlanket · 05/09/2012 20:35

My sister lent me Cloud Atlas to read when I was on maternity leave, despite numerous attempts I still havent got past the first chapter and my DTs are 8.
Perhaps I shouldn't bother now!

marshmallowpies · 05/09/2012 20:15

fester well that quote applied to the Riddle of the Sands came true...the author got caught up in the Irish struggle for independence (ie after the Easter Rising) & ended up in front of a British firing squad.

My dad is a fan of the book, or at least talks enthusiastically about it, but I think it's the film or TV adaptation he actually remembers...

jkklpu · 05/09/2012 20:08

Cloud Atlas

kweggie · 05/09/2012 20:06

snigger----
on the whole I'd rather be eating 'Philadelphia'
a whole one
in a field
(WC optional)

kweggie · 05/09/2012 18:53

Paulo Coelho's Witch of Portobello. You just know you should give up when you don't give a tinker's curse what happens to ANY of the characters they are so wooden.
I read Da Vinci code on the beach and I embarrassed the family by screaming, as I'd promised I would, if I had to read that they 'gunned' the car up or down another sodding street once more AAAAArgh
Primo Levi's Periodic Tables-a reasonable idea stretched to mind-numbing transparency and yawn-inducing boredom......

Salbertina · 05/09/2012 18:45

Like that review, fester!
Marshmallows- thanks, vaguely think I bay have tried Room of One's own but if so a good 2.5 decades ago so nay have another read.

festereagain · 05/09/2012 18:40

The Riddle of the Sands Sad. So dull it reminded me of the review on the back of 1066 And All That..."we look forward eagerly to their last publication"....

marshmallowpies · 05/09/2012 18:36

Salbertina read some V Woolf non-fiction if you haven't tried that - A Room of Ones Own, Three Guineas, etc - much more readable & entertaining than her novels and very thought-provoking.

Brices · 05/09/2012 18:20

A Suitable Boy I found a really excellent read

snigger · 05/09/2012 17:40

To The Lighthouse

I felt like an uneducated nyaff for hating it and I forced myself to finish it and then I wondered about the stew and I asked for another helping of soup and I found myself endlessly wittering on and on and on about inconsequential crap until I found I had to to come back to MN

On the whole, I'd rather have been in Philadelphia

Itsjustafleshwound · 05/09/2012 17:30

LOTR
Da Vinci Code

Life is too short to wade through unenjoyable bks

DuchessofMalfi · 05/09/2012 17:19

I think you and I are probably in the minority with Before I Go To Sleep, Jilted :) I hated it too.

I liked When God Was a Rabbit, monal. I know it was a slow moving story but I rather liked it, and it was quite humorous in places - appealed to my sense of humour anyway!

I'm struggling with the book I'm reading at the moment - Jubilee by Shelley Harris. It's well written, but I just don't like any of the characters, and the story is dreary.

Schnarkle · 05/09/2012 17:09

P.S. I Love you ( I wasn't in my right mind obviously)
The Dan Brown books - holiday reads, the local Tesco had nothing else and was before the days of my kindle.
50 shades all of them - read out of nosiness just to see what everyone was talking about.

Allalonenow · 05/09/2012 17:09

Norwegian Wood
Mother's Milk

Both total dross.

TopCuppa · 05/09/2012 17:08

I stuggled with one day- I had to skim a fair few chapters. Also couldn't get into the book thief or the latest Sophie Hannah (can't remember what it's called)

Salbertina · 05/09/2012 16:53

Oh it's absolute drivel, I just read the sex bits Grin

dublindee · 05/09/2012 16:43

I got the 50 shades trilogy and read book 1 in a few hours. I despised it and Christian Grey and vowed to leave the other books unread. A friend who I thought had taste was reading book 2 and told me to give it a chance as it explained why he was such a prick Christian's angst.
Got through it, just about but then (in Magnus Magnusson fashion) I had to finish the trilogy.

I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a blunt spoon by the end. NEVER again will I give a book the benefit if the doubt to that extent again!

Salbertina · 05/09/2012 16:35

Oh yes and agree Da Vinci code dire

Salbertina · 05/09/2012 16:33

But hate dickens-all the overladen description and all those caricatures...

Also lord if the rings

Pat barker
Virginia Woolf which makes me feel guilty towards the sisterhood

Salbertina · 05/09/2012 16:31

Oh I love a suitable boy! One of my v favourite books, one of the v few would re-read! I admit it's a v slow starter though and v long

dogsbreath · 05/09/2012 16:25

The Tiger's Wife. Why, how did that win the Orange Prize?

SoniaGluck · 05/09/2012 16:23

Agree about Brick Lane.

My other one is The Great Gatsby. I don't remember anything about it, really, except that feeling of being underwhelmed when I'd finished it.

Lavenderhoney · 05/09/2012 16:20

Captain corelis mandolin
Oscar and lucinda
Labyrinth
Life of pi
just read last chapter when realised a couple of chapters in how crap they were.
Numerous others but they stick.

I liked an unsuitable boy, enough to read it twice:)