Which book/books have you really tried hard to read,but failed ?

I think I need a new book club, I loved Captain Correli. And Cloud Atlas, and Owen Meany and Catch 22.

have read thread and very interested to see so many same names coming up... and they are on my "gave up before i slipped into coma" list too - mine are Shipping News, Miss Smilla's feeling for Snow and Life of Pi. Am afraid am more on the Marian Keyes/Isla Dewar/Kathy Lette level at the moment, need all the laughs i can get just now given my marriage...but that's another story you'd all give up on!!

Read Cancer Ward and lots of Dickens when younger and would never give up on a book. Changed days!

Worst was Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim...awful...had 3 goes at it over the years, never got past the first few pages.

Shadow of Wind/Da Vinci Code/ Labyrinth struggled to finish...don't know why I bothered, all very badly written.

Books people like and I have struggled with: Oscar and Lucinda; Shipping News (2goes);Life of Pi; English Passengers.

Liked then got bored with: Owen Meany (Irwin and Roth both too long-winded);We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Very very worried now about TT Wife which is one of my summer holiday books. Maybe I should reassess?!

Loved Atonement.

Timetravellers Wife is rubbish IMO, hated it

Adorabelle - I really liked Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Moll Flanders - twice
I read Les Miserables once - never again.

CLOUD ATLAS

WHITE TEETH

LORD OF THE RINGS - took me years and several attempts but i got there in the end

adorabelle, I'm currently 'reading' Labyrinth ... and by 'reading' I mean 'deciding to read all the Harry Potter books before the new one comes out starting with book 2 because I can't find book 1 I think it's in the loft'. I don't know why I'm finding it such hard going - some of her descriptions are pretty clunky, but I can usually get over such imperfections. I just don't even remotely care what happens next.

Anyone read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse?

Now that was a book I thought I was going to struggle with, all 700 pages of it.

Had no difficulty with it at all though, one of the best books i've ever read, along with all the Pratchett

the historian
tried reeeaaallyyy hard to like it but found it boring and predictable

one of the very few books i havent managed to finish

herbgarden, Big up here for Timetravellers Wife, I loved it.
Can't believe there are so many 'haters' for such a great book.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin was passed onto me by a friend who said it was the most
tiresome book she had ever read.

I picked it up and read the back but couldn't bring myself to begin reading it as I knew I would have to finish it!

PS also failed with Northern Lights trilogy....wild swans (left on a plane)..most bill brysons....

Kasho Iziguros latest one - Never Let Me go -did not get that

Captain Corelli's b*y Mandolin - never got past that pea in the ear bit and oh, did I want to.

On beauty - what hard work...

The Fourth Harry Potter - by then I couldn't remember who half he characters were or their point so I lost it a bit.

A couple of Phillipa Gregory

Shadow in the Wind - apparently once you get past page 100 you are off and running. I don't have that much patience...

Brick Lane. yawn yawn

I LOVED TIME TRAVELLERS WIFE !! and also WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN ....

I also nearly put Saturday by Ian McEwan on the not reading anymore pile, but lumbered on with it (very unlike me) and actually liked the writing (even if I find the stories a bit pointless).

I cannot begin reading a book and then just
put it down cos I cannot into it.
DH says it's cos i'm a stubbon old bint and won't let anything get the better of me, even a book!

I once wadded my way through A Perfect Storm (book of the George Cloony film) and I nearly died half way through it out of sheer bordom.

But the last 25 pages were amazing and totally riviting, that's why i'll never put a book down unfinished cos there might be little gem hidden inside. Or you coould end up really pissed off having just read a crap when you could have been reading a great one!

Harry Potter. Give me the Famous Five any day.

Have started "The Accidental" twice and still can't get into it....

'The Line of Beauty' proved a challenge for a different reason.

The reviews I read did not mention this but
the protagonist is a gay man.
Cue graphic descriptions of homosexual encounters
which did throw me somewhat.

Wasn't used to bum talk in those days (pre-MN obviously).

The book is absolutely engrossing and beautifully written,
though, so I am glad I persevered.

Only book I haven't finished since I made a NY resolution to finish every book was a biography of a singer called Judy Collins - truly truly awful. Catch 22 - once you get past the first 100 pages it's brilliant. I'd put it down unfinished a few times before someone told me that.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I have tried 4 times, I just cannot get into it like I have with the previous books.

Also Human Traces by Sebastan Faulks.

I have either tried and not finished, or rejected at the blurb stage, everything on muffin's list, except War and Peace which is still on my reading list.

oh and CCM, which I waded through to the end but it is such a pile of cack, I cannot imagine why the author is so feted, he cant write for toffee.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Shipping News
War and Peace
Wuthering Heights
Time Traveller's Wife
Master and Commander
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (4 attempts because dh kept raving about it)
Satanic Verses
Suitable Boy
Tristram Shandy

LB yes good luck! took me a while to get back into reading properly too after dd was born. now i'm back at work i do most of my reading while I'm commuting...

cis i am going to give it a go again now - I am determined to finish it - although I have a 6 month old...wish me luck

Laboheme...cancer ward is excellent and well worth finishing if you can find the time! gulag archipelago by same author excellent too.

catch22 used to be one of my favourites, not re-read it in a while. didn't make all that much sense but i loved Yossarian. and major major major...

have to confess to skipping over large parts of possession-is that the same as not finishing it?!