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

[pandarific]

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?

Lord of the F*ing Rings

Enduring Love - I'm kind of glad that horrifically cold couple ended up being stalked by a weirdo, NO sympathy for the characters whatsoever

Most Terry Pratchett... it's just not as funny as I was told it is.

Man and Boy by Tony F*ing Parsons

My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle

Pere Goriot. I hated it.

freudiansSlipper

I was given a present of the paperback and the DVD of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at the same time.

The film isn't bad. Unfortunately I gave it away and kept the tedious book.

Have recently skipped chapters ploughed through Daniel Deronda. God that was hard going, and he ended up with the dull woman.

AS Bayatt Possession - turgid pretentious boring waffle. Didn't even attempt to make myself finish it.

Agree about Secret History - really overrated.

I've attempted many and hated many Ian mcewan pretentious,over described,shallow characterisation

fivefourtime

I just went 'Arrgh!' and woke my cat up.

It's just that I agreed with your opinion of Enduring Love.

Can I add the similarly badly researched, cynical shitty shitfest Birdsong to that?

I haven't read the thread but I'm sure others have beaten me to it.

I give allmy doozey books away,charity shop or pals
Kite runner was dire

halfwildlingwoman that's the Mo Hayder book I started, and found it very distasteful very quickly, so I'm now glad I ditched it quickly.

Halfwilding I couldn't agree more re TheTreatment, it's without doubt the most disturbing book I've ever read. It must be at least 12 years and I still have those horrible images burnt into my brain.

As a teenager I ploughed on for what felt like years reading Lord Of The Rings.

I got half way through the 2nd book and thought Jesus Fucking Christ life is way too short for this pile of shite

I haven't watched the films either, the very thought makes me want to lie down and have a little snooze

Famished Road - kept trying and failing. Also The Island of the Day Before - just cannot do it!

For me nothing comes close to my hatred for The Secret History, it was truly awful. Even after a few years later i still get annoyed for wasting my life on that shite.

I don't actively hate Lord of the Rings (apart from the Tom Bombadil interlude and the scouring of the Shire which obviously no right thinking person could endure)

But the plot is rubbish. Sauron has his enormous orc army which is defeated by a couple of hobbits a dwarf and an elf. And Gandalf could have asked the huge eagley bird to drop the ring into wherever it was dropped right from the beginning.

bialystockandbloom I like Possession.

Don't hurt me.

I took it into hospital ages ago and stalled about a third of the way through, not least because I had really gloomy news, but the extensive poetry didn't help.

Then it turned into very good news (after a week of gloom the doctors said overnight: 'You're not dying, you can go home tomorrow') and I was so happy I read the rest of the book in one night in euphoria.

I'm sure I pissed off the woman in the next bed with my reading light but she didn't say anything. I truly bless her.

I have a snoring cat next to me as I type. It's probably not the same deal.

It really shouldn't have won the Booker but you can see why I have a soft spot.

And I do genuinely love the ending to the Victorian part of the tale, which I'm not going to spoil for anyone else.

Busyoldfool I've just finished a post, read yours and went 'Arrghh'.

No, I never finished The Famished Road either.

Can I add The English Patient?

I went through a horribly pretentious Booker Prize phase in the '90s.

I loved Possession the first time I read it and hated it the second, but I agree the ending of the Victorian story is lovely.

I don't plough through books I hate. I stop reading them.

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. So disappointed as I loved The Secret History.

Hated Her Fearful Symmetry too.

Possession is wonderful. I think it really did deserve the Booker.
Can't be doing with Lord of the Rings though.
And didn't get on with The Famished Road.
And someone told me I'd love Atonement, and I really didn't at all.
But Ulysses still the absolute worst, by far.

I had to read Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai for my book club: pretty cover - it won the Man Booker prize.....and I hated every miserable last page of it.

Some of the writing was quite beautiful - then I had to read and re-read because I didnt have a bloody clue what she was talking about. I struggled to like any of the characters (although I felt sorry for a couple of them) and the open prejudice and bigotry of the Indian characters I found disturbing.

Turns out I was the only person in the club to finish it as everyone else hated it too.

I loved Cold Mountain for the same reasons I liked Possession but more.

I was reading the end in the fading light at a bus stop one damp November and someone said: 'That must be a really good book.'

I didn't realise I was that much of a drama queen until this thread.

I love Cold Mountain and I've only read it once because I lent it someone and never got it back.

Possession is one of my favourite books. I like quite a lot of the books mentioned here (Tractors in the Ukraine, 100 yr old Man, We need to Talk About Kevin etc.).

I couldn't finish the Famished Road, I barely got 30 pages into it, despite repeatedly trying.

The Great Gatsby - a friend lent it to me about 10 years ago, I keep trying to return it but he won't let me til I finish it because 'it's so good!' - no, no it's not, it's badly written tripe about boring, dull people I don't care about!

Ulysses - I so desperately wanted to like this, I bought it after hearing an extract read on R4 a few years ago that was just wonderful, but it is such deathly dull nonsense when it's 'flat' on the page that I can't be doing with it. Perhaps I should buy an audiobook of it...

Anything by John Irving. I just don't get how the World According to Garp is meant to be funny. It's immensely sad and horrific (Ellen James? Funny??)

An Equal Music - I'd loved A Suitable Boy and really wanted to like this - but it was dull, dull, dull.

Anne Rice's Memnoch The Devil - I really liked her first few Vampire Chronicles but this one, I got to a certain point in it and was so physically and mentally repulsed by what happened that I threw it across the room in a reflex action to get it away from me. If you've read it, you'll probably know the bit I'm talking about.

Loved loved loved Wolf Hall and BUTB. And The Road. And lots mentioned here.

Worst book was five people you meet in heaven. My heart sank when I read the first paragraph. I had to finish it for book club. Like reading a 200 page Hallmark card inscription. Dire.