What books were you 'supposed' to enjoy but thought were a pile of crap? And why?

oooh Fanny Hill, it's only a short novel but it was so boribg despite all the sex

It took me three attempts to get into We need to talk abotu Kevin - it's not got the most gripping start or style but it is really worth persevering with.

Greensneeze - how I agree with you.

My guilty pleasure is Ian Pears' stupid books about the English bloke and his Italian policewoman girlfriend.

Every time I'm at Gatwick I spend ages mulling over something improving then put it back and end up one of Pears's comfortingly predictable whodunnits and enjoying it on the beach . Same thing with Christopher Brookmyre.

I also hated Wuthering Heights, Labyrinth (I hate everything about it but mostly find the way she pads it out by translating easily understandable French words and phrases to be a grand bread in the arse.)

The Rabbit books.

Found Flaubert's Parrot a bit confusing but maybe it would have been a good idea for me to know something about Flaubert before attempting it. I still think it would have been dull, though.

I liked Cap corelli.

I don't like harry potter am so relieved as i thought i was the only one. The films are ok.
bleak house- most dickens is excellent but that book drags on.

i loved a tale of two cities- i cried at the end.

forgive one handed typing.

oooh, I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost

was v disappointed with The Dream of Scipio

I also liked Catch 22. I'd tried to read it a few times and been unable to get into it until I read somewhere that the first 100 pages are awful and then it picks up. I gave it another go and it was literally at page 100 thart I started to enjoy it. It's laugh out loud funny in some places.

I think it does pick up towards the end.

There are lots on this list which I like/love:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Catcher in the Rye
• Confederancy of Dunces
• Great Gatsby.

Maybe I should just give up on being a girl.

Funny thing is, bleh, I usually think of myself as quite blokey in my tastes as well... Maybe I should give it another try [already feeling slightly weary at the thought.]

I LOVED Catch 22, but then I am, how to say this, quite manly in my tastes scratches arse and burps. There's lots of girly stuff I can't stand. I put it downt to growing up around too many males

Kite Runner - trite, trite, trite.

Underworld by Don DeLillo. Finished the whole bloody thing even though it was like swimming through treacle, but a year later I can't remember a single thing about it. Says it all, really.

Saturday, even though I usu love McEwan.

Oh, another quick question - is there anyone on here who liked Catch 22? Reason I ask is that I have yet to find a woman who enjoyed it. I usually hate the whole 'man's book vs woman's book' concept, but IME this one really does seem to be a bloke's book.

The Outcast. Seems to have been nominated for lots of prizes, several people recommended it, turned out to be unrelentingly depressing and miserable, and there's enough reality like that without reading it for fun IMO. Could add the same reason to loads of others!

Thought of another recent one .

What was lost more like What was the point? know a lot of people liked it .

Also agree about Brick lane and I really wanted to enjoy it .

Oh and agree re. Brick Lane - it was awful, couldn't believe the hype.

There was a post on the guilty pleasures books thread last week making references to necrophilia in Wuthering Heights!

I've said this many times before but I think Brick Lane is incredibly poorly written. And I shelled out for the hardback and everything. Bah.

The Lovely Bones is a pile of pants too, IMO. But then I wasn't really expecting that to be any good (it was bought for me).

I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Confederacy of Dunces I found depressing rather than hilarious.

I avoided Captain Correlli's Mandolin for years thinking it would be rubbish because it was so popular, but was then extremely pleasantly surprised.

Just goes to show - we've all got different tastes!

Another vote for AS Byatt's Possession - fortunately I got flu and that got me out of finishing it.

And Wuthering Heights which was just bloody dreadful but fortunately I bought a second-hand copy and it fell apart halfway through so that got me out of finishing that.

Biggest let-down ever was Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook. Tutor at university raved about it, I saved it up for a special treat to read after graduating, it even had a golden cover, I was so excited, but then it was just dull dull dull and I just did not grasp whatever it was that I was supposed to grasp. Although as I recall there's quite a good description of period pain in it at one point. But that's all I can remember. When I think Golden Notebook I think period pain. And that's not a good recommendation for any book really is it?

Sooo many, where to start?
Wuthering heights truly terrible and Jane Eyre not much better.
Can't tell you how may times I've tried to read vanity fair and failed
Jasper Fforde was recommened to me by my sister who's usually pretty reliable but was really irritating and far to clever for its own good
Anita Shreve/Jodi Picoult overwritten unengaging drivel
Thomas Hardy in general - cheer up mate

I loved an unsuitable boy and Midnight's children though read them a long time ago whilst travelling in India so not sure how they would stand up to being re-read now. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well.

How can you not like To kill a mockingbird? It was the first book I stayed up all night to finish.Go on, give it another go!!

Middlemarch - George Eliot. One of the most tedious, irritating books ever penned.

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen, solely because of that wet bint, Fanny Price.

Portnoy's Complaint - Phillip Roth. Self indulgent rot.

Paul bloody Auster. Especially the feted New York Trilogy.

Saturday - Ian McEwan.

i got so bored one night reading Lady Chatterlys lover I went through it and counted all the references to fish

(there are 37)

Some book called Incidents of the Finger Post or something - it was contrived beyond belief and yes, a pile of poo!

Hmmm - some of the books I have been given as presents over the past few years are on this thread! Instead of taking them as holiday reading this summer, maybe I should just list them on eBay now .

whoops! sorry...

I agree about Wuthering Heights too. How anyone could consider Heathcliff a romantic hero is beyond me. He digs her dead body up FFS . . . bleurgh

I agree about Wuthering Heights too. How anyone could consider Heathcliff a romantic hero is beyond me. He digs her dead body up FFS . . . bleurgh

Susan Hill - Mrs de Winter (a sequel to Rebecca) was one of the most disappointing books I have ever read.
Canal Dreams by Iain Banks - love his work but this was terrible.