What books could you not finish?

I can't get on with anything by Tolkein, even though I love the films of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

He seems to spend pages just describing banal stuff like doors.

I don’t know why I thought a book about a mathematician wouldn’t be crammed full of lots of maths so more fool me for attempting it really.

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I quite like maths but wouldn't read that either!

oh I can't bear books that keep on repeating themselves.

one I ditched recently, I can't even remember the name

but it was the repetition. The ineffective idea was to show that the woman was going mad because three nights in a row, she imagined the same things. (or maybe it was a practical joke and went on for fourteen chapters, I don't know because I couldn't bear it any longer).

I swear the three chapters were near identical, with only things like this as a change

first incident - she thought she heard a twig snap underfoot

second incident - she thought she heard a twig break underfoot

I don't know what the third incident used for "break" because by the time I started that chapter, I realised what they were doing and thought I better put it in the charity shop pile before I went mad.

Repetition as a device shouldn't mean repeating entire paragraphs, surely? Is that was Reservoir 13 does? (not that I'm going to read it based on this thread).

Another one who couldn't finish The Goldfinch. I did hear it got very good after the bizarre start but it was a library book and I had to give it back anyway.

Catch 22 has defeated me twice now.

The biography of Alan Turning beat me into submission with maths. The audiobook was over thirty hours long and I seriously had listened to about twenty of them, twenty long hard hours of MATHS maths-maths-maths-tiny interesting bit about the human person Alan-maths-maths-maths until I could go on no longer. I felt sad and weakened by the whole thing. Imagine being so crummy at maths that you can’t even endure 30 hours of someone talking to you about a brilliant man who achieved amazing things with maths. Pathetic.

Laughing at your description of Reservoir 13, southeast .

It was the sections of nature writing that I remember most and really enjoyed. But then I do like a good non-fiction nature book, such as those by Robert Macfarlane or John Lewis-Stempel.

If nature writing isn't something you like then it is going to drag. And I did like the repetitive accounts of the lives of the people in the community as the years went by. It felt kind of meditative in its repetition. But I can see that that could be the very reason to abandon it too.

It's one of my favourite reads of this year, so far.

Me too, Emma. I loved ATLWCS.

I wish I hadn’t bothered finishing Reservoir 13. It was so tedious - page after page of boring nature descriptions and no depth to the characterisation.

Reservoir 13 is on my list....debating crossing it off...

already have Prayer for Owen Meany sitting on the shelf so will start that next week probably. Again, I thought the description sounded good...famous last words!

Wolf Hall and The Goldfinch. I just found them boring. I enjoyed quite a few of the others that are deeply unpopular here, it takes all types, as they say. I skipped swathes of War and Peace as well. I dislike books with so many characters that you need a list of them to remind yourself who they all are.

I can't believe people dislike All The Light We Cannot See. It's one of my favourite novels of the last few years.

I really enjoyed Reservoir 13. We did it in my book group and I think 8 out of 9 of us liked it.

Reservoir 13 is fucking awesome. I think it will be one of the few novels of this era that survives longterm.

LOL @BitOutofPractice

but it started so well!

the poster upthread who talks about "another fucker knocking on the door" in the Hobbit made me cry laughing just now.

I haven't read the Hobbit, certainly won't after that description

I think the genre is "turgid and pretentious" @LighthouseSouth

I think the main issue with the Essex Serpent is it was sold as being something it isn't.

I don't want to say what in case anyone here is annoyed by it, but if any reviews or the back cover had correctly identified the genre, I wouldn't have bothered.

I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

And Alias Grace.

How can people hate them?

Room.

What utter drossel.

Yes to Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and not finishing . I probably got as far as you, HereBirdies. Very over ambitious plot idea. Not really happening so the author suddenly lumps in expositional character, to help it along and I thought "no! no! Next, please, now" and put it down.

Crikey, I must have weird reading tastes. So many of the books I love are on this thread!
Wuthering Heights is in my all time top ten. Wolf Hall was hard to get into but brilliant, though I agree that Bring up the bodies is better.
Loved Reservoir 13, also All the light we can not see and The Essex Serpent. Also liked A suitable boy and captain Corelli. Agree about Dan Brown and anything by Tolkien.

AliasGrape I meant to say, I also went to Kefalonia but before I'd read the book. I so wish I'd read it before now!

Me too Growingboys, I gave up on All the light we cannot see about 3/4 in and regretted persevering for so long. I think I won't bother to get Reservoir 13 either, it looks like that kind of literary novel that gets wild praise but that I just don't get on with

AliasGrape I too thought Captain Corelli was wonderful - charming, quirky and original. I also learnt many things about WWII I didn't know, Btw love the name!

I tried to start The Essex Serpent in a bookshop but found it hard going so put it back on the shelf, despite the temptingly lovely cover

Wolf Hall and We are all completely beside ourselves are rapidly disappearing to the back of my TBR pile...

Anyone tried The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle? The guy in Waterstones talked me into it and I just can't get past the first couple of chapters. It's a really hard read.

TheHalfBloodPrincess as a fellow Tolkien nerd, I did manage to wade through the Silmarilion as a mega-keen teenager, but I don't think I could do it twice. However, it is possible to treat it as a collection of short stories and pick bits out selectively. The story of Beren and Luthien is quite fun, as is the story of Turin Turambor (basically Tolkien's riff on Siegmund and Sieglinde - brother and sister unwittingly marry one another).

@FinallyHere I also loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves I remember eagerly recommending it to loads of people only for them all to come back and say they hated it and I was really baffled!

Wolf Hall is one of the best things I’ve ever read, the second one Bring Up the Bodies was even better (editing was a bit tighter I think). Likewise Captain Corellis Mandolin I thought was wonderful, and when I reread it recently whilst on holiday in Kefalonia I loved it even more.

By the way, if anyone is considering buying Why Mummy Drinks may I save you £7.99 by telling you it is the biggest pile of shite I have read in recent years and don't bother.

Someone at work who actually has a brain swore it was properly funny and not the usual mum lit dross, and as I was stockpiling books for hols I thought ok, why not.

It is appalling - littered with typos, poorly edited, crap jokes and the feel of something a big published has churned out quickly to make a big buck. And now there's a sequel!

Dearie me.