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Popular book that you didn’t enjoy

459 replies

Wanttocry · 19/06/2021 16:33

Not really a TAAT but inspired by the Crawdads thread.

What’s a book that has been raved about, but that you didn’t really enjoy? For me it would have to be The Goldfinch, I just didn’t really get it.

OP posts:
AnneElliott · 20/06/2021 22:44

Catcher in the Rye - what a load of shite.
The Time Travellers wife
The lovely bones

DidgeDoolittle · 20/06/2021 22:40

Hamnet, lots of twiddling about with herbs. Awful.
Midnight library, meh.
My Brilliant Friend, beyond boring.

Blueskytoday06 · 20/06/2021 22:38

The hand maids tale

LunaNorth · 20/06/2021 22:36

@StyleAndLasers how funny! Should I post a list of my favourites and we’ll see if you hate them? Grin

TheMoth · 20/06/2021 22:34

I gave up on Milkman. Just too bleak - and I read The Road in one sitting!

Only got as far as the first song in Lotr. I spent my late childhood reading books with v few females (Robert cormier, anyone?) And just get annoyed as an adult.

Liked my brilliant friend. Felt the style fit the protagonist.

Cloud Atlas felt like a rip off of a Nick Harkaway book, I think. But 1000 Autumns of .... was really good.

Miniturist was ok, but I didn't read it expecting great literature- easy reading.

Have a big soft spot for Hemingway. Dh's favourite book is the old man and the sea. He's not a reader. I found it strangely compelling

Sunshinesusan60 · 20/06/2021 22:34

Normal People total shite. How did it do so well? No plot and irritating as fuck characters.

lazylinguist · 20/06/2021 22:26

I like quite a few books on this thread - The Midnight Library, Cloud Atlas, The Time Traveller's Wife, Tolkien.

I really don't like Jane Austen. However beautifully written her books are, and however lush and impressively-cast the productions, it's still just boring. People at dances having endless conversations about who's going to marry whom, and alternately glowering, simpering or looking arch. Yaaawwwwn.

Kiki275 · 20/06/2021 22:23

The Miniaturist. Started off quite promising but towards the end it was just odd.x

todyeornottodye · 20/06/2021 22:19

@RampantIvy

The Midnight Library Gone Girl Captain Corelli's Mandolin Normal People

Loved, loved, loved Where the Crawdads Sing

I loved Crawdads too!
StyleAndLasers · 20/06/2021 22:08

@LunaNorth

Milkman Ordinary People We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves A Confederacy of Dunces Cloud Atlas The Time Traveller’s Wife Crawdads The first Game of Thrones book Any Tolkien The Old Man and The Sea Mrs Dalloway Pride and Prejudice

Couldn’t finish any of them. Absolutely not my cup
of tea.

We must have absolutely opposite taste because apart from three there that I haven’t read, I love all the others on your list and a few of them are among my favourite books ever. To the extent that I feel I should read the ones on your list that I haven’t read! I agree with Game of Thrones though.
RampantIvy · 20/06/2021 21:56

I gave up on The Life of Pi. It was just so pretentious and so, so boring.

EatingAllThePies · 20/06/2021 21:54

@jay55

Eat pray love.
Yes me too. Been trying to get through it for a year and still only half way
LunaNorth · 20/06/2021 21:50

Oh yeah, Life of Pi.
A Little Life.
Brick Lane.
White Teeth.

Just found them really wordy in a not-beautiful way. Like someone saying words to you in a distracting monotone for hours and hours.

Pootle40 · 20/06/2021 21:49

My very favourite books are on this thread repeatedly

LunaNorth · 20/06/2021 21:47

Milkman
Ordinary People
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
A Confederacy of Dunces
Cloud Atlas
The Time Traveller’s Wife
Crawdads
The first Game of Thrones book
Any Tolkien
The Old Man and The Sea
Mrs Dalloway
Pride and Prejudice

Couldn’t finish any of them. Absolutely not my cup
of tea.

Sally2791 · 20/06/2021 21:43

We are all complete beside ourselves
Life of Pi
Fifty shades

inmyslippers · 20/06/2021 21:40

The alchemist
The midnight library

grapewine · 20/06/2021 21:40

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse was everywhere when I read it. Just no.

Fifty Shades drivel. Oh my.

StColumbofNavron · 20/06/2021 21:35

@littlepeas

Wuthering Heights
Frenchman’s Creek - other books by DdM but found this one very boring.

Shock I read Frenchman’s Creek this year and loved it. Every time I see it on my list it makes me smile. (I also love WH but I understand why people don’t).

dogistoobigforthesofa · 20/06/2021 21:33

Never Greener..so disappointed as I expected more From Ruth Jones.

Hoolihan · 20/06/2021 21:25

I couldn't get on with My Brilliant Friend either. I bought the whole series to read on holiday in Italy and didn't even finish the first book.

Glad to see A Little Life mentioned already, I detested this book more than I can put into words. Disgusting misery porn, ludicrous character arcs, abysmal dialogue (every other line starts "Oh Jude..."). HATED IT.

Melitza · 20/06/2021 21:24

Another vote for Captain Corelli's Mandoln.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

BunnyRuddington · 20/06/2021 21:17

LoTR and the Hobbit. I just do not like Tolkien.

I'm with you on that.

The Trouble with Goats and sheep actually made me a bit cross it was that bad.

mintylovely · 20/06/2021 21:09

Girl with a Pearl Earring

100 hundred years of solitude

Friends adore them and both left me cold.

littlepeas · 20/06/2021 21:02

Wuthering Heights

Frenchman’s Creek - other books by DdM but found this one very boring.

Girl With A Pearl Earring.