Popular book that you didn’t enjoy

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

It ends with us. Started great, middle was great and then just when I thought the romance will begin, the book is over?

Sometimes you just can't get going with a book and then ten years later you pick it up and go. I couldn't get going with The Goldfinch but loved Captain Correlli's Mandolin.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Tried twice, & gave up at pretty much the same point both times. Couldn't get on with the writing style and was so bored. Couldn't be bothered to pick it up & read. It nearly killed off my love of reading.

Much like GoT then, Bvop.

I forgot to add: Lord of the Rings is only bearable if I skip all the battle scenes

I think I would have liked Lincoln in the Bardo, had it not been about Lincoln or that time period in America. I liked the style but I really wasn’t interested in it.

Hamnet
The Couple Next Door
Three Things About Elsie
Small Pleasures
Atonement
No One is Talking About This

I often check Goodreads 1&2 star reviews of a book I’m uncertain of and then do the compare books thing with the reviewers to see if we have similar or opposite tastes.

I've just thought of another one - My Beautiful Friend. That one is our book club measure of awfulness, although I've heard the TV series is amazing.

can’t believe the audacity of putting 50 Shades in the same category as The Time Travelers Wife and then go on with your examples in 2 and 3!

There's not a lot between 1 and 2, I've just unfortunately read group 2. I know enough about TTTW to know it's sentimental tragic love shite, I don't need that in my life. Similar to Benjamin Button but at least BB was a short story and written a long time ago. Forrest Gump is another. Hate this type of story.

I’d say A Gentleman in Moscow is a bit like conversations I have in real life about Louis de Bernieres. Few people either are ok or a solid 3 star perfectly good book. They either clicked with them and they worked or they really didn’t. There seems to be very little in between.

I’d also agree Love in the Time of Cholera was better than One Hundred Years of Solitude which I did find a slog, but I still think about now so perhaps it was better than I gave it credit for.

In some ways I don’t think the Thursday Murder Club belongs here. Yes, there was hype at the beginning associated with Richard Osman having written it. But actually I’m yet to meet anyone who really liked it so I don’t think there is actual hype in the way of Crawdads where everyone was buzzing about it.

I do agree about Thursday Murder, it was passable enough for a boring weekend. I’ll probably read the second when it passes through Kindle for 99p.

Where d'you go Bernadette

Utter shite.

100 Years of Solitude - I'm not scared of a classic, complex book, but dear god, what utter purgatory. It would have helped if nearly every character didn't have the same name.

Normal People- a lack of punctuation does not make a book more interesting and edgy. Complete waste of my time.

A Man Called Ove - way overhyped. Predictable and very very average.

A Gentleman in Moscow - (I'll qualify this with the fact that I speak Russian and have a degree in Russian literature) I should have LOVED this. It has a great surmise for a story and doesn't develop it at all.

Wuthering Heights- misery lit with too many Catherines/Haretons/Hindleys. I'm obviously a Jane Eyre person.

A Suitable Boy - a decent enough story but you could cut out the turgid chapters on Indian politics, make the book 700 pages shorter and it might be more readable.

Terry Pratchett - I've tried several time with various books. Nope.

Sorry, that should read that the Major's only positive attribute was that he was kind to Mrs. Ali, whereas others in that community seemed to be less so.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I think I read about 3 chapters. the Major's only positive attribute was that he was kinder to Mrs. Ali than to other characters, but other than this he seemed very cold and distant with his family and I didn't really care about what would happen to him.

I have A little life on my Kindle.
I've not read it as most people say it's misery porn.
I read, A child called it back in the day and I don't wish to repeat it.
My Dark Vanessa was bad enough.

I have never gotten beyond chapter 5 in the first Harry Potter book. I know I would have loved Harry Potter as a child, but I'm not much younger than the author, so was already an adult when it was written. I have started reading it about three or four times now. Both my DS's love HP. I really want to love HP because I admire JK Rowling. Maybe I should try one of her crime novels.

The Goldfinch, however, is one of my favourite novels!

Kite Runner and The Miniaturist