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Original poster

Books you've deliberately stopped reading?

170 replies

fuzzpig · 06/09/2014 23:56

(Apologies if I'm repeating a subject here, MN search function not behaving ATM!)

I have unintentionally stopped reading many books over the years, sometimes I've found them too hard to get into and/or just put them down somewhere and forgotten to pick them back up Blush. Any of these, I'd like to think one day I'll start them again and finish them.

But I've only ONCE deliberately closed a book never to open it again. It was Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. I don't think of myself as a prude, but it was just... yuck.

OP posts:
lordnoobson · 13/09/2014 07:44

Agree with beside ourselves. Stupid book. Mine was the luminaries

DameEdnasBridesmaid · 13/09/2014 07:38

We are completely beside ourselves. Hated the twist and immediately stopped reading, won't be going back.

gottachangethename1 · 12/09/2014 21:45

The goldfinch. Kept wondering when it was going to get better - it never did.

PeteCampbellsRecedingHairline · 10/09/2014 11:14

YY to The Book Thief and Wolf Hall.

I think I finished The Little Friend. Couldn't tell you what happens in it though.

Bolshybookworm · 09/09/2014 23:30

dwerf I absolutely LOATHED the Alchemist (another Paolo Cielo book). A load of pseudo-religious claptrap. You might as well read the Bible, at least it's got some gripping yarns as well.
I was also left with the opinion that the author is the sort of guy that would chat you up by stroking your hand whilst reciting a poem shudders.

Dwerf · 09/09/2014 23:13

The Zahir, I wanted to shove the novel up the narrator's backside, probably wouldn't have fit with his head so far up it already.

Almost Moon (Alice Seabold) . Meh. Tedious.

Lord of the rings. this hobbit begat that hobbit, yawn.

The God of small things. Just completely lost interest.

A year in the merde. Not as funny as promised.

KERALA1 · 09/09/2014 23:07

Napoleon I hated all the books you listed but loved the goldfinch. It's nothing like the little friend which I also abandoned

PatriciaHolm · 09/09/2014 22:58

To the Lighthouse, by Woolf - so so tedious.

7Days · 09/09/2014 00:45

That's true Alis it seemed grand but I wondered when the amazingness was going to to kick in. I got disillusioned.
Beware of hype

Alisvolatpropiis · 09/09/2014 00:40

The Night Circus was a nice read but the "literary sensation" surrounding it was utterly lost on me.

7Days · 09/09/2014 00:36

Cloud Atlas. Don't like post apoc, gives me nightmares. I'm sure there is a point but , Life is short
The Night Circus. Come on
Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Stop dissing on your mum, you little brat, and say something interesting. Juvenile and not in a good way
Gone with The Wind. Oh god, just marry one of them and shut up - I'm not normally so patriarchally oppressive, but I am making an exception, for the sake of personal peace.
P&P. It is a truth universally accepted...it is a truth universally excepted...a truth...snooze
Lord of the Rings. Throw the ring down a volcano already.
The Luminaries. Get to the point. Or maybe you can't because Uranus is in Capricorn.

And that's only since May

Ohwhatfuckeryisthis · 08/09/2014 22:42

Another one for Da Vinci shite. I threw against the wall for offences to grammar, then picked up and chucked it again for offences to the English language.
Lord of the fucking rings. Life is too short.

Stars66 · 08/09/2014 22:41

Mums List. Such a tear jerker, and as I lost my mum to cancer too it was too much!

Fletchermoss · 08/09/2014 22:36

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - boring.
Secret Diary of a Call Girl - the character of the call girl repulsed me and I found it difficult to believe.
The God Delusion - I found Richard Dawkins to be a paranoid, arrogant, whinging tosser.

Alisvolatpropiis · 08/09/2014 22:27

The only Jane Austen book I've finished is Emma and that was only because I was studying it for A Level.

She's the Grandmother of chicklit.

Alisvolatpropiis · 08/09/2014 22:26

I got to the end of that Rangirl. You were right to drop it. Utter bilge.

Rangirl · 08/09/2014 22:22

Her fearful symmetry Total pants

HumptyDumptyBumpty · 08/09/2014 20:10

Dickens Haters Unite! I'm always glad to find others, makes me feel less of a philistine. Wine for all you sensible ladies.

bbombshell · 08/09/2014 20:06

New Bridget Jones.... 20 pages in

MissionSlimpossible · 08/09/2014 20:03

Noted Kickass! Grin

NapoleonsNose · 08/09/2014 19:41

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt
Sepulchre - Kate Mosse
The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

I don't usually give up on books but these were just utter tripe - boring, tedious and mostly too long. I keep hearing good things about The Goldfinch but I'd be really pissed off if I gave up time to read it and it was as shit as The Little Friend where literally NOTHING happens for pages and pages and pages.

mumtosome61 · 08/09/2014 19:12

Da Vinci Code - someone bought it for me the same time it appeared to be the one book read on the Tube. I read a chapter and thought it was shite. Angels and Demons is also absolute bollocks but it makes me laugh with it's absurdity.

Gone Girl - don't ask me why, loads of people love it, I didn't.

I haven't read a fiction in a while, sadly - my head is stuck in university books and I long for a good fiction.

notnowImreading · 08/09/2014 19:10

Hannibal. I felt sullied and as though something disgusting had happened to my brain because I had read it - I could suddenly imagine horrible things that hadn't been in there before.

I did go back and finish it later. The damage was done by that point. I've never looked at a pig but with suspicion ever since.

ruralmyth · 08/09/2014 19:08

The Curious Incident, too depressing
50 Shades, yawn
Wish I'd given up on One Day

Just finished We are Completely Besides..shouldn't have bothered.

Welshwabbit · 08/09/2014 19:02

Cloud Atlas and Birdsong of those already mentioned here.

Also War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings. War and Peace I have tried twice, but gave up at about page 100 because I couldn't remember who anyone was. Lord of the Rings, again tried twice, gave up halfway through the second book because they had been trudging through a forest for about 50 pages with no end in sight.