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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:
MissionSlimpossible · 07/09/2014 23:38

I'm too lily livered for The Gargoyle Kickass. Grin

Kickassandlollipops · 07/09/2014 23:35

I wished I had stopped at page 20 Alisvo Hmm
Oh I loved The Gargoyle one of my favourite books ! But will agree a bit strange.

MissionSlimpossible · 07/09/2014 23:24

Cloud Atlas - dull, dull, dull.

The Gargoyle - too gory. And odd. I don't need an in depth tutorial about debridement thanks. Eewww.

Time Travellers Wife - confusing. And shit.

Oh there are many. Latest was We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Yawn.

Alisvolatpropiis · 07/09/2014 23:07

Oh that one too Kickass

The writing style is shit, didn't get beyond page 20 either time I tried to read it.

Kickassandlollipops · 07/09/2014 23:04

American psycho , vile book , I love a bit of gore but this was horrendous . It's hidden at the back of a book shelf now ( shudder)

Cinnamon73 · 07/09/2014 22:55

The Book Thief
Room

WinifredTheLostDenver · 07/09/2014 22:53

The Slap
Moon (?) by Alice Sebold

SanityClause · 07/09/2014 22:50

Tarka the [Fricken] Otter. Sooooo boring!

Also Cloud Atlas.

A PP mentioned giving up on 100 Years of Solitude, and coming back to it. Funnily, I did the same with Love in the Time of Cholera.

BeerTricksPotter · 07/09/2014 22:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

springlamb · 07/09/2014 22:42

Agree about the James Patterson.
Anything by Patricia Cornwell over the last 10 years. She went right weirdy.

GrouchyKiwi · 07/09/2014 22:39

Game of Thrones three times. I loved the prologue and the rest of it didn't live up to that. Also hated the writing style.

Fear and Loathing - got bored.

Bolshybookworm · 07/09/2014 22:31

May we be Forgiven by AM homes- navel-gazing codswallop about an arse obsessed with Nixon.

Lord of the Rings- thought the writing was dreadful, only made it halfway through the first one.

I have to say that I love Wuthering Heights, but can imagine it's a bit like marmite- it's completely over the top.

Only made it 2/3s of the way through Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography. I LOVE her, but at some point it turned into a long list of vaguely famous people she'd shagged (first half was excellent though).

Did the previous poster mean On the road by Jack Kerouac?

atticusclaw · 07/09/2014 22:13

She can't mean "The Road" that's an amazing book.

Fifty shades - gave up after a couple of chapters. It is the worst written pile of rubbish ever and I read anything.

Cloud Atlas - I persevered but felt like I'd wasted my life. I enjoyed the movie though.

KillmeNow · 07/09/2014 22:12

I tried.I really tried with The book Thief.

A friend insisted it was worth carrying on with so I persevered for chapters upon chapters ,complaining all the way. It was so depressing.

She went off on holiday so I ditched the darned thing. I was pleased to be able to read normal books again.

CookieB · 07/09/2014 22:08

50 shades too. Bought it 2 years ago and got about a third through.
Lot of shite.
And I loves me books.

BeerTricksPotter · 07/09/2014 22:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sweetnessandlite · 07/09/2014 22:00

On the Road.
Do you mean The Road?

CiderwithBuda · 07/09/2014 21:48

Moomin Thanks

Very envious of those of you who could give up on Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights. I did GE for Intermediate Certificate (Irish equivalent of GCSE at the time) and WH for Leaving Cert - A level equivalent.

I have enjoyed some books mentioned on here though!

tobeabat · 07/09/2014 21:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThursdayLast · 07/09/2014 21:02

Oh I've remembered another - On The Road.
Drivel

Alisvolatpropiis · 07/09/2014 20:55

Oh Moomin! Thanks

MehsMum · 07/09/2014 20:55

Dickens - Our Mutual Friend (it was thrown against the wall, across the room, at the carpet, until I decided that even though it was a set text, I was never going to finish it. Still passed English A Level, though)
JG Ballard - Crash (just boring, more than anything)

There have been others, but they have slipped my mind. Little Women almost joined them in the past week or so, but I managed to plough to the end. God, it was DULL.

tired, you missed nothing by giving up on The Time Traveller's Wife. It got worse, rather than better.

Lovelydiscusfish · 07/09/2014 20:55

DH got me a novel once about the artist Richard Dadd. Think it was translated from the French. It was first person, stream of consciousness, about him worshipping a fly god or something, then segued seamlessly into graphic descriptions of him performing oral sex. I'm not a prude, I just couldn't understand a word of it. Think I got to chapter two. I wish I still had that book now, though, just to see if it was as bad as I remember.

PickledMoomin · 07/09/2014 20:54

Capture the Castle.

It was given to me for my birthday by my best friend. She died before I finished it.

I don't want to read the last chapters because I can't talk to her about it Sad

Alisvolatpropiis · 07/09/2014 20:53

Sight

I have somehow found myself in the unfortunate position of purchasing and reading all three of Mosse's Langeduoc based books.

I so wanted them to be good. They weren't. They were all shit. And I've helped fill her bank account, I resent that.