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.

[PatriciaHolm]

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. One of the few books I couldn't bring myself to finish; life is just too short for crap books...

[chocolateyclur]

Lovely bloody Bones. Just didn't get it.

I was also disappointed with the Time Travellers Wife - the favourite novel of a friend who has recommended me so many wonderful books. It was just...dull.

[Spatz]

Also Captain Corelli - never been so annoyed by a book
Loved Wolf Hall, though

[CJCregg]

One Day, yes, yes! Totally overhyped, thoroughly disappointing.

Lord of the Rings - fuck off, I don't give a shit about hobbits and the like.

Thought Wolf Hall was wonderful, though, and can't understand the Jane Austen haters.

[Galaxymum]

Beloved - this was my worst read during one brilliant literature module at uni. The boredom of the book still haunts me!

Dickens - have tried....and tried.....and tried....and tried....and NEVER finished one Dickens. They bore me rigid.

Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi and The Shipping News, The Historian - aaargh all so dreary. Hated them.

I now take the good advice of my mum - life is too short to spend on books you feel you must read, and I give them a go but give up if I'm not enjoying a book. I find now I read much more - and more widely by giving it a go knowing I don't need to finish it!

[sofadweller]

Lord of the Rings. I got to page 20, then gave up and gave it to Oxfam

[LaWeasel]

The Mill On the Floss - just so breathtakingly dull. Only classic I have never finished.

Wuthering Heights - A classic it took me 3 years to finish because I got so fed up of the endless bloody monologues in the middle. How does a quite exciting and relatively short story manage to have huge passages which are completely uninteresting?

[Abcinthia]

I agree with Wolf Hall. I read it all and thought some passages were well written and interesting but the vast majority of the book bored me to tears.

[Columbia999]

I absolutely love Catch-22, have read it loads of times!
Loved the Hobbit, but detested Lord of the Rings. I managed about a quarter of an inch before flinging it across the room in total boredom.
Da Vinci Code, I tossed that back to the charity shop after two pages.
Does My Bum Look Big in This by Arabella Weir. Smug and repetitive writing, stupid names given to people e.g Attractive New Andy, and used throughout the book. Main character's self esteem is so low, she acts like a complete arse, to the extent that it's a miracle she has any friends or employment.
Lovely Bones - yawn.
Anything by Wendy Holden, utter shite and not funny at all.

[IamtheSnorkMaiden]

I recently read The Great Gatsby for the first time and thought it was a big pile of poo. I tried to remember the fact that it was written during the time of prohibition before the Wall Street Crash etc and could appreciate that F Scott Fitzgerald had written something quite astute but it didn't undo the fact that it was as dull as ditchwater.

[IamtheSnorkMaiden]

I also hate LOTR...Tom Bombadil's appearance made me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Ringading a dillo.

[IamtheSnorkMaiden]

I remembered another - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Truly the most boring and pointless book written by anyone anywhere ever.

[hackneybird]

I have just given up on Middlemarch, for the third time. And have also just abandoned The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch.

I adored The Great Gatsby and One Day, Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22. And Wolf Hall, loved that.

Hated Time Traveller's Wife. Smug.

[susiedaisy]

Da vinci code

One Day

Anything by Dawn French

Lord of the rings

Lovely Bones

Julie Walters Bio, so dull she had nothing to say really!

[KaraToytown]

I have had Lord of The Rings in my bedside cabinet for 7 years, one day I might start reading it again.

Thought Time Traveller's Wife was ick.

Didn't like The Lovely Bones either.

Am sure Jane Austin is tedious. Jane Austen, however, is fab.

[SecretSpi]

"The Other Hand" by Chris Cleave.
"A week in December" by Sebastian Faulkes
"On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwan

[CrystalQueen]

I love Lord of the Rings, Cloud Atlas, and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (although the last was slightly spoiled by watching the terrible film with Penelope Cruz). I can recommend just skipping all the songs in LotR though, can get a bit tedious. In fact I discovered a whole section fairly recently that apparently I just skipped past on the previous 20 times I had read it.

However I cannot read Catch 22, The Catcher in the Rye or anything by Dickens, having tried on many occasions (not quite given up on Dickens since they are all free on the Kindle).

[Gemjar]

The Twilight books - teenage emo shite
Pratchett - this actually makes me a bit :( as a lot of my friends love his books, but for some reason I just can't get into them
Jane Austen - very dull and long winded

[PedigreeChump]

I second We Need to Talk About Kevin

It is utter drivel, I am on page 198 and it has taken MONTHS to get there. I have to keep going and finish it or I will be thrown out of my book group. I thought I had gone a bit soft in the head but I went onto Amazon and read the (few) reviews giving it 1 and 2 stars and it was the most wonderful feeling of kinship - I wasn't alone!

[PelvicFloorLikeAGringottsSafe]

I didn't finish: The Lord of the Rings I still wonder if I should have another go at it.

I did finish but didn't really see the point of: One Day, On Chesil Beach, Da Vinci Code, Jane Eyre.

I loved Wolf Hall and Catch-22 though.

[TheWalrusAwakes]

Dickens - I have had a bookmark half way through David Copperfield for nine years...

I also absolutely love Catch-22, but I can see why other people don't!

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Most Ian McEwan but particularly Solar and On Chesil 'When's it going to start?' Beach.
Harry Potter books.
Fitzgerald.
Brideshead Revisited.
Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Oh, also Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger (sp?).

[ZZZenAgain]

Hemingway
Pinter

and has someone has so rightly said To the Lighthouse (V. Woolf). Couldn't be bothered to finish it so if it got better, I'd be interested to hear it

[munstersmum]

The Childrens Book by AS Byatt - how did it win a prize?
Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Agree Lord of the Rings but rated Talk about Kevin.