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Original poster

Great books that you have never finished reading

99 replies

belgo · 06/01/2011 14:44

Three books that I just cannot finish:

Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Freakonomics
Politics of Breastfeeding.

The second two I feel contained so much information that I just could not digest any more, but I certainly took a lot out of both of those books.

I don't know why I never finished the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it was great.

Which books have you never finished reading and feel vaguely guilty about it?

OP posts:
MayorNaze · 08/01/2011 16:47

i have read the book thief, found it quite easy to read but not impressed with it overall

i have read bits of the bible but no desire to read from cover to cover!!

yama · 08/01/2011 16:49

American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

Don't know why - I have finished all the other Roth books I've started.

Original poster
belgo · 08/01/2011 16:53

I haven't read any of these booksBlush. Maybe I should just stick to Terry Pratchett and Marian Keyes.

OP posts:
TheHeathenOfSuburbia · 08/01/2011 17:07

Another one here who attempted The Children's Book. Got about 1/3 way through then decided that nothing interesting was ever going to happen in it, and gave up.

A Suitable Boy is still on my shelf, a lonely bookmark marooned about 100 pages in...

Oh, and I got a bit bogged down in Girl Who Played With Fire, too, but have just seen the film of that and saved myself from having to plod to the end Grin

InstructionsToTheDouble · 08/01/2011 17:15

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zisforzebra · 08/01/2011 17:26

Cloud atlas is great but it's tough to get into. Worth it though.

Mine are : Pride and Prejudice and Crime and Punishment . I've started them over and over but always stall at roughly the same place!

rocketleaf · 08/01/2011 17:31

I have started Wolf Hall recently, borrowed from my sister who I know didn't finish it. I am reading other books in between and hope that I can persevere with it as I love this period of history. I suspect it might need to be a holiday book so that I can immerse myself enough.

Also Catch 22, supposed to be a classic but I just couldn't get on with it, it's not even long! Blush

aStarWithHerOwnWays · 08/01/2011 17:34

Divided Kingdom. I've read and loved several other Rupert Thomson books without incident, but for some reason put this one down and then just couldn't pick it up again. Even though I still wonder how it pans out.

melezka · 08/01/2011 18:01

Ah belgo - well I'm going to embarrass myself here and admit to never being able to finish anything by either of those two authors...Blush

WillieWaggledagger · 08/01/2011 19:33

yy a suitable boy I never finished

finished and enjoyed cloud atlas, though dp couldn't get into it

LindyHemming · 08/01/2011 21:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BrokenBananaTantrum · 08/01/2011 22:01

1984 I've tries three times and just can't finish it.

Takver · 08/01/2011 22:05

Little Women and Middlemarch. Stupidly in both cases because I own copies with tiny print, and I just can't focus on it for long enough to get into the plot properly. Have been meaning to buy/get from the library larger print versions for, oh, maybe 20 years . . .

mdavza · 09/01/2011 14:17

Agree about Catch 22. Never even tried Middlemarch, but it's on my "One day, when I have enough time and not enough fun books to read." I hit a slump like that every now and again.
Belgo I enjoy all Marian Keyes' books, and we are nuts about Terry Pratchett! I mostly read whodunnits, but I try to balance it with loads of pther, different types of books. That was before baby, now I wont' bother with something I don't enjoy.

Also couldn't finish Cloud Atlas. The author has a new one out now, any good?

aStarWithHerOwnWays · 09/01/2011 15:49

Middlemarch bored the tits off me within five pages. But I hate George Eliot's work anyway so give it a try if you like long, dusty, tedious, pointless stories Wink

lalalonglegs · 09/01/2011 16:53
Shock Birdsong was wonderful (although haven't read it for about 15 years).

ShockShock
Middlemarch is my favourite book - so compassionate and wide-sweeping, such a great understanding of how people behave. How could you not love Dorothea?

mild Shock
You have to skip all the political bits in a Suitable Boy and just stick with the family stuff.

Loathed Catch 22 - made it to the second page several times.

StantonLacy · 09/01/2011 20:37

Wolf Hall definitely worth perservering with !

The main two for me are :

The Magus by John Fowles...I honestly don't think I have ever hated a book so much. Not only didn't I finish it, I actually threw it in the bin so as not to inflict it on anyone else. And I would never usually throw a book away - almost criminal, I think. Yet it got great reviews.

This Thing of Darkness - I really, really loved it at first and then slowly began to find the two main characters so irritating that I gave up about fifty pages from the end. Gutted really that I couldn't bring myself to see it through to the end after that much investment of time !

WillieWaggledagger · 09/01/2011 20:58

middlemarch I managed once I had seen the tv series, which is embarrassing, but I knew what was to come iyswim

stanton 'this thing of darkness' is another I struggled with I remember - got nowhere near as far as you did. MIl raved about it but I seem tohave a mental block about stories set on boats (struggled with Heart of Darkness too initially but got overcame that and enjoyed it)

queenrollo · 09/01/2011 20:59

i've learnt now not to read anything my DP has read and suggests i will like.

The Name Of The Rose. I swore through three quarters of the book and then gave up.

The Man Who Would Be Thursday.

100 Years of Solitude

I just can't make myself finish them

coatgate · 09/01/2011 21:02

Middlemarch
Captain Correlli's Mandonlin
The Book Thief
Birdsong

HattiFattner · 09/01/2011 21:07

atonement. Been staring at the same middle of the book pages for about 4 months.

mdavza · 11/01/2011 19:59

Ooooh, queenrollo, I loved both The Name of the Rose (actually read it twice [nerd emoticon]) and also 100 Years of Solitude.

I wonder if anyone should let Seb Faulks know that his book is unloved among the ladies?

queenrollo · 12/01/2011 09:43

mdavza i want an abridged version of The Name of The Rose with all the architectural/historical/relgious reference taken out. I'd be really enjoying it for a bit and then off he goes about sodding 11th century monastic building techniques and completely ruined the mood for meGrin
DP is a history buff so he loved that aspect of it.
Mind you I still don't know who dunnit as i felt it was cheating to skip to the end to find out.

lilibet · 18/01/2011 14:58

We have jsut read Turn of the Screw for book group and it was awful. Not had the meeting yet but I think everyone thought the same about it.

oldgreybird · 18/01/2011 18:13

Midnights Children by Salman Rusdie
and whatever that huge slab of a book was called by Vikram Seth. I was given it in hardback and I find any big fat hardback impossible if I am reading lying down in bed.
I loved Birdsong - how come so many people have struggled with it!?

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