Which book has defeated you?

[xsquared]

Inspired by the top 100 thread, I thought I'd start a thread about books that you've tried reading, perhaps more than once, but given up on.

For me it's bloody Middlemarch! I'm 39 now and I started reading it around 15 hopefully in time to do an English essay about women's roles in 18th century literature, which was met with a "whoo" from my teacher at the time. She was right though.

Tried reading it again in my early 20s but was distracted with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Tried again at least twice more, probably on holiday somewhere and I think I've got to admit defeat. I don't seem to get much further than shortly after Dorothea marries Casauban.

I got half way through War and Peace when it was televised but lost interest when the series finished. I may try it again this year!

Hated The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: Murder at Road Hill House. Absolute pile of bunkum.

Also hated Captain Corelli, tried to read it so often and just put it down. Utterly boring.

The Silmarillion... ugh.

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel... wasted a few days on that one only to be met with a total non ending. Rubbish book, had put me off Wolf Hall but I still have it on my to read list.

Been put off The Wheel of Time series simply because of how long it is and how many people say you need a cheat sheet to keep track of characters!

I do love LOTR, The Kingkiller Chronicles, anything fantasy generally though and read (and enjoyed) a lot of Austen, Hardy etc when I was in school.

I read "Tom Jones" this year. Once I'd worked out that he starts each book with a chapter about writing which you can ignore as it has no bearing on the plot then it went a lot quicker.

DH borrowed a copy of Silmarillion from my brother about 3 years ago. He still hasn't got around to tackling it.

I have attempted the Silmarillion three times and I still couldn't name one thing that happens in it. It's the only book I have ever been defeated by.

War and Peace! I sruggled through Volume 1 a number of years ago, but still can't face another two volumes. And it's not that i don;t like long novels - I'm halfway through Shogun at the moment, and am absolutely smitten.

I'm surprised only one other person has mentioned A Suitable Boy, I didn't finish that one (or more accurately, skipped a huge chunk out of the middle and read the start/finish).

A Tale of Two Cities - I didn't even finish reading it at school. Put me off Dickens for life.

Captain Corelli’s chuffing Mandolin
Catch-22
Gulliver’s Travels

Oh hell, Pompeii by Robert Harris. About the eruption of Vesuvius.

How could anyone make that subject matter boring?

I’ll tell you how. By wanking on about viaducts for page after page after page. Harris did his research, and he was buggered if he was going to waste a moment of it.

Binned.

It's The Book Thief for me. I know it's meant to be amazing but I just can't get into it. Purposefully haven't watched the film either as didn't want to spoil the film, but think I may have to give in!

Another one for Wolf Hall. I really don't get all the aclaim for it - it's so heavy and dull. Want to see the series though.

All of Dickens.

Pretty much all of the classics (oh dear!)

Life of Pi

My tolerance for reading is at an all-time low, I may never read again.

I really enjoyed Wool, Shift and Dust. There were a LOT of stairs in it though, you're right ImportantWater. I don't think it would have worked as well without them being emphasised though, I know that I think of something a flight of stairs away as being close-by and I'm not great at making the mental leap to 50 flights being a journey that you would think twice about making.

Another Cloud Atlas giver upper here. Have even watched the film a few times and still can't make sense of it.

I have always finished a book once I've started it, and I've also read War and Peace.
But the hardest book I've read and the one I nearly gave up on was "we need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver.
Boy, that was a hard read.

I am a massive Outlander fan since reading the first book as a teenager (25 years ago!) but I gave up on The Firey Cross. It was like wading through treacle and very frustrating.

To the pp who said they wanted to read the books. The first 4 are good, if long winded in places, but it helps to be a skim reader to get through to the action! I can't be bothered to read Firey Cross and Breath of Snow and Ashes even though they are sitting on the book shelf in an accusatory manner.

Birdsong even though I normally like anything set during that period I just couldn’t get on with it at all .

Captain Correli's Mandolin
The English Patient
Anything by Shakespeare - I just don't get it
War and Peace - can't tell you how many times I've read a few pages before putting it back on the shelf
Anything by Jane Austen and similar authors - absolute twaddle.

Lots over the years, but the one that stands out is Famished Road - I tried and tried with that one, but couldn't get into the rhythm of it at all and gave up half way through.

I loved Catcher in the Rye as a teenager as well - maybe you just need to be that age to properly connect.

I've never made it through any of Margaret Atwood novels, despite trying numerous times 😬 I just struggled.

And I couldn't manage any of Dan Brown's, dislike his writing style.

I've read a lot of the others people have mentioned, but those two defeat me (although I enjoyed the films and the recent Handmaid's Tale on Hulu)

Wolf Hall. Ugh. I just can't get on with her writing. I couldn't work out who was doing what or who it speaking.
Also The Alchemist. A load of pretentious tripe.

Wolf Hall defeated me too, slow and too much extraneous detail, same problem as Dickens.
I like early Atwood but not the later books.
Lots of my favourite books are named here

I read Milkman until fifty pages before the end, hating every long, drawn out paragraph of it. It went up another level of unnecessary wankiness so I almost threw it across the room in disgust and gave up. (Didn’t actually throw it because it was a library book).
My nemesis is Possession by AS
Byatt. I’ve tried to read it twice and failed. Going to give it another go this year.
Catch 22 - yep, so dull. I don’t get in with satire generally.
Pride and Prejudice though - seriously? I’ve read it four times- it’s my favourite.

Hilar Mantel is a curious one. It took me a couple of goes to tune into Wolf Hall, but once I clicked withthe style I truly loved both the novels. I now think they are masterpieces and read them both at least once a year. But I have tried some of the others and they are hard work. I made it through A Place of Greater Safety, but I was wishing Mme Guillotine on every one of them by the end. And I have a copy of Fludd on the shelf which I am circling carefully and trying to sneak up on. Only one of us will survive the attempt.

Cloud Atlas. I tried twice but I just found it so dull. I normally persevere with books but I couldn’t with that one and actually gave up.

Anything by Dostoevsky and Bleak House by Dickens.

I've tried crime and punishment several times but can't get passed a certain point. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey was another one along with Flaubert's Parrot.

Those were a 'I'll get back to them soon' failure'.

I dragged my way through captain Correli's mandolin and wished I hadn't.

Confederency of dunces was probably the only one I gave up because I hated it so much. That was a process of -
I must be missing something,
it must be me,
it's not me,
this is really fucking awful.