What is the most tedious book you have ever read?

I hated, 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' - read it years ago and can remember v little about it other than that somebody urged myself and a colleague to read it and that he and I both really disliked it.

What didn't you like about the Atwood, South? It's one of the v few of hers that hasn't ended up either boring the heck out of me, or making me spit feathers in fury.

I just finished The Handmaid's Tale, which I found almost intolerable. Thank God I didn't have to read this for A-level. I don't know why I can't bring myself to give up on books these days...it's like some weird sense of duty or something.

I loved Quiet Belief in Angels! It's so interesting all the different views on this thread, there are a number of books that obviously polarise opinions massively. Which leads me to wonder is there really such a thing as a 'good book' or is beauty really just in the eye of the beholder (so to speak)?

Sorry for the hijack.

Glad I'm not the only one who just can't get on with, 'Jonathon Strange.'

To trump most, I raise you Finnegans Wake. Impossible. Pretentious. Turgid. Incomprehensible.

But also ran anything by sand, Stendhal, Zola Balzac. I don't do 19 c French.

LOTR. Because it is not only boring but long long long.

Wolf Hall long, unreadable but so bloody irritating too, the latter almost took it out of the boring stakes.

Midnight's Children and The Tin Drum. Boring. long.

The Don flows home to the sea

War and Peace. Too long.

Clarissa, Pamela etc.

The waves.

I loved Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, looking forward to reading them again soon! I also really enjoyed 100 year old man.....

But how I loathed:

• Before I go to sleep by SJ Watson
• The Accidental by Ali Smith
• Waterland by Graham Swift (eels and fens, more eels and fens - ARGH, picture of an eel on the front - boak)

Wolf hall, couldn't get past chapter 2. Heart of darkness also had to give up on. Nathaniel's Nutmeg, got to the end of that, but annoyed DH by moaning about it all the way through. Only interesting bit was the end when they explained how England ended up owning New York. The Accordion Crimes- one of our book group nearly got evicted for that suggestion.

Bleak House. Had to study it once and I think only about five people in the class managed to finish it.

Catch 22. Rarely have I loathed a book so much.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I've tried to read this about three times now and just given up.

Some more of my failed reads are coming back to haunt me on here :o

A Quiet Belief in Angels - I bought this because it was a Richard & Judy recommendation. Think I only got about a dozen pages or so into it, and then gave up. Couldn't get into it at all. Couldn't even bring myself to get to my usual 50 pages before making a decision.

The Time Traveller's Wife - just found it confusing, and it bored me. Gave up at around half way.

Brick Lane - struggled through to the end, but was so tedious.

I Capture the Castle - not a favourite, but didn't dislike it either. Was just a pleasant read. Neither loved nor loathed.

A Quiet Belief in Angels and Eric Clapton autobiography are the ones that come to mind.
I couldn't finish Eric Clapton even though I admire him immensely as a musician and just...about....struggled...to the end of the fecking angel book!

Couldn't finish Wolf Hall or the hundred year old man. And I can usually read anything.

I would happily brain Captain Corelli with his mandolin.
Can I nominate the Lovely Bones - I've had about 6 goes but can't get further than about 30 pages. It's going to the charity shop. Am struggling with the Shipping News at the moment. It's a lovely friend's favourite book and she gave me a copy so I am determined to get through it. But it's. Just. So. Dull.

Wolf Hall - written as if she hated the reader!

The Time Travellers wife - WTF?

To the poster who mentioned Of Mice and Men .
Dark, depressing maybe, but definitely not tedious. That story has haunted me since secondary school.

I'm going out on a limb to say, "I Capture The Castle" - lots of MNers rave about this book, I just thought "meh". Didn't really care enough about the characters. Just dull.
"London" by Edward Rutherford. I loved Sarum and was gripped. London was just the same story set in a different place, but not written as well!
Sophie's World - didn't get beyond the first chapter
Wolf Hall - wish I had read it, but don't think I will now that it's on TV

I was exactly the same with To The Lighthouse. I genuinely loved One Hundred Years Of Solitude though, but I was by immersed in Latin American literature when I read it so I was really feeling it IYSWIM? I might not have the same reaction to it if I picked it up now plus my brain cells have degenerated.

Some of my favourites in this thread

For me 100 years of solitude – it’s not the magic realism as I though Midnights Children was good.

Catch 22 – but loved the film

Clarissa – god it goes on. I still have my copy as one day I WILL finish it

that Sebastian Faulks James Bond novel was tedious beyond words, so tedious I can't remember the title

Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Su-zzzzzz-anna Clarke (sorry)

Time Traveller's Wife Audrey Niffnegger

Ulysses. Ugh. Ploughed through 80% of that before deciding life was too short. Wish I had been more open to giving up earlier. Think I just had this pretentious determination to be one of those people who can get through it. I wasn't.
To The Lighthouse - gave up after reading the first two chapters several times.

Oh yes, the score is more like 3:1. Worst Journey In The World was great.

Let's take this convo to 50 Books thread. We are seriously derailing this thread

I can't think which is the most tedious book I have read through to the end.

Some books I found too tedious to get to the end of are:

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Our Mutual Friend by Dickens (or indeed any book by Dickens)

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Did you like, 'The Worst Journey In The World' when I rec'd it? I'm sure there will be more too!

I don't think so. I read it as a teenager but don't remember much of it except that 451 F was the temperature at which books burn.