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

What books could you not finish?

281 replies

almondfinger · 15/08/2018 21:17

I am having the most miserable of summer reads.

Do not say we have nothing - FFS, I persevered and it got a bit better and then reverted to tedious. Have way in I had to put it down.

Then I picked up A brief history of 7 killings - Every time I pick it up I fall asleep. The patois is difficult but when it gets to the CIA agents told in English I cant read that either. So far their have been so many killings I have lost count and it's far from brief.

I had to go out yesterday and buy some new books to look forward to. Tell me some of the books you couldn't be arsed with so I can avoid.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
HappydaysArehere · 22/03/2019 19:23

The Time TravellersWife. Really got on my nerves.

GinisLife · 10/03/2019 09:46

Wolf Hall. Didn't get past about page 5. What a load of pretentious twaddle. Awful writer.

Jenniferyellowcat · 10/03/2019 09:44

Reading this thread has reminded me that I couldn’t finish The Little Friend either. I just found it really boring despite loving TSH.

I also couldn’t get into Behind the Scenes at the Museum despite really enjoying most of KA’s other books.

Jenniferyellowcat · 10/03/2019 09:36

Anna Karenina. It just went on too much for me. And too much shifting in characters.

I left a new copy of Cloud Atlas on a train once. I have also accepted that I will never read Wolf Hall.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/03/2019 21:28

BonnieF, the Anita Brookner one was probably Hotel du Lac.

I love Anita Brookner though I don't know why, since her books are nearly always mildly sad and depressing, and nearly always have a similar main female character - clever only child of 'quiet' parents, large London flat, no money worries, doesn't eat much, walks the streets a lot, unrequited love, etc.

She said her books are not semi-autobiographical, but you do have to wonder.

Ivy44 · 05/03/2019 09:30

Novae - I struggled with the book but loved the TV series. (Wolf Hall).

drigon · 05/03/2019 02:14

Struggling through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I read about two thirds of it some time ago and like the author's style but I just don't find superheroes interesting! May plough on a bit more! I loved the early sections especially the Golem bit, though!

Novae · 05/03/2019 01:36

Wolf Hall. Hated it.

BiscuitMachine · 02/03/2019 22:54

Les Miserables. I tried really, really hard to get through it, but there are just too many long, involved digressions. I hate giving up though!

Ivy44 · 02/03/2019 22:48

The Grapes of Wrath. Hoping it gets made into a film soon.

CinammonPorridge · 02/03/2019 22:40

Life after life on Audible.

MealyPotatoes · 01/03/2019 07:11

Very many. I seem to give up on books easily these days.

Grumpbum123 · 24/02/2019 16:05

The colour of Bea Larkharms murder

Charley50 · 24/02/2019 16:01

@YouBumder - I hated the Girl with all the Gifts too. The setting was just so oppressive and depressing. Same author write another book I couldn't finish - about a woman in a prison hospital who couldn't remember what she'd done.

FissionChip5 · 24/02/2019 14:57

Crime and punishment. It was so incredibly boring.

YouBumder · 24/02/2019 14:54

Oh and The Girl with all the Gifts. Grim.

YouBumder · 24/02/2019 14:53

11/22/63. So longwinded, it made me lose the will to live.

Robin2323 · 15/02/2019 20:39

Post too soon- I had watched the third film by then though.

Robin2323 · 15/02/2019 20:39

50 shades- yawn
Tale of two cities- fantastic writing just couldn't get past page 1 :)
The last book of mocking Bird trilogy- too sad (I h

SpiritedLondon · 14/02/2019 14:27

I quite like the sound of Dracula Elizabeth goes Missing

Vampire with dementia? 🤔 Could be something in it! Grin

Charley50 · 13/02/2019 20:38

😂 I quite like the sound of Dracula Elizabeth goes Missing.

SpiritedLondon · 13/02/2019 20:05

Oops missed a comma there!

SpiritedLondon · 13/02/2019 20:05

There are loads of books I haven’t finished Dracula Elizabeth is Missing which I feel I read at the wrong time ( rather than being bad) and I just lost interest in them. However the stand out title for me was Wolf Hall which I actively hated with a passion.

WaterBird · 04/02/2019 03:10

I'm very sad to say this, because I like most of her other books, but Susan Lewis's A Class Apart. I couldn't relate to the four main characters, who were all so wrapped up in their own mess that it was a wonder any one of them could be there for one another.

brizzledrizzle · 01/02/2019 21:51

I could not finish Elizabeth is Missing

Same, dreadful book. Also Eleanor Oliphant, Gone Girl and the Girl on the train.