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Original poster

What is the most tedious book you have ever read?

368 replies

Figmentofmyimagination · 26/02/2015 20:12

I am going out on a limb here for my first thread - I am struggling through The Well of Loneliness by Radcliffe hall. Aargh. I read it out of "historical interest" because I was interested by her boldness and by the obscenity trial etc but bloody hell she should have got herself an editor. The writing is truly dire. I am not sure I am actually going to make it to the end.

OP posts:
RebeccaCloud9 · 26/02/2015 21:54

I loved Room, but good god, The Sealed Letter by the same author is sooooo dull!

I'm quite enjoying The Mountains Echoed.

I couldn't get into the Hundred Year Old Man so gave up.

snozzlemaid · 26/02/2015 21:52

Remains of the Day for me. I really don't get it. Nothing was happening so I gave up half way through - I was so bored.

Rivercam · 26/02/2015 21:43

Sophie's World

RedCrayons · 26/02/2015 21:41

I've been reading The Casual Vacancy for a year. I was going up give up but when I heard they were making the TV show I thought I should persevere.

I'm a pretty speedy reader as well, I read one book on a 2 hour train trip last year.

SolasEile · 26/02/2015 21:40

It's not badly written at all, just teeeeeedious...,

Judydreamsofhorses · 26/02/2015 21:40

Oh, I love Never Let Me Go, and really enjoyed Room. I gave up on The Goldfinch, and more recently Up by David Nichols - so boring. I also hated and skim-read Caitlin Moran's novel.

SolasEile · 26/02/2015 21:39

MIddlemarch by George Eliot. Yawnfest. I waded through it one summer when I was 16 and it nearly killed me. Put me off Victorian literature for life.

SlightlyJaded · 26/02/2015 21:38

Oh dear

I loved The Goldfinch, The Poisonwood Bible, Life of Pic and I am Pilgrim. Properly loved all of them

But Wolf Hall. Dear god it was like pulling teeth.

Also:
'If nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' - over rated nothingness
Captain Corelli - have tried 3 times
The Da Vinci Code - shite

Moln · 26/02/2015 21:37

Ha Laquila!!

Maybe you are my mum?!!??! Do you happen to be in Newcastle and just Skype d your daughter??? Grin

isntthatapippip · 26/02/2015 21:35

Another vote for shantaram. Dull dull dull

Laquila · 26/02/2015 21:34

I also disliked The Little Friend, was blah over The Goldfinch but loved Secret History. Surely no-one has ever hated Secret History?!

Minikievs · 26/02/2015 21:31

Wolf Hall. Tried, tried and tried again but just couldn't get past the first few pages. And 50 shades is one of the most eye wateringly tedious books I've ever opened. "oh my!" mini gouges own eyes out repeatedly

LondonRocks · 26/02/2015 21:30

How to be Good by Nick Hornby

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Room

funnyossity · 26/02/2015 21:29

This thread will bring them all back, like the taste of a madeleine!

Original poster
Figmentofmyimagination · 26/02/2015 21:29

I hated goldfinch too - all the way through I kept thinking "just give back the bloody painting". 600 pages later...and that faux Russian accent etc. it was embarrassing. Such a shame because Secret History was an extraordinary unputdownable read so I was expecting great things.

OP posts:
Laquila · 26/02/2015 21:29

Moln your mum has great taste - I LOVED both of those!

emotionsecho · 26/02/2015 21:29

Oh yes the LOTR and Hobbit, never managed to get beyond a couple of pages.

funnyossity · 26/02/2015 21:29

Yes Hovercraft I tried Swann's Way and pretty soon chose the highway! Although it did lead me to eating madeleines. I found the film boring too.

ThursdayLast · 26/02/2015 21:26

Trouble with the tedious ones is that they're so tedious I can't remember them now!

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 26/02/2015 21:24

Totally agree with that Glorious!

MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels · 26/02/2015 21:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GloriousGloria · 26/02/2015 21:24

*Wuthering

(Autocorrect)

GloriousGloria · 26/02/2015 21:23

Withering heights

(I'm sorry)

Those Bronte girls are a miserable bunch if you ask me.

I also read Jane Eyre. I can't, for the life of me, figure why she fell in love with Mr Rochester. He was a twunt!!

After reading those two I never read anything my mother told me to read again.

babybythesea · 26/02/2015 21:22

I've also seen a few mentioned on here that I really enjoyed, although nothing that falls into the love category yet. Apart from Portrait of a lady which I did love!

One thing that can affect my opinion of a book though is how much time I get to read it. If I'm busy so don't have much time to read, and am too tired to read much by the time I get to bed, then a book can take ages and feel like it's dragging on forever. And then the same book in a quieter period of time can flash past and become absorbing. For that reason I carefully time when I start epics like Wolf Hall as I don't want to hate it purely because I'm too busy to concentrate.

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 26/02/2015 21:22

Agree with Goldfinch. I couldn't have cared less by the end.

Love and summer by William Trevor was dreadful

But but far the worst was The land of green plums

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