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?

I loved Brick Lane ! All the colours and stuff - awesome! But god, the fifty shades of crap ? Really ? that was truly awful :-( and it got more awful when people I knew obviously thought they were being a bit 'naughty' by reading it (I am old btw!). You can read better porn in Playboy magazine! (allegedly)

That bloody Death Comes to Pemberley bollocks. Jane Austen would weep.

Midnight's Children. I still don't understand it. Often think I should read it again to try and get my head round it but I just can't summon up the enthusiasm. There was a Sebastian Faulks one too which was written around the letters of the alphabet - I couldn't really get that either.

i didn't finish it but it felt like ploughing... The Hare With The Amber Eyes - was for book club and truly horrific. Think it's the only one we've done where nobody liked it.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris inclding books, street fashion and jewelery by Leanne Shapton

It was painful

Ooh, ooh, another one! The Book Thief. Gave up 30 pages in, was written in a very cutsey way, put me right off. (Especially considering the setting.)

was the hare the one about the tiny ornaments and Vienna in the 40s?

Agree with The Slap being truly awful.

Absolutely hated Gone Girl. Didn't finish it!

Oh I LOVE Midnight's Children.

Cloud Atlas. There have to be more than two of us that hate it, surely?

Shadow of the Wind. I find myself saying 'really?' When someone says they like it.
Also Sisters by R Lipton, Jodi Picault, Marquez, V Hislop, Kate Moss ( I wonder how those two got published )
But (drumroll) the very very worst book i've read was The Casual Vacancy. Utter shite IMO

The Book Thief - the worst book ever

The Slap - the other worst book ever

Me too FetchezLaVache; I hated Catch 22.

alisvolatpropiis there are 3?! Jeepers. I thought Labyrinth was enough, frankly

I was forced, by an avid colleague, to read and discuss all of the vapid, senseless, utterly appalling Twilight series (I was making an effort to fit in). I can't unread them, my soul is scarred now. Should I ever have a daughter she will be expressly forbidden from venturing forth with Bella Fucking Swan and her neutered monsters .

Likewise Dan Brown, proof if such were needed that airport book shops can sell almost anything to long haul travellers in need of sleep and distraction.

I loved Far from the Madding Crowd and thought I would try Tess out. Relentlessly depressing, awfulness. Just misery.

Speaking of misery, I really dislike misery- lit. I read to be transported, distracted and informed. I really don't want to read about people burning children with cigarettes, beating and abusing them. Frank McCourt was the start of it with Angela's Ashes and is not to be forgiven. I know he's from Limerick but even that is no excuse.

Still, I used to consume huge numbers of books but now, since having DS I have to be much more choosy. Hopefully the quality should improve.

Mosse not Moss

Cloud Atlas. I hated it.

Swann's Way.

Shadow of the Wind. I find myself saying 'really?' When someone says they like it.
Also Sisters by R Lipton, Jodi Picault, Marquez, V Hislop, Kate Moss ( I wonder how those two got published )
But (drumroll) the very very worst book i've read was The Casual Vacancy. Utter shite IMO

Shadow of the Wind. I find myself saying 'really?' When someone says they like it.
Also Sisters by R Lipton, Jodi Picault, Marquez, V Hislop, Kate Moss ( I wonder how those two got published )
But (drumroll) the very very worst book i've read was The Casual Vacancy. Utter shite IMO

Thumbwitch "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."

I had forgotten that torture, it was a university set book, I never got beyond 1/2 way.

On Chesil Beach - 100 pages that felt like 500, only to get to the "point" that they were both a bit fumbling in bed?! And the pointless, "oh, look what cool people they became later" tacked-on ending.

The Time Traveller's Wife - annoying within less than 20 pages. Gave up with it, so doesn't really count for this thread.

That Ukrainian Tractors thing - totally unfunny.

Shopaholic - she needed a slap. Awful woman.

Gone Girl - loathsome book, horrible people, crap "twist".

The Night Circus - 500 pages of overwritten, wanky, poncy, plotless pontificating. Endless, slavering descriptions of puddings and colour-changing dresses and one pointless illusion after another. Paper-thin characters. Utter bilge.

I loved Chesil Beach.

And Ukranian Tractors!

Testament of youth. Vera brittian. Studied it for a level so no choice.

I left my tent in San Francisco.

Total. Unfunny. Bollocks.

Another one for the Slap. I loathed every odious character in it. I forced myself thru it and spent the whole time inwardly ranting. Why it got so many good reviews i have no idea. It was just so unrealistic and everyone was beautiful - which i hate too - any book that goes into such detail about characters appearances and all characters are gawjus. So tedious.

I stopped reading thrillers because of that. One in particular the forensic pathologists was described in such detail and were of course breathtakingly beautiful plus smart and sassy, i just wanted to know what killed the bastard, not what shade of grey silk blouse she was wearing that set off her green eye SO FUCKING WHAT!? Sorry had to get that off my chest