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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
tb · 07/02/2014 13:37

Time traveller's wife - I finished it, but don't quite know how and will never in a million years read it again.

Melonbreath · 07/02/2014 14:52

Rebecca. Spent the entire book shouting at new Mrs mouse wife. Why didn't she just fire Mrs danvers and sent the poisonous bitch packing. Then she should have insisted on an entire house redecoration. Rather than moping about and covering up for her murderous husband.

Botanicbaby · 07/02/2014 15:33

Love in a time of cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Amusing in places but uses a thousand words where one or two would suffice. I hated it by the time I got to the end. Never have I despised a book so much but I was determined to finish it.

everyone else I know raves about his writing.

carlajean · 07/02/2014 17:17

Totally agree botanicbaby

Glitterfeet · 07/02/2014 18:57

Life of Pi

FourEyesGood · 07/02/2014 19:10

I came on to say The Slap, but I see I'm not alone in finding it really annoying. Everyone in it was vile - and so highly sexed! Ugh.

congresstart · 07/02/2014 21:32

I have read a few of the Shopaholic series....fucking dire, the character just has zero clue of what she is actually like, the pointless lies drove me crazy throughout.

JerseySpud · 07/02/2014 21:41

Les Miserables- too complex for me

but i do love pillars of the earth and jilly cooper....

Thumbwitch · 07/02/2014 23:45

I agree re. Sir Terry P - the first 4 books are a bit crap, feels like him getting into his stride, and it's only (IMO) in the 5th one that his writing style settles in properly. The Watch books and the witches are definitely my favourites too, although I have a very soft spot for all the Death ones!

congresstart - I just wanted to slap the silly liar the whole way through! I can't believe I read more than one of those books (only 2) - I think I was thinking that she must grow up and start behaving like a normal sane human being but I was sooo wrong.

girloutofglasgow · 08/02/2014 01:43

So pleased so many people loathed The Slap..thought it was just me. One of the very few books with absolutely no redeeming features - couldn't get over how unappealing all of it was. I can usually get through any manner of nonsense....(those Kindle freebies.....)but that was simply unpleasant...

ToAvoidConversation · 08/02/2014 01:58

The Book Thief... Yawn ... And everyone always bangs on about it!

MrsAMerrick · 08/02/2014 09:19

Tulip you are not alone. I loved Cloud Atlas too, although I was the only person in my book group who did. I haven't seen the film yet, and not sure I want to.

Like lots of others here I hated The Slap. Poorly written, crap plot and a waste if 4 hours of my life. Can't work out why reviewers liked it.

Caitlin17 · 08/02/2014 10:19

MrsMerrick the film is good. The idea of the actors playing multiple characters worked really well.

Did you like Ghostwritten? I'm just in awe of his talent.

napoleonsnose · 08/02/2014 10:36

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, so unbelievably tedious.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, utter, utter shite. 300 pages in and nothing had happened. Characters that it was impossible to care about and a really self-indulgent writing style.
Sepulchre by Kate Mosse. I finished Labyrinth and didn't think it was that great but this took her writing and boring plots to a whole new level of crapness. I didn't finish it.

Botanicbaby · 08/02/2014 10:38

carlajean glad I'm not the only one :)

congresstart · 08/02/2014 10:48

Thumbwitch I have no idea why I read more than one either...the character never got better or grew up a bit, the one where she is pregnant is particularly bad

SarahAndFuck · 09/02/2014 10:13

I've remembered another one. The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho was dire, it really was, and the woman in it was vile, yet the book club people loved it.

I hated LOTR the first time I tried to read the first book but loved all three later on when I tried again. Except for Tom Bombadil, who made me itch for someone to come along and build a shopping centre and a lovely big concrete car park in the middle of his land. That would have stopped the bastard singing all the time. I liked The Hobbit as well.

Postchildrenpregranny · 10/02/2014 18:42

me too

MarianneBrandon · 10/02/2014 19:11

The Professor by Charlotte Bronte. I couldn't wait for it to end as it was so boring and I didn't care for any of the characters.

Yes2014 · 10/02/2014 19:14

Is that the one where she goes to be a teacher or something in Europe or is that Villette? I found Villette mega tedious

Fakebook · 10/02/2014 19:21

The Hobbit. Load of crap IMO.

I loved Lord of the Rings. I've read it twice, but reading The Hobbit just tired me out. I can't even remember what happens in it.

EsmeOz · 10/02/2014 21:02

Struth, I agree PervyMuskrat, The Da Vinci Code was a load of codswallop.

frogletsmum · 10/02/2014 21:08

Wow this thread is an eye-opener! I love so many books mentioned here - Possession, The Children's Book, The Night Circus, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Wuthering Heights - could go on but I guess one person's meat etc etc

Absolutely hated The Somnambulist - dreadful pretend Victorian sensational stuff, awful drippy heroine, writing so bad I wanted to hurl it across the room. And American Psycho is just gratuitous nastiness. Don't care how clever it is supposed to be - and I got the point that it's all his fantasy - it is still beyond horrible. As someone way upthread said, you can't unread things like that. Think I heard that BEE is writing/has written a sequel but I won't be reading it.

anonacfr · 11/02/2014 08:03

The thing with American Psycho is that aside from the gratuitous sex and violence it is just SO dull.
I get the satire but how many restaurants dishes must he describe?

I found the whole book so completely self-indulgent.

Speaking of self-indulgent, the Bell Jar anyone?

Bigbadgladioli · 11/02/2014 16:41

Another one for the Da Vinci Code

And anything by Lee Childs. I'm pretty sure owning one of his books is a marker for sociopathy. Creepy underlying themes.