What books could you not finish?

Yes, interesting that many people's worst books are firm favourites for others. I love Bleak House (but not so keen on other Dickens novels) and have read it many times and I'm never disappointed. Also love Wolf Hall. Maybe because these are novels that transport you to another time and place, but the amount of detail required to do this is too much for some of you.
I didn't manage to finish Foucault's Pendulum, and also The Silmarillion. Just too dry for me....
I also had to give up on Crime and Punishment because it is so dark that I was finding it hard to keep the book's tentacles out of real life.

I'd forgotten about Shantaram although given what a stinking pile of poo it was that is quite a feat, including, as I did finishing it. There is a cracking one-star review on Amazon, from 2009 the nails all its awfulness perfectly. eg '"Indeed," opined Khaled, as he exhaled the chillum. The wisdom of a million camels reflected in his beard like cascading streams of gibberish, and I trusted him even more as he gently wafted a warrant for my arrest for crimes against literature across the fragrant Bombay night. "It is not the crime you should trust in a man, but the time you crust that matters in a man."

Quite enjoyed The dry but yes wouldn't sell my granny for it.

Tell you what i liked much more than i expected was The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Quite gruesome but in a way that it needed to be. Also finalky finished ADay In The Life of Ivan Denisovich after many attempts over the years. Fuck me it's good.

100 Years of Solitude. It defeated me.

Thank you for starting this thread. I feel more vindicated about having read about 3/4 of the books mentioned and hating them. Am
Currently about to give up on Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She might be fine but I’m very bored and disinterested.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I have given up on Eve of Man by Tom and Giovanna Fletcher. Absolute shit. I picked it up because it had quite an interesting premise and I thought it might be gripping in a Hunger Games type of way.

No, it's rubbish.

I can't remember the last book I didn't actually finish (apart from GoT which I just gave up on in the end when the series took over) but I did struggle to finish We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I only persevered because I thought something would happen towards the end. It didn't.

@Cakemonger

oh, you thought "The Dry" was actually bad? That makes me feel better.

I'm sometimes reluctant to say "this is shite" because I think, well, I couldn't write a book. But tbh I did think there were a lot of cliches in it.

I saw a thing on an arts programme with an agent saying that the standard of books is going up and I thought, I must be buying all the wrong ones!

Ooh thanks Womaningreen I'll check that out. I also read The Dry and actually thought it was quite bad.

I did discover one amazing all time favourite this year, Educated by Tara Westover, but it's memoir not fiction.

I think I've started with the wrong books by certain much loved authors this year eg This must be the place by Maggie O'Farrell and The Past by Tessa Hadley. So many people love them that I'm going to try their other books. The same with Life after life by Kate Atkinson.

I just wish every book in the bookshop didn't say 'amazing/heart breaking/a profound masterpiece' on the front cover. I mean, they can't all be masterpieces!

@Cakemonger

I have re-read a lot of favourites this year because I have had a few disappointing reads.

I have learned to be very very wary of publisher descriptions which are often insanely inaccurate or just so overblown. For example, I read "The Dry" and it was billed as this amazing thriller, but...meh.

I don't use the local library any more - long story - but I do have a fair few books from charity shops. Top of the list was Prayer for Owen Meany, but after reading this thread...!

also have - in case anyone wants to add a boredom alert!

My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You
Half the Human Race
The Beach (have seen film)

oh speaking of films - I couldn't finish Guernsey Literary Potato as I was bored, but I hear they made the film much more dynamic.

One that sticks out as v. good is Michelle Paver "Dark Matter" but only if you like the psych type stuff.

@Womaningreen - glad it wasn't just me, luckily I got it from the library so no buyer's remorse

This thread is making me feel better. I haven't found a book I've loved for so long, I thought I'd become impossible to please! I wish things weren't so over-hyped all the time.

Quite a few things on here that I finished, but didn’t think were great. Gone Girl, All the Light We Cannot See, we Are All Completely Beside Oursleves, The Essex Serpent, hate Wuthering Heights with a passion.

Loved Wolf Hall (and the other one), Bleak House, Secret History and The Goldfinch, Jonathan Strange, Catch 22, Crimson Petal.

Never read Dan Brown or 50 Shades, as I know they are rubbish. Not a fan of chick lit and all those psychological thrillers.

I have actually hardly ever abandoned a book, but have just given up on The Alienist. Boring, boring, boring and massively overwritten and under characterised.

The Shining and Needful Things. I think it is largely that I have overdosed on Mr King recently though. And because a dog never gets out uninjured.

A couple of years ago I stopped persevering with books I'm not enjoying. It felt quite a release! I get a lot of free kindle ones that I don't get far with and now feel no guilt at all.

@Cakemonger

yes, I stopped reading that too. It was so boring I'd forgotten I tried to read it.

Quite a few but Catch 22 sticks out as being painful to plod through.

I gave up on Catcher in the Rye as I just couldn’t bear Holden’s whining and moaning. I was a teenager when I first tried it.
I tried All the light we cannot see and just stopped reading it part way through, nothing seemed to be happening. I may read it again, I don’t know. I didn’t hate it or anything.
I don’t think I’ve given up on that many books. I gave up on the second Twilight book, that was ridiculously crap.

Jude the obscure,

Lorna Doone

It's interesting to see how different we all are. I really enjoyed The Essex Serpent and just finished Do Not Say We Have Nothing and loved it.

The most recent books that I couldn't finish were Howard's End. I've tried to read it three times now, and each time I couldn't get beyond the umbrella part.

Also The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid. The descriptions of torture were much too graphic for me. I'm more of an Agatha Christie person.

My DH loves David Mitchell books like Cloud Atlas etc. I have been unable to get into any of them even though he assures me I'll love them when I get into them.

Very odd as we usually enjoy the same type of thing.
There are so many great books around we have come to the conclusion that sometimes you should just admit defeat rather than slogging through something you don't really like, even though everyone else might love it. It's hard for me to do but I'm getting used to doing it.

Just allowed myself to give up on Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. First time I've abandoned a book I wasn't hating, just finding a bit dull. I feel wild!

I'm currently part way through the latest (I think) Sophie kinsella and I'm so disappointed. Not funny, pathetic female lead and just... boring. Keep putting it down and forgetting about it.

Stoner. I sobbed like a baby and couldn't finish it, still recommend it to anyone who will listen!

Prayer for Owen Meany. Forgot about that one. Really tried to plough through.

Midnights Children. I really tried to like it.

The Virgin Suicides. I read maybe six chapters and just lost interest. Not very gripping IMO.