what not to read

[stainesmassif]

my best friend lives abroad. she recently facebooked me to say she 'needed' me to read the bride stripped bare. i couldn't believe how awful it was. it turns out she needed me to read it so that we could agree on how dreadful it is.
has anyone else tricked you like this? or did you enjoy this book? it appears i still need to talk about it!

For me it was: Kate Moses's labyrinth (I only finished it because I was stuck on the M6 in a six-hour traffic jam), Da Vinci Code (crappety crap) and that book by Sebastian Falks that everyone raved on about, the first one where they seem to be stuck in a tunnel for ages (crap squared). Oh and a book called The Dream Book of the Glass Eaters or something similar. Total dross. It was recommended to me by a friend who is an English Education advisor for secondary schools. She raved about it. She also like The Da Vinci Code though...

the hilary mantel books about the medium (finished, wished i hadn't bothered) and the french revolution (didn't bother to finish)...her earlier books were great....get yourself an editor with a pair woman!

the time travellers wife...jeez!

the patterson books are like literary candyfloss...i read them really quickly (about 80 chapters/quarter of a book at a time), in great chunks but find them really insubstantial ...and i can never remember if i've read them or not when i'm at a booksale

Could not abide Captain correlli -I even tried twice as everyone else raved about it. Same for DH . Then we tried watching the Film since it was on a week or so ago - tee-dee-oussss

And Id like to get my hands on whoever suggested The Little Stranger -and urged the reader to keep on reading for the great ending

Victoria Hislop - The Island
hate putting books down, but this one bored me in 10 pages

(hides from sirstan as may well be one of those people...i loved the little stranger!)

(I'm hiding as I loved The Little Stranger too!)

reading this thread i realise i have suffered through some dross! da vinci code - read it, rubbish. captain correlli - read it, rubbish, the little stranger - read it, pretty rubbish, bloody sebastian faulks charlotte grey, read it absolute rubbish. why have i bothered? surely life's too short!

i don't have anything against literature that i expect to be rubbish btw. i still enjoy the occasional jackie collins or jilly cooper.

i liked time travellers wife

books i started this year but didnt finish...yet!

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
The Sum of All Men - David Farland
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

can anyone recommend bothering?

bride stripped bare is by a friend of mine - she's lovely, but I agree it's truly awful - she gave me a signed copy for my birthday the year it was published - didn't know how to look her in the face the next time we met

The Lovely Bones is top!

Just finished her latest one The Almost Moon, took some getting into but then I couldn't put it down.

I've just started a thread asking if anyone has read The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton as I'm really struggling with it. I'm bored and don't get it at all though probably it is highly intelligent and a classic of the future and I'm probably just not up to it!!
Load of pretencious nonsense (I think) tough can't be sure as I regularly switch off after reading just a few lines and then fall asleep

basildon - it's by anonymous! you know an anonymous!!!
have read the lovely bones....it wasn't rubbish, but i haven't considered anything else by alice sebold. but look at my reading list!
haven't read the rehearsal, prob means it's really good!

The Bride stripped bare author outed herslf didn't she?

here

I didn't think it was that bad, I've definately read worse

you're right. well i never. i think i would've remained anonymous. sorry basildon.