Classics or "Must reads" that others rave about but you just don't get

[boogiewoogie]

Mine are the following:

The Great Gatsby - I read this a couple of years ago and was disappointed with it and thought I'd missed the point. Gave it another the other day and finished it in 2 days (short book). No, still not getting the hype. No likeable characters either.

Catcher in the Rye- Nothing really happens.

Middlemarch - My fourth attempt at this... I will finish it this time!

The Time traveller's wife - Page turner, yes but "must read", no, no, no!

Started Early, took my dog - I normally love Kate Atkinson and really enjoyed the first three Jackson Brodie books but I found this dry.

The Da Vinci Code - Couldn't get past the first chapter.

[Trippler]

Any book that uses 'spare, haunting prose' i.e. the writer can do basic sentences but doesn't bother about words too much.
(Ishiguro for example)

So many books nowadays are written as script treatments: it jumps off the page that they're dying to sell the rights. I loathe them. That Ukrainian Tractors book was one. The God of Small things - she'd not even hidden it, half the sentences were just noun phrases introducing a scene.

[LaVengeance]

Love in the Time of neverending farking interminable Cholera

A Prayer for Owen Meany = v v overated

Anna Karenina -started off fine but just couldn't sustain interest in the precise nature of Levin's affinity to the land or the complicated nuances of Karénin's position in the rarefied strata of Petersburg bureaucracy etc ...

Valley of The Dolls = fucking painful.

Haven't read any Picoult and don't plan to, I can just tell it's shite.

Agree r.e. Kevin, Great Gatsby & anything by Anita Brookner or Hemingway. I am however clutching Austen, Dickens, Ishiguro, Peake and Mantel protectively to my chest while glaring at the rest of you.

[halecromp]

Twilight - loads of the women on a forum I go on were raving about the books and Edward Cullen. I dont normally read that type of book but had a voucher for my birthday and bought Twilight and the second one? Forced myself to read Twilight thinking it must get better and it didnt so I gave it and the second book away

I also agree with The Lovely Bones - didnt like, relate or car about any of the characters so struggled to get to the end

[MamaWeasel]

Catcher in the Rye - nothing HAPPENS!!!!
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the way it's written is awful
Tess of the Durbervilles and Wuthering Heights - read each of them twice and still think they're awful

[themightyskim]

I loved catch 22 lol, took a while to get in to though i'll admit, Jayne austen and charlotte bronte for me cant be fussed with either

[susylou]

such a relief to find others who hate Wuthering Heights (tho I love Jane Eyre) and presumably Emma (tho I love P&P and Persuasion). Completely agree with those who are bored by Gatsby and loathe Jude and would also add boring plays by Shakespeare, including (but not limited to) King Lear.

Disliked The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, The Tin Drum, have never finished LOTR (far too long - my wrists ached and I yawned. Needed a good editor.).

[Frickasfeck]

I LOVED Cloud Atlas - I have read it 3 times. Beautifully written adn great themes. I also loved Time Travellers Wife. I cried my eyes out!!! My best friend hated both!!!!

She loved The Help - which I thought was amazingly average! I am now trying to get through Dragon Tattoo. The first part of the book is a struggle - but it is now (finally) beginning to get interesting!!!

I too hate starting a 'must read' and being disappointed!!!

[RedRubyBlue]

Anything by Anita Brookner;

Lonely middle aged woman lives in London, takes lots of walks at dusk, goes to Paris for a random reason for really so Ms Brookner can lapse into French, middle aged woman returns from Paris to London and resumes her walks at dusk.

Which Anita Brookner one was that?

Her writing makes me thinks of shades of blue and grey.

Also Jude the Obscure - are any of the characters likeable?

[Pang]

The Slap - I found the topic interesting but the writing poor, poor, poor!
Highly over rated IMO.

[FleurTing]

Absolutely hated Zadie Smiths <strong>The Autograph Man</strong> - Ive attempted to read it twice and given up each time after about 80 pages, just not my kind of book, too self-conciously clever IMO.

[FleurTing]

I loved A Suitable Boy - but I confess I (blush) skipped a few boring bits!
Hated The Great Gatsby and find Thomas Hardy tedious. Loved To Kill a Mockingbird and The Da Vinci Code. Find Jane Eyre depressing and loathe David Copperfield. Haven`t read Remains of the Day but found Never Let me Go both dull and weird

[Hannah31]

I give books 1 chapter, and if I don't like them by then I get rid. Don't have the patience to keep going past then. I suppose I miss out on lots of good stuff by doing that, but life's too short!

[Madmammy12]

The Steig Larson Trilogy.....I 'made' myself read the first one as a friend said the 2nd one was really good, suffered the 2nd one and just couldnt hack the 3rd, got to page five and said life is too short for this....and then I hear other people raving on and on about them, just not for me.....didnt like the da vinci code either, have to say though loved 'One Day' and 'We need to talk about Kevin' - Wuthering Heights and Catcher in the Rye are def my Favourites...Remains of the day total Yawn!!! But loved 'never let me go' - depends on your mood I thnk, as was said in another thread here...

[FunnyLittleFrog]

TheSecondComing

Those commenting on 'One Day' are right. If it had been written by a woman it would have been dismissed as 'chick-lit'.

But Catcher in the Rye, Wuthering Heights and Remains of the Day are among my all time favourites. I read them as a teenager and wonder if you read a 'classic' at that age you are more likely to persevere in the first place and come back to it in later years?

I never got Austen or Dickens and doubt now I ever will.

[begonyabampot]

And also Alice In Wonderland - just annoyed me really.

[begonyabampot]

Wuthering Heights - just so bleak and depressing and none of the characters were likable. Might have to try it again many years later though.

The Da Vinci Code - started promising but descended into rubbish and was very disappointing

The Lovely Bones - interesting idea but just didn't work.

Took me a year or so and several goes to read Les Miserables but cried so much and had so much heart but the ending was heartbreaking and disappointing (after everything we had been through) although possibly the only the way it could realistically end. worth wading through but not for the faint hearted.

[StopRainingPlease]

Lots of Catch 22 here - me too, after the first 20 pages the rest is just repeats of the same ad nauseam.

The Turn of the Screw - just didn't get it.

[katykoffdrop27]

To Kill a Mockingbird - everyone raves about it but I just didn't think it was "a must read" or classic. Was really disapointed. Would much rather get stuck into a good Jeffrey Archer novel (love him or hate him, he's weaves a good yarn). :)

[Mumswang]

Remains of the Day zzzzzzzzzz

[scottishmummy]

tsc,yes the tedious meticulous descriptive drone mcewan does is shite

[stigofthelump]

Catch 22, have no idea what happens as I didn't get past first chapter
Chesil beach
Fugitive pieces
Loved 'talk about kevin' and 'life of pi' though

[superjobee]

i dont read much of interest classics etc but i really wanted to enjoy catcher in the rye, unfortunately, it took me 3 goes over 5 months and is the most depressingly boring piece of poop ive ever read :( boo.

[scottishmummy]

any ian mcewan
lovely bones
jodi picoult

[Jodianna]

I could rant about 'The Curious Incident' for hours. Stupid, inaccurate, badly written book.
Love everything Toni Morrison (Beloved) has ever written.
Agree about Dickens.
The Great Gatsby and Remains of the Day are two of my favourites. Sorry!