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

I hated ROOM. I read it for work and honestly twas awful IMO.

I'll say it: I love Possession.

But am willing to jump on the bandwagon of hate for Kevin, Perfume, Da Vinci Code, Time Traveller's Wife, and The Island.

I would like to suggest The Wasp Factory as a complete waste of reading hours.

I've never understood why Kate Mosse is held up a serious literary person when she writes such utter cack.

Given up on Life of Pi and Georgette Heyer (sorry to those who recommended her).

And don't get me started on Jodi bloody Picoult

Can't BELIEVE someone said Catch-22! Probably one of the best books ever written! Shame on you

Agree with Wolf Hall, Labyrinth, Da Vinci etc.

Someone mentioned Richard and Judy. There's something attractive about the way these are displayed in my local library. I always get sucked in. I'm always disappointed.

a spot of bother? i think i liked that too. never got any with any other proulx, but have only seen short stories and i'm a bit prejudiced against short stories.

pointy - the food taster by peter elbling is similar to princess bride. sorry to elbow in on your recommendations!

and who didn't like cloud atlas? it's ACE!

I liked both Shipping News & Life of Pi (though Pi is another that I really had to work at until at least ¼ way in)

Spot Of Bother - yep. I hated all of the characters and didn't actually care a hoot what happened to them.

yy to Kate Moss
Da Vinci Code
Her Fearful Symmetry
That Victoria Hislop one about leprosy

Also hated
Jonathon Livingston Seagull (or anything by Richard Bach)

couldn't read more than a chapter of
Lovely Bones
House at Riverton
Anything by Hardy

Spot of Bother made my teeth itch (and not in a good way :o)

Also, i managed about 4 pages of labyrinthe before giving up. it just reminded me exactly of the da vinci code

i once found myself on holiday at a friends' parents house and the only books they had were the entire collection of paolo bastard coehlo and judith krantz. not good.

Fuck, I have quite a lot of books mentioned on here in my pile to read.

Quite enjoyed "Kevin" but I started it a couple of times before I finally persevered with it. Hated Time Traveller's Wife and Lovely Bones.

Couldn't get into Donna Tartt Little Friend and ploughed through The Secret History after being told it was amazing. It was dull.

I liked the premise of Memoirs of Geisha but I skipped whole pages of lengthy description of how to tie a kimono etc.

God I SO agree about that AWFUL Labyrinth. I read the fist four pages with my mouth open... how the HELL did that get past the editor??
Also Time Traveller's Wife. utter shit.
Anything by the unspeakable Vitoria Hislop. I had to read the Island for Book Group and threw it across the room hard when I finally finished it

Anything by Ernest Hemingway. A VERY bad writer indeed.

Rabbit FECKING Run what a load of misogynist tripe. I couldn't even bear to read it as an impressionable 14 year old.

Never managed to get through Wuthering Heights or The Leopard (which my English teacher said was one of the best books ever written, so I felt I ought to persevere.) Tried again with The Leopard as an adult and gave up very quickly.
Hated the Kevin book. Finished it and gave it to Oxfam the next day as I couldn't bear to have it taking up space on my bookshelf.

But I love Captain Corelli!

A River Runs Through It.

Boring, boring, all about fish!

love TT's wife and don't understand why so many people think it's a waste of time

Anyway yes labyrinth and girl with a pearl. Though girl with a pearl was about 40 minutes wasted rather than hours and hours.

Oh gah Kevin was dire dire dire

oh, another one, charlotte bloody gray.

recommended to me by the stepdad of my bf at the time. he said 'he really gets inside a woman's mind'.

at the time i was too clueless young to question how exactly a middle aged man would be able to judge.

I liked Memoirs of Geisha and The Kite Runner but was v bored by A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Read The Little Friend and The Secret History and didn't think much to either of them but remember v v little about them tbh - something about a water tower?

Hate (and all were rec. to me)
need to talk about Kevin- just hated the way it was written, though itself far too clever. Hated everyone in it, and the self indulgence of the mother- wanted to slap her continually.

La Lacuna- apparently we have waited 10 years for this 'masterpiece' was a real disappointment, as I loved the poisonwood bible.

A prayer for owen meany- rec. by a normally sane and lovely friend- a moment of madness fro her I assume, I was delighted to hand it back

Love
Hardy ('specially Tess)
Attonement
Poisonwood Bible
Behind the scenes of the museum
Gone with the wind

Rabbit Run - is that one of the Updike ones? I loved those books as an impressionable teenager (older than 14 mind you).

i can remember reading the secret history whilst walking down the street, literally couldn't put it down. however, i have owned the little friend for 10 years and it's effectively a bookend and nothing more.

enduring love, god, they're all so annoying. and the post birthday world. grrrr.

The Lacuna was another it took me a long time to get into but was glad I persevered

(DrM, do you love or loathe poisonwood bible? )

Thanks for recommendation staines