Books that you have read that you are disappointed with....

Just finished Chalcot Crescent, the new Fay Weldon. Was really underwhelmed by it, sadly. However, I had just read After The Flood which reminded me just how much I worship and adore Margaret Atwood. Interesting to contrast two visions of the (near) future, albeit one slightly more extreme than the other. Have now gone back to Oryx and Crake which I was not gripped by at all, but may enjoy more with the 'hindsight' provided by ATF

Oh and Captain Corelli - GAH!!! Tried maybe6 or 7 times (!) as everyone loved it and I thought it must be me! But I could not get past the pea in the ear. Every time.

Hmm... well- I am a lot less discerning than you Janeite

Mr Pip was dire IMO. Really threadbare plot and character development, uninspiring prose and a few shocking images chucked in at the last minute.

I haven't read Mr Pip - would I like it? I only managed three pages of The Sea.

I will forgive you for the McEwan but only because I respect your taste in cakes!

John Banville's The sea... it was all just meh- whyever did it win?

I actually liked Mr Pip quite a lot. But I should be shot, as I like quite a bit of early McEwan too

Having loved Birdsong, I found Engleby completely tedious and couldn't get into it at all.

Mr Pip... loved it til the end which was so awful it spoilt my holiday because I couldn't get rid of the images.

Loved Kite Runner but hated Splendid Suns!

Agree re: Interpretation Of Murder and I had v high hopes for it. I love Jackson B as a character but think the books are v contrived and annoying.

I found 'Interpretation of a Murder' sooooo turgid but everyone I know loved it.

And GGirl, I loved 'Behind the Scenes' but hated her next one 'Emotionally Weird'. But then read her Jackson Brodie trilogy and adored them - have you tried them?

Hated Kite Runner but loved 'Thousand Splendid Suns'

And can't abide 'Girl With...' books.

Kate Mosse is dreadful, agree.

Twilight books are for kids though, aren?t they? My 11 year old has read them all and even she doesn?t think they have much depth to them ? she much prefers the Vampire Diaries (books are much darker than the TV series, apparently)

OH couldn?t finish The Children?s Book ? only the second book ever he has failed to finish, and he has English degrees, so it has put me off ? it?s sitting on my windsill, daring me to pick it up?

I've avoided anything by Stephen Fry, because I am 99.99% certain that (wonderful and fragant though he is) I would not like his writing.

Twilight is...well... .

I was dissapointed with Stephen Fry's fiction,
Twilight was definitely biggest waste of time and I have just read the first 3 pages of "Jeremy Paxman's "The English" and had a mini -puke.

What the bloody hell was that Book Thief shenanigans all about? Left me cold.

However I loved Atonement, thought it was brilliantly written and stirring.

Just goes to show.

Winner of biggest pile of shite award was bloody Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. Honest to god I gave 20 minutes of my life to that thing, then gave up in disgust.

How the hell is Kate Mosse on a a juding panel for a literary award (orange prize iirc). T'other Kate Moss would probably churn out better reads.

Some books are overrated. Kite runner, Atonement, Time travellers wife,Mr Pip etc...
Atonement was the hardest of all, kept sending me sleep, so never finished.

So pleased others dont like Time Travellers Wife, not just me who thought "who cares?"

Loved Wolf Hall . Gone back to Muriel Spark now as never read any, the advantage of second hand book shops is no bloody tables full of promotional books, just serendipity.

Agree re Owen Meany. I had a thread here recently about it. Some good bits but far, far too long.

Have just read the latest Frank Tallis and was v disappointed. Very formulaic and clunky.

I loved The Lovely Bones but it took me a few attempts to finish Atonement. I did English at university so I am used to ploughing through the odd thing that I found dry, but that nearly defeated me. My dp loved The Da Vinci Code, I refused to read beyond the first chapter because I thought it was badly written.

Mind you, I gave up on Captain Corelli's Mandolin very early, but ended up loving it when I gave it a second go and persevered.

Ooh I agree Alias Grace was so boring, I really couldn't have cared less about the main character. I think I finished it and remember the bare bones of the plot can't remember the end.

But I absolutely loved The children's book possibly now one of my all time favorites.

The Underground Man - never delivered on its promise.

A book I read about a supposed affair between some queen and a black philosopher that resulted in a child whose lineage would eventually produce the first black queen of England...can't remember the title or author, it was the first in a series of three apparently and very well reviewed in the Guardian, but I thought it was very average.

MIL gave me her copy of Mr Pip; although I expected it to be dross, I didn't expect it to be that bad. So in that sense I was disappointed. How on earth did it get nominated for any award?

Am reading Her Fearful Symmetry at the moment, having chosen not to read the Time Traveller's Wife as it sounded v dreary. I'm only a few chapters in and already it's disappointing.

I've got a long list of books I was disappointed with that others love-

American gods
The Notebook
Lovely bones
A prayer for Owen Meany

There are loads more, just can't think of them all at the moment. I have finished all of the above including 640 pages of American gods (finished today) just incase they improved but sadly for me they didn't

Wolf Hall and The Book Thief were two that I've read recently and been disappointed by - after all the hype on them both I expected more.

Have just started The Children's Book so will see how I get on - seems as though it's another one that I may be let down by, even though I usually really enjoy Byatt's books.

I didn't like The Girl with etc, everyone raves about it but I didn't get it

Twilight.
i read all the books hoping to god it got better as it was originally cult american, but nope.
im new to book talk, i dont know how controversial that is! hi!