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Original poster

to ask what was the most annoying book you have ever ploughed through?

726 replies

pandarific · 02/02/2014 13:22

I am reading Her Fearful Symmetry for bookclub and I'm a fifth of the way through and hating it. It is just striking me as very cutesy and mimsy wimsy and I have eyerolled so many times in the past 100 pages. (Children, in 2010, in London, happily playing croquet - really? Oh and then there's a ghost. And some creepy twins! Great.)

It wouldn't be so bad, but the fecking thing is 500 pages long.

I know it's a matter of taste as the author's books are massive bestsellers. And I may be being unfair as I seem to just really dislike magical realism in general. And I am open to reading all kinds of different books (last one A Game of Thrones, before that The Kite Runner), and anyway, half the point of a bookclub is to read things you wouldn't pick for yourself. But but. The salesperson at Waterstones even went on about how great it was when I was buying it, ffs! Waaah, boo, disappointment, 500 pages of life wasted etc.

Anyway, I definitely will finish it as it's only fair to give it a real chance, and I will try not to BU and judge so quickly, but I have to ask - what books have you made yourself finish, bookclub or no, that you've hated?

OP posts:
spidey66 · 02/02/2014 19:30

Oh and The Lovely Bones. Rubbish.

loveliesbleeding1 · 02/02/2014 19:32

Watermelon marion keyes, awful, too long by about 150 pages.
Also another vote here for The woman who went to bed for a year, such a shame as I have lived all of Sue Townsends other books.

ProfondoRosso · 02/02/2014 19:34

Not in this translation, Cote Sad

Page 28, 4th line down. That's the narrator's voice, not Armansky's.

here

tshirtsuntan · 02/02/2014 19:35

I liked her fearful symmetry- possibly more so because I drive through Highgate cemetery most days Grin I couldn't finish a book by Monica Ali, think it's called alejandro blue? Loved Brick Lane and will usually read anything...not that though!

Soopermum1 · 02/02/2014 19:41

portrait of a lady by henry james. forced to read it for uni. that's too many hours of my life I'll never get back

Quinteszilla · 02/02/2014 19:42

Ah ProfondoRosso I dont speak Swedish! Like most Scandinavians we can understand eachother almost as well as we understand our own language, in my case, I speak Norwegian and can read and listen to Danish and Swedish without any problem. I love the sound of Swedish, it is a beautiful language.

hackmum · 02/02/2014 19:43

Pleased to discover I'm not the only person irritated by Gilead (everyone else seems to love it) or confused by The Luminaries.

I normally like Howard Jacobson, but The Finkler Question is undoubtedly one of his worst.

The worst book I've ever read? Well, it's a close-run thing between Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (though I didn't make it to the end) and Man and Boy by Tony Parsons (which I did finish, though really wished I hadn't bothered).

ShakesBootyFlabWobbles · 02/02/2014 19:43

I'm (kind of) glad that Atonement and The Secret History have already appeared, I thought they were both dull when my work colleagues raved over them.

I also offer On Beauty.

Varya · 02/02/2014 19:45

Dan Brown.................

marmitecat · 02/02/2014 19:45

Catcher in the rye. I'd had enough meeeee meeeee meeee self absorbed teenage angst after page 1.

Other than that I am well read.

SweetPenelope · 02/02/2014 19:47

I read most of Shirley by Charlotte Bronte. I only kept going because I wanted to find out what happened but it went on and on. In the end I looked up the plot on Wikipedia because I couldn't take any more.

The most boring book ever - The Egoist by George Meredith. It had a good underlying plot and I wanted to find out what happened, but it was incredibly tedious and I would have thrown it out of the window if I'd had a window handy.

Whathaveiforgottentoday · 02/02/2014 19:47

DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. Really hoped all the characters would die. I'm sure if it is was the book or the characters that I really disliked. Haven't read anything else of his since.

KingCrimson · 02/02/2014 19:49

Another one here who hated White Teeth. Cardboard characters right from the start. One of the few books I've never managed to force myself to finish.

JanePlanet · 02/02/2014 19:50

Eat. Love. Pray. Shite.

Ubik1 · 02/02/2014 19:51

Virginia Woolf was a great writer. Amazing.

But Orlando is the most irritating, up itself book I have ever ever read.

50 shades was so horrendous I kind if enjoyed it. Can you imagine goi g to the pub with that tedious pair?

CoteDAzur · 02/02/2014 19:54

Profondo - In the page you link to, it is Armansky calling Lisbeth "anorexic", not the narrator/author. Literally on the same page, it goes on to say "She did not in fact have an eating disorder, Armansky was sure of that."

TheArmadillo · 02/02/2014 19:54

The ladies no 1 detective agency

I tried to read as much as I could but couldn't finish it.

Characters were awful, story was poor and overall patronising. And dull.

MyBachisworsethanmybite · 02/02/2014 19:56

Wuthering Heights. Dreadful. What a waste of time that book was.

Books I've not been able to finish because they were so awful:

  • Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood. What were the prize judges thinking??
  • An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. Whiney, moany, irritating man, the main character.
bigfuckoffpie · 02/02/2014 20:03

I abandoned Saturday as I thought it was tedious, and I also really didn't like Orlando.

Most recent very annoying book I read through to the end was Morrissey's Autobiography. It started off being really good, but by the end of his innumerable disputes about money, virtually nothing about the Smiths, and self important rants about the evils of meat, I'd gone from being a fan to wanting to smack him in the face with my kindle.

JeanBodel · 02/02/2014 20:08

Anything by Thomas Hardy. I have tried, and tried, and failed.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - got about half way through but realised things weren't going to get any better

The Gormenghast Trilogy - I do wonder if it would improve if I could get past the first couple of chapters

A friend insisted on lending me Labyrinth. I read three pages to show willing but couldn't get any further.

KingCrimson · 02/02/2014 20:21

Anna Karenina.

Might have been OK if it'd ended about halfway through.

Caitlin17 · 02/02/2014 20:22

The Egoist is incomprehensible. I had to read it for a book club. I couldn't make head nor tale of it.

ProfondoRosso · 02/02/2014 20:25

But that's what makes it confusing, Cote! Why describe someone as anorexic if you're certain they don't have an eating disorder? I'd say the voice at that point is the omniscient narrator as there's no "Armansky thought/assumed" to qualify him as the subjective character there. And it does say he was sure she didn't have eating disorder.

Obviously it's open to interpretation, though - it's difficult to read authorial intention in translation!

Caitlin17 · 02/02/2014 20:33

Also something by Iris Murdoch featuring a lot of idle rich people.

That'd be all of then. She was insufferable.

I'm glad to see so many votes for The Slap. That book made me so angry at the time I'd wasted on it(another book club choice)

Caitlin17 · 02/02/2014 20:34

Argh " head nor tail"(although "tale" was entirely missing )