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

213 replies

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 28/04/2023 23:15

I know this is subjective but what books have you read or tried to read but just can’t stomach them?

My recent ones are:-

Brother of the More Famous Jack - what a load of pompous affected twaddle! Can’t seem to see how it’s so lauded, got to page 17 and gave up.

Cold Comfort Farm - managed a bit better with this, about 4 chapters in, but still, affected pompous twaddle. Was told it was similar to the adorable I Capture The Castle but it’s not, at all! Gave it to SIL to read as she got I Cspture The Castle for me and she didn’t like it and when I asked DM if she’d read it when she was younger she said exactly the same about it as me.

Oh and if anyone sees K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary and thinks it looks interesting, it isn’t, it’s just weird!

OP posts:
TheMoth · 29/04/2023 23:41

Lotr
The milkman
Ulysses. Although I lied about having read that one, for my tutorial a million years ago.

I used to have to finish I book I'd started, but I've recently given myself permission not to. It's liberating.

I have read middlemarch, but have struggled to read it again. Read a suitable boy, but my god, it went on. When you obit get about 10 minutes a mug to read before you drop off, it's got to be a quick read.

tailinthejam · 29/04/2023 23:37

Captain Corelli's mandolin. I tried, I really did, but couldn't even make it through the first chapter.

I've also tried a variety of Dickens, but zero luck there either.

TaraRhu · 29/04/2023 23:36

@SuperFi I agree. Written by a man with understanding of women.

SuperFi · 29/04/2023 23:33

Women In Love and Sons & Lovers, I just don’t get DH Lawrence .

Crikeyalmighty · 29/04/2023 23:32

I also really didn't like Ian Mcewans - On Chesil Beach and it was absolutely raved about.

sproutsandparsnips · 29/04/2023 23:26

I do actually like Jane Austen, and most of the Brontë sisters' books. Also I am a third of the way through Cold Comfort Farm and I am enjoying it so far, though not sure where we're going at the moment.
Cannot stand LOTR or the Hobbit but think JKR is a talented writer - may not be high brow fiction but I enjoyed it.
Dickens is tedious as was Les Miserables.

Iwannerbeyourslave · 29/04/2023 23:14

RenegadeMrs · 29/04/2023 20:04

Agree with Lord of the Rongs! Love the Hobbit, loved the films of LoTR, can't get on with the books. I hate the structure of them.

Also, Jonathan Stange and Mr Norrell. Despite having enjoyed Piranesi.

I loved LOTR books but tried twice to read Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell. Gave up and donated it to charity.

Fineanddandy8 · 29/04/2023 23:14

Rebecca - I have tried sooo many times and can't get past the first few pages....

MrsComet · 29/04/2023 23:14

I'm working my way through a 100 top books scratch poster that a friend got me. I listen to most of them on audiobook and I'm sure that's made a difference with seeing some through. I'd have struggled with 100 years of Solitude on my own but ended up loving it.

One's I gave up on:
War and Peace
The Magic Mountain- I thought it was going to be about sinister doctors in isolated convalescence house. Turns out it's just philosophy ramblings.
A Prayer for Owen Meady - stopped at the weird sexual stuff between the cousins 🤢

But I love LotR. All the criticisms are spot on. Its slow. So much walking, random poetry. I don't care. I go back there once a year to slow down and walk with the hobbits.

RedRosie · 29/04/2023 23:13

Love Cold Comfort Farm, super-clever in its own context. Hated Crawdads (total wibble). And A Little Life is possibly, the worst book ever written.

BarbieGirl999 · 29/04/2023 23:12

Didn't really get the big fuss over Crawdads, not All the Light we cannot see.

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 23:11

Have never understood the fascination with The Catcher in the Rye either.
I know I've read it but I remember nothing about it!

PollyannaWhittier · 29/04/2023 23:06

Changingplace · 29/04/2023 22:47

I’m very glad to see so many other people say Wolf Hall, I was sooo lost trying to read it, and I so wanted to love it but I couldn’t figure out wtf was going on or who was saying what.

A little life, dull, interchangeable dull characters for the most part except the main misery porn one, they all hated each other, I gave up.

I read the dramatis personae at the beginning of Wolf Hall and knew immediately that there were far too many people and I would get completely lost so I gave up before I even started 😂

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 29/04/2023 23:04

rhubarb84 · 29/04/2023 21:28

And there's also a similar category of 'paper thin story as an excuse to show off my historical research', see Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red, Glass Palace (I did learn a lot about mahogany, so it wasn't all loss...)

Show quote history

They are known as 'wallpaper historicals' - where the historical background is basically used to stick modern people in fancy dress into situations that would never fly today (ruined woman marries duke, etc).

I absolutely loved Barbara Erskine's Midnight is a Lonely Place and House of Echoes. Every other single one of her books I've tried to read comes over as 'just READ about all the research I did!'

Nightynightnight · 29/04/2023 22:58

I also loved the book Life After Life but hated the adaptation. Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite writers and the adaptation just doesnt do her justice.

Neverknowinglysensible · 29/04/2023 22:57

@JaneJeffer @Footle I love Precious Bane! (It may have helped that my mum was from that part of Shropshire). It really cracked me up, the first time I read Cold Comfort Farm, how well it was parodied.
@gertrudemortimer it you think Assassin’s Apprentice is bad, avoid the Soldier Son trilogy like the plague. The Ships ones are good though.
I can’t cope with anything by James Joyce, or Marian Keyes which MIL keeps pushing at me, and have tried and tried with A Tale of Two Cities but need to accept it isn’t going to happen.

TimeforaGandT · 29/04/2023 22:57

So interesting to see what people like/hate.

I love Wolf Hall (and sequels) and have read several times. Also read and enjoyed A Suitable Boy, all of Harry Potter, all Jane Austen’s, Life After Life, Shuggie Bain, A Little Life, I Am Pilgrim, Hamnet….

However, some books don’t appeal so haven’t attempted (possibly because they are hyped/pushed): Crawdads, Eleanor Oliphant, Richard Osman

Didn’t enjoy The Hobbit so haven’t attempted LOTR. The Goldfinch was a bit of a mix - enjoyed parts but not all (needed a better editor)

Books I have failed to finish are relatively few and far between but Umberto Eco features as does The Hare with Amber Eyes…

Pootle40 · 29/04/2023 22:50

I gave A Little Life 2 or 3 goes ... stuck with it and ultimately loved it.

Changingplace · 29/04/2023 22:49

Pootle40 · 29/04/2023 22:45

Wolf Hall. Boring as all hell.

Couldn't get into life after life by Kate Atkinson and yet watched the tv adaptation and really enjoyed it.

I loved the time travellers wife and the paper palace. Couldn't put either down.

Funnily enough I loved the book of Life after Life but couldn’t stand the adaptation!

Changingplace · 29/04/2023 22:47

I’m very glad to see so many other people say Wolf Hall, I was sooo lost trying to read it, and I so wanted to love it but I couldn’t figure out wtf was going on or who was saying what.

A little life, dull, interchangeable dull characters for the most part except the main misery porn one, they all hated each other, I gave up.

Pootle40 · 29/04/2023 22:45

Wolf Hall. Boring as all hell.

Couldn't get into life after life by Kate Atkinson and yet watched the tv adaptation and really enjoyed it.

I loved the time travellers wife and the paper palace. Couldn't put either down.

Changingplace · 29/04/2023 22:44

RampantIvy · 29/04/2023 22:03

Shuggie Bain was quite an eye opener. I read it with horrific fascination. It wasn't a comfortable read.

I think that’s the reaction you’re supposed to have to it, it’s a very sad story.

Sunflower2023123 · 29/04/2023 22:42

Oh and Normal People by Sally Rooney, yawn!

Sunflower2023123 · 29/04/2023 22:41

The Power. Gave up halfway through.

I actually really liked Eleanor Oliphant and Shuggie Bain though!

Have never understood the fascination with The Catcher in the Rye either.

QuirkyBuffy · 29/04/2023 22:37

All of Ernest Hemingway’s work
and
war of the worlds