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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:
YukoandHiro · 29/04/2023 20:44

@gingerandsmall If you didn't get on with it no point going back but just to say that's kind of the point and there's a big reveal about the reasons for her behaviour.

whatatool · 29/04/2023 20:42

Hamnet
I've tried so hard
I'm half way through and it feels like a chore.
Reading should be a pleasure so I'm donating it to charity and moving on.

YukoandHiro · 29/04/2023 20:40

The Paper Palace. Boring, and the main protagonist is a twat.

mayflower21 · 29/04/2023 20:40

Rings*

mayflower21 · 29/04/2023 20:40

Lord of the ring

gertrudemortimer · 29/04/2023 20:39

I agree with so many of these! My standout failures are - Eleanor oliphant, time travellers wife, the passage, Harry quebert affair, I am pilgrim, the goldfinch. and finally the 3rd instalment of the assassins apprentice. I loved the first two but the third one has been so slow and boring I just can't bring myself to pick it up.

SquareRootOfAllEvil · 29/04/2023 20:39

Ulysses - only book I’ve never finished

TheCreamTeaWasFromMe · 29/04/2023 20:37

Shantaram - have tried several times, but can't get into it at all.

The God of Small Things - I pick it up, do a few pages, put it down. Years pass, rinse and repeat. I think I am destined to never finish it.

Loved Cold Comfort Farm - it's a brilliant send-up.

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:36

Any Jane Austen (and I live in bath) can't stand it- it's like Georgian chic lit.
Blasphemy!

Theunamedcat · 29/04/2023 20:36

Time travelers wife really didn't see the appeal
American psycho took me years of tedium to finish it
I do read LOTR but I skip the drone parts
Stephen King did a book about writing I swear he was high I've never met such pompous disjointed twaddle in my entire life
Until recently I kept books I had read and hated if I loved the author in general so I had "the set" iyswim then I thought fuck that and now two bags and counting are leaving the house this week

Crikeyalmighty · 29/04/2023 20:35

Any Jane Austen (and I live in bath) can't stand it- it's like Georgian chic lit.

Life of Pi

The lovely Bones

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:35

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain I think it's a book that people pretend to think is funny when it's really not (because they don't want to admit they don't get it either) Grin

gingerandsmall · 29/04/2023 20:34

The Elinor Oliphant one. To me it portrayed her as a liability and needlessly cringy. Couldn't get past the first couple of chapters.

HewasH2O · 29/04/2023 20:34

LOTR and A Suitable Boy. On the plus side LOTR meant I never wasted time on any other fantasy books. ASB is still waiting on a shelf 20 odd years later with a bookmarked where I gave up.

MyBloodyMaryneedsmoreTabasco · 29/04/2023 20:34

Could not finish Captain Corelli's Mandolin or The Milkman. Finished but should not have bothered with several, but notably Elizabeth is missing and Eleanor Oliphant. Also Hillbilly Elegy, which took a fascinating topic and made it unbelievably tedious.

Dotcheck · 29/04/2023 20:33

Wolf Hall
Overstory ( one long lecture)
Wuthering Heights

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 29/04/2023 20:31

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:28

Cold Comfort Farm is a brilliant parody of a particular type of pompous twaddle.
But what though?

It's a parody of what were called 'loam and lovechild' novels

https://thekinginyellow.livejournal.com/92253.html

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:31

I love Wuthering Heights

Bernadinetta · 29/04/2023 20:30

Hamnet. I so wanted to like it.

I love Wolf Hall 😄

Whereisthesun99 · 29/04/2023 20:30

I loved The last kingdom, but just could not get into the books, so hard going. I managed just under 50% of book 1 and gave up, twice.

Marchintospring · 29/04/2023 20:28

That Midnight Library one. Great idea but rehashed too many times I didn’t care what happened. Also it read like a story in a weekly magazine rather than a novel and I like crappy easy to read books.

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:28

Cold Comfort Farm is a brilliant parody of a particular type of pompous twaddle.
But what though?

JaneJeffer · 29/04/2023 20:27

Gave up on Time Travellers Wife
I stuck it out to the bitter end Angry

FpTr3952fHp · 29/04/2023 20:25

The ministry of utmost happiness
Naked lunch
A portrait of the artist as a young man

tsmainsqueeze · 29/04/2023 20:23

I love Cold Comfort Farm.
Gave up on Time Travellers Wife , I love what JKR has done for childrens literature but i cannot get into Harry Potter at all.