Books that were recommended to you but turned out to be absolute pointless drivel - the wasted hours you'll never get back - a warning list for others!

[MadreInglese]

These immediately spring to mind:

Kate Mosse - Labyrinth
(also her The Winter Ghosts - should have known after I read one of hers that another would be just as crud)

Paulo Coehlo - The Alchemist

Audrey Niffeneger - Her Fearful Symmetry
(first half was readable then she appears to have taken some strange pills before embarking on the rest of the book)

Stephanie Meyer - The Twilight Trauma Saga

Eat Pray Love - dear lord what a load of bollocks

Oh my god I saw this thread title and IMMEDIATELY thought Eat Pray Love. I feel actually angry that she stole those hours from me and added them to her royalties!

Glad I'm not the only one.

Harry Potter. cant seem to make it through the first one, let alone all seven volumes. I have tried, believe me i have tried. Ive been told that if i dont, then i wont get literary references in the future, that i will sound like an uneducated illiterate moron (who cant spell either) but i just cannot trawl my way throught the drivel.

lol @ theyoungvisiter

I thought the same about Harry Potter; read the first one and a bit of the second but they were so 'young' IYKWIM. My HP-mad friend assures me each book gets better but that's a lot of hours to gamble IMO

The Alchemist - simplistic drivel
Possession (A S Byatt) - torture
Labyrinthe - formulaic and predictable

Really struggling with Wolf Hall at the moment- is it worth continuing??

Time Travellers Wife. Talk about repetitive. It got so I was cheering when the bloke finally copped it. Then, of course, he flippin' came back from another time.

I'm reading Labyrinthe at the moment. It's a bit Da Vince for Birds but I'm enjoying (imaginging!) the scenery.

Jilly Cooper - Jump

Was so disappointed in this

YY to Time Travellers Wife. Utter blah and I was assured it was quality literature by my sister.

Hated Labyrinth - had to read it for book group.
Actually, thinking about it a lot of the books I hated I had to read for book group.
Five People you meet in heaven - utter drivel.
Ukrainian Tractors.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
Brick Lane. And it was LOOOOONG too.
That one about the Spanish Civil War by the woman who is married to Ian Hislop.

Time traveller's wife, 100 years of solitude, captain corelli's mandolin, anything by Rachel Cusk,

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Lord of the Rings

I enjoyed both the "Time traveller's wife" and "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen". Agree "Five people you meet in heaven" is a load of drivel though.

Absolutely hated the Stieg Larson Millenium trilogy and The Da Vinci Code, badly written nonsense both of them.

I usually avoid things my husband reads so haven't considered Da Vinci code and the dead Danish chap on that basis - seems I have been vindicated !

I enjoyed five people you meet in heaven but tuesdays with morrie? absolute pants.
I too cannot 'get into' HP, tried several times.

Any books in that Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers
Agree re Kate Mosse Labyrinth etc.

Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk. Why? Just, why?

Oh I quite liked Time Travellers Wife

lol @ gramercy

The Little Stranger
The HOuse at Riverford
We Need to know about Kevin

yes to Da Vinci code, Angels and Demons also zzzzzz

I'm in two minds on the Steig Larsson trio, I have the first one unread on my shelf but am hearing very conflicting reviews so not sure whether to give it a go

re Labyrinth: I imagine if you know Carcasonne or that region then the scenic oh-look-at-the-beautiful-mountain twelve-page description bits would appeal, but I thought the story itself was shockingly crap

i hated TTW and liked symetry

Time Travellers Wife
Lord of the Rings
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Jump
Anything by Cecilia Aherne or Sophie Kinsella

StiegLarson 1
StiegLarson 2
StiegLarson 3

`The Long Song

The Road