i am beginning to seriously resent books that i read and then they are shit

[grumpypants]

i accept i am an unpublished writer etc, and therefore a bit of anyone published, but just lost two nights of my life to The Way We Were and it is pure, drivelly, cliched drivelly drivel. How the hell does this stuff make it to the shelves?

The finkler question is utter SHITE!
I lOVED cloud atlas, birdsong (anything by him really), the hare with amber eyes (wonderful book), the mitford sisters, the glass room

Hated the book thief, gave up on The Historian, hated the time travellers wife, anything by jodi picoult

Thank god someone else has mentioned The Forgotten Garden. Utter cliched shite.

i am currently wading thro a jodie picolut (harvesting the heart) which appears to be an early book of hers, published now. it is total dross.

Should I be glad that I've never heard of Jodi Picoult?

And am I the only one who is slightly bothered by the title, given that OP is an "unpublished writer" complaining about published ones? Or is this what editors are for?

cote - just read my title again - what have i put that's wrong? is it too much like sour grapes? sorry.

ps yes definitely don't worry yourself too much about lack of familiarity with jodi picoult

I've given up on a heap of books. Life's too short to force yourself to read. Gave up on The White Queen by Philippa Gregory and not sure I'll finish The Other Boleyn Girl BUT I loved The Other Queen. Loved The Fellowship of the Ring but got tired with the second one. Keep meaning to come back to it, but that was five years ago!

I am glad that I persevered with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. There was a thread about it last year when I started it. Someone on it encouraged us to persevere and I was so glad I didn't give up. I loved the second book even more. I've skimmed through some of the more tedious and detailed bits of the third one, otherwise I'm enjoying it.

I hate almost all th books mentioned on this thread.

Could we turn it around, and also add some books we love, so we get ideas of what to READ as well as what to avoid?

light reads I enjoy are Marian Keyes, Maeve Binchy, Rosamund Pilcher, (some) Joanna Trollope, Mary Wesley

worthy reads: Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, Ann Tyler, Anita Brookner, Elizabeth Jane Howard...

for starters

ok, i love I capture the Castle; Every Last One and a Brief history of the Dead. OTOH, I have just put the following, unloved, unwanted and unfinished, on the charity shop pile:

The Finkler Question; A Visit from the Goon Squad; Harvesting the Heart

I want to add The English German Girl. The change in tenses from present to past to present is doing my head in. It is such a dire book considerig the history it is based on. There are events which have no consequences and seem to have no reason at all (like Rosa going off with the old maid during KrystalNacht (excuse spelling).

I was really disappointed with The House at riverton and gave up. That was dreary.

Jane Austen
Stephen King
Evelyn Waugh

All of the above have written at least four books that I can return to again and again.

Yes to Steinbeck, although The Grapes Of Wrath was so devestating that I don't think I will ever be able to read it again.

Lolita (Nabokov)
The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax (Liz Jensen)
This Thing Of Darkness (Harry Thompson)

Three books that I would totally recommend to anybody.