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?

HesterShaw I thought it was me. I bought To The Lighthouse at a second hand sale. Believe me I've tried many a time to get passed chapter 2 and failed miserably. It is now in a box ready for a car boot sale.
I also hated Emma by Jane Austen, probably because we were forced to read it in school.

I have read Jodi Picoult when there's nothing else in the house (my sister gives them to me). But when I started reading Change of Heart, and was thinking "This is familiar..." then realised she'd completely ripped off The Green Mile - I was so disgusted I binned it.
I even flicked forward to check if the story carried on full of stolen ideas, and of course it did.

the Pact my jodi piccoult it made me so cross i was raging by the end of it,

da vinci code, gave up half way through and captain corelis mandlolin.

Angels and Demons I just got past 3rd chapter and i couldnt cope

The Woman Who Went To Bed For a Year, by Sue Townsend. I normally enjoy her books but this one was awful - no likeable characters, no real storyline - I struggled through in the hope it would have a decent ending - but that was crap too, it just sort of fizzled out.

hiddenhome the book about the Australian bloke who fled jail and ended up in India was "Shantaram" - utter drivel, couldn't get past the first 20 pages.

I had to have three goes at reading "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and once I made it through the first 100 pages I enjoyed it. Same with "Labyrinth" by Kate Mosse, bit formulaic but an easy read.

Can no longer read anything by Patricia Cornwell - all written in the present tense and so pretentious. Plus ridiculous story lines and I find the Scarpetta character deeply unpleasant.

Anything by Mo Hayder.

The Woman Who Went To Bed For a Year, by Sue Townsend
Yes. What an absolute waste of paper and ink that was.

Yes yes! Thank god other people hated the woman who went to bed for a year. I was lent it by SIL who said it was hilarious. Three quarters of the way through I was still waiting for something even vaguely funny.

Another Cloud Atlas hater here. I bought it as a holiday read. It was recommended to me by a friend who described it as mind blowing. When I finished it, I binned it, rather than leave it on the shelf of our villa, to save some unsuspecting soul having the misfortune of reading it.

Miss Smillas feeling for Snow.
Had to abandon it.

I've had Wolf Hall on my bedside cabinet for six months. I keep reading a bit, then putting it aside for another book. Must have read at least a dozen books in between pages of Wolf Hall. Thought I would love it as I love that period of history but it is so tedious.

mrsjay - me too. A shame because the concept behind the book wasn't bad in itself. Just needed someone who write in an engaging style.
I find quite a few American writers grate actually.

Now that I think about it, anything with a title along the lines of 'Somebody's daughter/wife/child' is usually shit. I've noticed lots of books with titles like that recently, and they are all shit. The Time Traveller's Wife. The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Etc, etc

But then, maybe it's because I subconsciously feel uncomfortable with the (usually female) subjects of the title, being defined by their relation to a man

overthinking this

On Chesil Beach is just so... obvious. They're both intensely annoying, you can't see what they see in each other, and the Big Idea is, erm, that they can't get it together in bed and are completely unable to talk about it. I kept reading because I thought there was going to be some big deep and meaningful revelation. But no - just a blindingly obvious explanation.

And the role of Chesil Beach itself as some kind of dreary metaphor is soooooooo dull.

Thank god it was short, that's the best I can say for it.

And I loved Enduring Love and his early stuff. For me it went off the boil about halfway through Saturday. When I realised that yes, it really was about nothing more than a self-absorbed middle-aged man and his hang-ups, putting a comic book baddie in his place, with some gratuitous prurience along the way.

Atonement - the characters just seemed so tedious and smug

Echo whoever has mentioned Eat, Love, Pray so far. Terrible. Really irritating woman feeling sorry for herself, loads of opportunities and she hardly did anything, then overly self congratulatory for pulling a really old cocklodger.

I got about 12 pages into 50 Shades of Grey and had to abandon, so dire.

also U have never been able to get past chapter 1 of any Stephen King - why use one word when 3472 will do.

Kathy Reichs - like the tv programme Bones but the books leave me cold, nothing likeable about the characters

Jon Kellerman - used to love these when I was 18 or so but on re read I find Alex Dellaware a bit 'know it all'

Hiddenhome think you mean shantaram. Dreadful book. I know people who rave about it though - I can't understand why.

I agree with Caitlin17, Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Such a long book and nothing happens. It desperately needed editing down a lot.

Also, His Dark Materials, although to be fair I didn't finish the last book. I didn't find it gripping at all and I didn't feel anything for the characters.

Yes, I did love Enduring Love! And Atonement (although I skipped the boring bit about the war).

ONE DAY.

I was so annoyed by that ending, I wasn't sad just really peeed off. It just seemed like a cop out.

sorry, I really liked "Her Fearful Symmetry"". Agree about the Kate Mosse though.

I waded through "The End of Your Life Book Club" hating every moment of it.

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Which is embarrassing, because I found it even more tedious than Crime and Punishment. But worse, because were travelling in Kerala when we met a group of Americans. They explained they were from a book club, and had decided to come all the way because of this book that they absolutely loved. My husband said "he he, he he, thats odd, my wife says it is the worst book she has ever read, and she has read more books than I have hair on my head". There was a stunned silence and they did not speak to us again.

Luckily, dh has learnt to not always speak the truth...