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

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

281 replies

Mirage · 29/06/2007 23:42

Mine are;
Ulysses(sp)
Wild Swans

OP posts:
flack · 01/07/2007 15:06

I love Brick Lane! The whole story just clicked with my real life experience of interacting with Bangladeshi women.

Saturday by Iain Banks: Tedious, long-winded, unbelievable. Others I decided life was too short to finish: Charlotte Gray, Foundation books by AC Clarke, LOTR...

RosaLuxembourg · 01/07/2007 14:56

Brick Lane
Hated it. Got halfway throught but grew to loathe every single character so much that I lost the will to live.

Midnight's Children
Catch 22
Tried it several times but had to admit in the end I would never like it.

DaddyJ · 01/07/2007 14:52

Ah, 'the God of small things' -
very painful at times but
ultimately satisfying.

'Brick Lane' is another one:
98% pain, 2% elation.

gess · 01/07/2007 14:21

ahhh 'the I novel'; I think you summed it up pretty well. I was living in Japan at the time of first reading which probably helped, and reading a whole load of Japanese literature - all of which was pretty much like that!

UnquietDad · 01/07/2007 11:58

If you liked "Norwegian Wood", please tell me why. There must be something I am missing! I thought the narrator was appalling, the women only defined by which of then he was sticking his dick into at the time, and the endless, endless drivelling on about... I can't even remember... STUFF... gaah!! And the almost forensic detailing of what they ate and drank. It was all like this: "Naoko and I went to a restaurant. We ate noodles and fish and rice and vegetables. We drank wine. We went to a bar. We drank whisky. Then we drank more whisky. Then she said 'I want to have sex with you.' I said 'OK, let's have sex then.' We went back to mine and had sex. I like having sex with her."

Troutpout · 01/07/2007 11:36

cloud Atlas...blardyell...i did sort of finish it over about 2 years but still don't know why i bothered.
Untill i find you..J. Irving...keep trying, keep failing

Boco · 01/07/2007 11:27

I like the little friend and owen meany.

Couldn't stand Lila by Robert M pirsig - a boyfriend tried to make me read it and it practically ended the relationship.

D.H.Lawrence gives me a stiff neck.

policywonk · 01/07/2007 11:26

'Not another fucking elf'

(One of Tolkein's Cambridge colleagues attempting to read LOTR)

McDreamy · 01/07/2007 11:25

Oh and the one about the Ukranian Tractors - bored silly!

DarrellRivers · 01/07/2007 11:24

loved a prayer for owen meaney but dh hated that and the little friend/donna tartt in fact so did all our book club apart from me

MrMaloryTowers · 01/07/2007 11:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

McDreamy · 01/07/2007 11:23

A Prayer for Owen Meany - really trying hard to read it but can't even get to half way

MrMaloryTowers · 01/07/2007 11:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ScummyMummy · 01/07/2007 11:22

loads. I am much less patient and persevering as a busy adult and abandon large swathes of books half way through if they don't sustain my interest.

Boco · 01/07/2007 11:19

Lord of the Rings - can't get past all those arsing elfin ballads - on and on and on..

MrMaloryTowers · 01/07/2007 11:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MollyCoddle · 01/07/2007 11:16

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - so glad I'm not the only one!

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell

But I did love the Time Traveller's Wife.

MrMaloryTowers · 01/07/2007 11:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrMaloryTowers · 01/07/2007 11:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Quattrocento · 01/07/2007 11:11

Like would be too strong a word ... I was thinking that when I posted ... only drove myself through it because I had to ... there are plenty of more accessible and fun books out there.

DarrellRivers · 01/07/2007 11:06

War and Peace -just too long
but having success presently with revisitiing A Suitable Boy

Saturn74 · 01/07/2007 11:04

Time Traveller's Wife
The Da Vinci Code
The Robber Bride
The Little Friend

bagsundereyes · 01/07/2007 11:00

But Quattro - did you like it?

francagoestohollywood · 01/07/2007 10:12

lord of the rings
Crime and punishment

Quattrocento · 01/07/2007 10:10

With Ulysses the way I managed to drive myself through it was to (a) read portrait of the artist as a prelude and (b) read the last two chapters first.

Not that you should drive yourself through it unnecessarily but I did manage to get into it in the end.