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?

Alis, you must be a sucker for punishment to keep trying, eh?
I didn't bother with her after Labyrinth.

A Prayer For Owen Meany

Worst.
Book.
Ever.

I think it put me off reading.

Loathsome self indulgent weird pointless twaddle. I would rather read Take A Break.

Oh I'll add the "hilarious" A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - bleh.

Pamela - a middle aged, male, author's take on being a teenage girl. Christ, it was awful. I don't care that it's a 'classic', it's shit!

And I agree with the PPs who said The Slap. I'm not sure any of them were likeable.

American Psycho - felt obliged to finish it as lots of people rave about it and I kept thinking it would come to some sort of point but it was just utterly vile throughout. I'm not into book burning (or even passing any books on the jumble sales as evidenced by our groaning bookshelves) but felt the need to destroy this one as would hate anyone else to read it and be stuck with those images in their brain as well.

DarrenFox - Ohh that John Irving one! I read A Widow For a Year, which was odd, but not unpleasant, so then I tried to read The World According to Garp, and then I realised just how bizarre John Irving is. It's like he has three obsessions: 'older wimmin' 'young narrators who are Writers and therefore fascinating' and 'awkward sex' and just recycles them endlessly. Never again!

The Mill On The Floss. Even 14 years post a-level, that bloody irritating Maggie makes my teeth itch! And I had to read it several times as had an exam on it too...ugh.

Oh oh - AND Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Actually I gave up with that one - I honestly couldn't cope with being given multiple examples of each point he was making, I was just thinking "OK, I've got it already, fucking move on!!" One or 2 examples only, man - not 3 or 4. For every fucking point.

Confessions of a shopaholic. Swapped it when travelling and owner warned me it was shit. Obviously I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece but protagonist gave me the rage. Compulsive liar runs up massive amounts of debt buying pointless shit but its all OK because she lies her way to a millionaire boyfriend. Good one.

Any of Dan Brown's utter tripe makes me incandescent that anyone could not only get away with it but make millions from it; I reckon I was writing better stuff than this by the age of about 11.

Other than that, most of the ones already mentioned I have enjoyed

Thumb I think I really wanted at least one to be good because I find the period of history interesting. So disappointing

I like Her Fearful Symmetry

The Magus was the biggest load of tosh I've ever had the misfortune to have to plow through (thank you ever so much A- level English Lit teacher...)

Agree on A Prayer for Owen Meany. Hated it. Deeply irritating.

None's said One Day?!?

Pile o shite

I also hated American Psycho. Gratuitous.

Meganorks - YES! Totally agree! I loathed the "heroine" of the Shopaholics books may have read 2 to see if they improved - they didn't

Alis - I can understand that. :)

The Lemon Cake book was another crap one.
The 100 year old man that climbed through the window- awful

I have a rule, if I don't like it after 100 pages I will put it away, life is too short to read crap books. However, for some reason I did stick with The Slap.

American Gods.

I was so excited to read it as well.

agree tractors not funnny
I cant get into meaney - should i not bother?

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. Tedious. No chapters, the drivel went on and on and on. I gave up.

The slap

Awful

Loved the time travellers wife
Loved the dragon tattoo read the whole series

We al went to the cinemas to see the original film and came out thinking we could understand Swedish

The Argos Catalogue.......I thought I'd never get to the end

badbelinda - I've not read it, but have read The Rules of Attraction which I thought was pretty lukewarm. The author's a right arse IMO. Did you see when he threw his toys out of the pram this year when a writer he thought was 'overrated' won the Nobel Prize? Have some grace, man!

Will never forget the torture of Madam Flaubert at school. If any of my 4 dc have it, they're on their own.

There's Something About Kevin.

Felt I ought to persevere with it, got to page 30 something, gave it to a friend.

White teeth. I know it was award winning and all that, but I just didnt care enough about any of the characters so packed it in about a third of the way through Did I miss anything?