To think the worst answer you can get to "Which story would you like?" is..

[catgirl1976]

"If I Ran The Zoo"

It's sooooo long and it's such a tongue twister.

DS is 2.5 and I often get nice selections like Owl Babies or Oh No George.

But I got unlucky tonight and got 4670 pages of Dr. Zeuss' finest.

I like the story well enough, it's just a bloody epic to read :)

[poisonedbypen]

This makes me feel nostalgic for the days when I read to my children. It was often a chore at the time, but I miss it now

[IntheYear2525]

DD often asks for The Snow Dragon, the little minx knows I can never read it without crying.

[drspouse]

You do know that they can't read yet? So they don't notice if you miss half the words and just tell them what's in the pictures and turn two pages at once paraphrase?

OK, maybe not turn two pages at once. At least not in very familiar ones. But Mr Men has about two words per page in our house. And Paddington (the First Storybook or some such) only has half chapters.

Though it was fun when DH came up the stairs at the end of Mr Tickle just when it says something like "maybe Mr Tickle is reaching in your house". DS's face was a picture when I asked him if he thought that was Mr Tickle coming up to get him.

A good one for slightly older children with REALLY short chapters is The Bullerby Children. I did have to go all PC when reading it to my Brownies and omit the part where all the 8 year olds are far, far too old to believe in Father Christmas, owing to the fact that I don't want all the parents withdrawing them.

[LEMmingaround]

Anything with a fucking flap in it! that is a whole new level of hell!!!

[Pico2]

The Mr Men books really irritate me. I'm hoping that a DD grows out of them before she can read and discovers how abridged they are in our house. I also dislike Thomas books and would be gutted to have a Thomas obsessed child. We have a tedious Moomin book that I try to refuse to read. I've also no idea why the Snail and the Whale was recommended to us.

What I'd really like to know is who found and retrieved my most hated of DD's books from behind her bookshelf.

[SanityClause]

Never, never, never be conned into reading The Water Babies.

That is all.

[MrsWinnibago]

My Naughty Little Sister. The stories are FAB when read to yourself but read them aloud and you become Aware of the style in which she wrote which is designed to sound like a very young child and is HARD to manage well.

[pointythings]

I hated reading the Disney adaptations, the bloody Rainbow Fairies (which they could read perfectly well themselves!) and the bloody Tiara Club books. Soo glad that DDs outgrew those. I always loved reading Dr Seuss and prided myself on doing Fox in Socks without missing a syllable.

Hated reading Harry Potter out loud, they are meant to be read silently and are very compelling, but Rowling can't write well enough to be read out loud. My DDs are now 11 and 13 and I still read to them - we have been working our way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld series for 2 years now. They are fabulous to read out loud, have a real rhythm to them, the characters find their own voices. We have about 7 books to go. I'm hanging fire on Snuff (too dark) and Raising Steam (need to do Snuff first) and am hoping he will finish the new Tiffany Aching he is writing.

When we finish Pratchett, the reading to the DDs era may indeed end and I shall be sad.

[OwlinaTree]

Agree Charlie and Lola, can't stand them.

[firefly78]

those fucking awful fairy stories by Daisy Meadows

[ElephantsNeverForgive]

The Jolly postman with all those stupid bits of paper to get out and read too. A lot of it isn't quite funny and it takes forever!

[pictish]

Also Lauren Child's Beware of the Storybook Wolves.
Long, tedious, annoying.

[BikeRunSki]

You Choose, it can go on for ever with all the choosing.

[pictish]

And Julia Donaldson's The Princess and the Wizard. Sorry Julia, I do love you very much, but when the kids pull that one out, my heart sinks. It's a bit shit.

[firefly78]

room on the broom and stickman are my favourites though :)

[pictish]

I like Room on the Broom and Zog best.

[nancy75]

cat in the hat or any of those type of books - god how i hate them, also Charlie & Lola

[LegArmpits]

Theo's Red Fucking Wagon.
What's in Your Pissing Nappy?


I'm in a bad mood just thinking about them.

[trufflesnout]

"Can't dad read it?"

Wanker.

[BookABooSue]

Any Disney book - they're too long and it irritates me that they are so far removed from the original stories

I also hate the books where you have to put little paper animals/teddies/bears into slots in each page. It's like the Krypton Factor trying not to lose them, tear them or rip the page.

Stick Man is another choice I dread. I always think the whole book has been built around the line 'a stuck man / a stick man' . Plus it has no internal logic - why are some sticks people and other sticks not? (I may have had time to overthink this during umpteen readings)

[Hakluyt]

Dd had a book called "Bedtime for Baby Bop" which she wanted 3 times every night for about 6 months. It wasn't very long- but oh, heavens t was awful!

[pictish]

We're All Going on a Bear Hunt.
Sorry...I know it's very popular, but I can't for the life of me understand why.

[NotYouNaanBread]

I like a squash and a squeeze because the old lady is clearly angling for a marriage proposal from the rabbi. I like the snail and the whale because it's so beautiful.

I hate the princess & the wizard because it's STUPID. Ditto stupid mermaid on silverside strand or whatever it is.

I do like The Princess & the Peas - a little girl who hates peas & has to be a princess.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/085763108X?pc_redir=1408392995&robot_redir=1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[wiltingfast]

Oh my god, what about flippin annuals? HATE them.

Plus we have a cartoon strip type annual that attempts to relate the story of WallE.

Nightmare.

[pictish]

And Elmer. That dullard.