Books you’ve tried to read but just can’t get on with them

I totally agree @JaneyGee. They are horrible book to read out loud because of the convoluted, often awkward, sentence construction. And we read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to her as well as Alice in Wonderland and all the Roald Dahl books.

My personal favourite children's book to read at night to her were by Eva Ibbotson. Beautifully written and fantastic imaginative stories.

Saying you don't like Harry Potter on here is tantamount to saying you kick kittens! It's funny how it really seems to irritate people.

You're not alone. Harold Bloom (the greatest literary critic of the late 20th-century) thought the prose was awful. He once said "if I had to choose between reading Harry Potter or reading nothing, I'd choose nothing."

Compared to C. S. Lewis' Narnia books, or The Hobbit, or The Wind in the Willows or Alice in Wonderland, they're garbage. Lewis' Narnia books, in particular, are beautifully written. Roald Dahl was also a superb stylist. Art isn't like science or technology. It doesn't get better with each generation.

I am an English Lit graduate and love the Harry Potter books and think they’re fantastic for what they are 😂 I think part of the issue with the first one is that so many adults read it and recommended it. Then other adults were reading it, with the comparison frame being other adult literary fiction they had read, and thinking what the heck. But you need to read it and compare it not to adult fiction, but to other children’s literature. Compare it to the Darren Shan saga, Enid Blyton boarding school stories, the Percy Jackson series. When compared like for like (rather than saying well I read Midnight’s Children and it was far better written than Harry Potter) I think it’s far easier to see the value of the Potter books.

@RampantIvy I am not an English Lit grad either but I read them aloud to my dd and found them badly written.

@ValentineGreen @RampantIvy I can't comment on the literary merit of Harry Potter as I just couldn't get beyond the first twenty pages of the first book. When the rest of the world (including all my family and friends) was consuming them with great delight I alone was left unmoved by it all. I felt almost the odd one out. I did try a couple of times, but it was no good. I just didn't get the appeal at all.

I'm not an English lit graduate, so I disagree with you.

Harry Potter series. I read them to my dd when she was little & thought they were very poorly written. I'm not a fan.

All The Broken Places

Colossal shite. Unbelievable plot. Lazy language use that only an editor besotted with the success of TBITSP could overlook.

Elinor elephant..dreary

The girl on the train…soo depressing
Where the Crawdads …too wordy

I quite fancied this but not sure now! I can see how it could make people think badly of a person though. I keep a diary and that’s where I write all my inner thoughts. I don’t tend to sugar coat them because it’s my diary! So I would probably write all the negative things about situations or people in there because that’s how I get it out.

Loving this thread!❤️

For me it's Captain Corelli's mandolin, bought it around the year 2000 when I was still a student

I really wanted to read it but I just could not get into it!

Beautiful cover though, looked fab on my bookshelf for several years until I donated it to the charity shop!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull- probably everyone knows it's a wanky allegory that's up its own arse, but I but took it literally and hoped that the annoying lead character got shot.

I am Pilgrim. Tried to read it twice recently and didn't get past the first 100 pages. A friend gave it to me so I feel sort of obligated, plus loads of people seem to love it, but I just can't.

If it was shorter I'd skim read through but its about 700 pages, so much reading time to give to something I'm not enjoying!

'I just ended up thinking the exact opposite of what I thought about him before.

Made me disillusioned, disturbed and disappointed.'

Oh gosh. I'm intrigued but slightly horrified!

@Lottapianos

I just ended up thinking the exact opposite of what I thought about him before.

Made me disillusioned, disturbed and disappointed.

This was me too. I just can't imagine that he would have been ok with them being published. He name drops constantly- which is fair enough because it's mostly colleagues and friends he's talking about but it just feels really gratuitous. He also has something negative to say about EVERYBODY and almost every play/movie he saw. No director was up to scratch. His wife barely gets mentioned and I started to wonder if she published them for revenge! I know that lots and lots of people who knew him completely adored him and talk about his kindness and most people don't write a diary detailing their every act of kindness but he didn't come across well.

'I couldn't finish the Alan Rickman book Madly, Deeply (diary excerpts).

I bought it because I thought that I liked him. I got half way through and decided I didn't like him.'

Oh no! Im dying to get the paperback version in July. What did you not like about him?

God yes. I just found it really cringy and poorly written

Philippa Gregory is a joke. Especially as she pretends to be a serious historian. But I loved Wolf Hall-I loved the way Mantel seemed to get inside the head of a character so you were privy to his thoughts. Wonderful book.
I loved LOTR-I re-read it regularly-a PP said she knows it’s slow but loves to walk with the hobbits. Me too!
I never got on with the Cormorant Strike books. Cliche works well with kids books-but I found the adult ones cringe. Mousy heroine a rip off of early Jilly Cooper novels and a ridiculously cliched tragic protagonist. Girl on a Train had a drippy heroine who was intensely irritating.
Now I’m coming up to retirement, I really must give the classic Russian novels a try. But I’ll swerve Anna Karenina based on thIs thread!

I couldn't finish the Alan Rickman book Madly, Deeply (diary excerpts).

I bought it because I thought that I liked him. I got half way through and decided I didn't like him.

Could not stand Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Had to give it 3 goes to get through it and this was during my teenage classic fever. Mystified as to why people love it so much. Absolutely love Hardy's poetry, though.

Shuggie Bain: agree with everything that's been said here

Philippa Gregory: diabolical

I have also struggled with everything that Donna Tartt has written apart from The Secret History, which I absolutely loved.

And... everything that James Joyce has written, apart from Dubliners, which is just gorgeous from start to finish. After that he just went too s-o-c for me. Ditto Beckett.

Priest Daddy. Why does she seem so proud of him? She's bright enough to know he's an arsehole. I just want to slap him.

Great thread!

I love so many hated on here!
Loved:
Wolf Hall & sequels
All the light we cannot see
The hare with Amber eyes
Dickens
Jane Austin
My Brilliant Friend & sequels
Normal people

Hated:
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Elinor Oliphant
Where the Crawdads sing

'Couldn't get into life after life by Kate Atkinson'

Me neither, found it so confusing and had to give up

I love Wuthering Heights (did it in school) but agree it's definitely not a romance!