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

Bella Swan is responsible for putting back feminism in Literature about 3000 years imho.

YY re Kate Atkinson - I keep reading them in the hope that she might get better. I Must Learn To Walk Away From The Pretty Covers.

Perfume

Yes, the Icecream girls was just awful....worst book I have read in ages.

Also hated lovely bones
Anything by
Thomas Hardy
Jane Erye

but I loved:

Captain correlli
Wolf Hall.

Belligerent I read one of them - maybe 'when will there be good news' on holiday a few years ago and I was so incensed by it's crapness that I din't even bother looking at the second one I had follishly bought assuming human croquet was an exception and they would be good. Go straight to Oxfam do not pass go!

YES, sungirltan, Lovely Bones, thank you (so dreary I even forgot the name )

Given up with Wolf Hall (hated it for the first 20 or so pages, and decided that life is too short).

Also gave up with the Satanic Verses on account of its excessive boredom factor.

Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (??) was one of the worst books I've ever bothered with.

Ditto May Contain Nuts (present from well-meaning friend).

I loved The Curious Incident! And I also loved We Need to talk about Kevin. I loved the way that they were both written from unusual perspectives. And Cormac McCarthy's The Road is, in literary terms, way beyond the quality of most of the other books mentioned in this thread. Very moving. Oh, OK, I admit, Thomas Hardy and Wuthering Heights have been mentioned .

Captain Corelli's Mandolin I abandoned first time round, but we went to Cephalonia (or Kefalonia, take your pick) on holiday, and I read it there. I really enjoyed it.

I did enjoy The Slap, but I didn't think it deserved the praise that was heaped on it.

I didn't finish The Time Traveller's Wife. Or anything by Jodi Picoult. I agree that The Little Stranger was overrated, too.

Oh my god, I a sooooo glad to see Paulo Coelho on here. I was ANGRY - actually - when I finished The Alchemist and then I was assured that his other shit was better.

It's not.

I hate that kind of wishy-washy pretend spiritual stuff, it makes me crrrriiiiiinge!

Which brings me nicely to Eat, Pray, Love. Astonishly terribly self indulgent drivel. Urghhh.

Love some of the others on here, though!

And I cannot beleve Cecilia Aherne gets publishing deals . I have just marked low ability creative writing coursework that is more ambitious.

Twilight, mind you I should have known better than getting book recommendations from my teenage niece.

thunderbird69, how far in did you get with Poisonwood bible?

I found it very hard work for at least the first quarter - can't remember exactly now, it may even have been longer - but then I suddenly got hooked & loved the rest of it, & have gone on to read lots more of hers.

Far be it from me to say "I know you will like this book, it's crap" but it is worth sticking at

Labyrinth
Audrey Niffeneger - Her Fearful Symmetry
Time Travellers Wife
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime

Loved all the above

and as someone else said - if it's boring I don't continue lifes to short.

I haven't read Wolf Hall - yet - but have been told once your in its worth it

I LOVED the Time Travellers wife and found it really moving. Agree with the consensus on Her Fearful Symmetry - very disappointing binned it halfway through.

Totally agree with OP about The Alchemist and Labyrinth, didnt finish either. Also second Catch 22 dull drivel.

I enjoyed Eat Pray Love in a kind of car crash way it was a tremendous study of utter self absorption.

The History by Elisabeth something about vampires that started off ok but had to abandon as had lost hope.

How could you criticise "We have to talk about Kevin" though? Found that gripping.

My best friend told me that she needed me to read 'the bride stripped bare'. Turns out she needed someone to commiserate with over what an enormous, steaming pile of self indulgent, masochistic shite it is. DO NOT READ.

Otoh I liked all three larssons on a drivel level, loved wolf hall, sobbed at ttw, but not sure I would re read and the same for WNTTAK - though after 2 ds's I suspect I'd read it differently.

Belligerent Ghoul are there any books you don't read?!

Hated 'Lovely Bones', 'Labyrinth' 'Charlotte Gray' 'Twilight' 'Da Vinci Code'.

'Catch-22' is one of my favourite books of all time.

at Kate Atkinson being mentioned on here!!!! (unless you are talking about a few earlier ones). But apart from Behind the Scenes, all the Jackson Brodie ones are brilliant! (Just finished the latest one in a day are some very concerted ignoring of DS)

Oh my God, I forgot to mention The Da Vinci Code!! Poorly written cr*p!

Oh and the Coelho, 'The Alchemist', that was painful.

I liked The Poisonwood Bible - shame it went a bit boringly preachy at the end. But I thought the first two thirds were really gripping and I would recommend it.

I ploughed through Wolf Hall and felt rather lukewarm about it. I nominate this novel as the one most unread on people's bookshelves. Last year I saw quite a few people with copies at airports/on holiday and I could've sworn the bookmarks never moved an inch.

Labyrinth (like many others on here)
The Island by Victoria Hislop (really couldn't see why so many rated it highly)
Various by Joanna Trollop (why didn't I stop after the first one?)
and I couldn't finish "The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad [hangs head in shame ]

My my...

Ones others have mentioned that I loved:
The Lovely Bones (I don't often cry but that made me cry)
The Time Travellers Wife (liked it so much I started reading it again as soon as I'd finished - then I thought no, that's just silly, and stopped)
The Shipping News (anything Annie Proulx writes is a gem)
Possession
Thomas Hardy (respect, he was a genius)
Wuthering Heights

Why has no-one mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? About 1000 pages, so that was a lot of my life wasted!

Jilly Cooper Jump, utter shite read Riders straight after it to remember when Jilly wrote proper bonk busters!

Staines - I admit that I do read a lot and am FOUL if I have nothing to read (like now!).

I liked The Historian a lot - and Perfume.

Human Croquet was dismal.

Gave up on Jonathon Strange.

Finished Wolf Hall but think it could have been a much, much better book than it actually was.

I loved The Time Travellers Wife but hated Her Fearful Symetry.

The Little Stranger was better on second reading.

I can't read (and I have tried often) Lord of the Rings or Wuthering Heights.

ghoul, I'm going to order a few books. Would you recommend me a couple. Pacy, touch of humour, maybe a little subversiveness.

And I promise I won't slag your choices on this thread if I don't like them