What is the most tedious book you have ever read?

[Figmentofmyimagination]

I am going out on a limb here for my first thread - I am struggling through The Well of Loneliness by Radcliffe hall. Aargh. I read it out of "historical interest" because I was interested by her boldness and by the obscenity trial etc but bloody hell she should have got herself an editor. The writing is truly dire. I am not sure I am actually going to make it to the end.

The Life and Times of Tristan Shandy. University set text. Satire. Deeply tedious.

Otherwise I don't read boring books, I chuck them to one side asap and move on.

I struggle with Hardy, Dickens, Lawrence. I sometimes think I should give them another shot now I'm older, but I can't really be bothered.

I hated Shantaram and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Pretentious tosh.

Fizzycola I'm with you on Tristan Shandy.
Nearly as bad as Moby Dick.

The Tenderness of Wolves. First quarter of the book was great, but then there were so many characters and other plots and it lost me entirely.

Haha. I never tried Moby Dick.

How funny, I was utterly gripped by We Need to talk about Kevin.

I also liked The Tenderness of Wolves...

I forgot to mention how tedious NW by Zadie Smith was, just terrible.

Someone has already mention The Old Man and the Sea up thread. This I remember as being utterly utterly dull as man is pulled across the sea by big fish caught on fishing line.

I haven't read the Goldfinch yet and am a bit reluctant as I hated The Little Friend having loved The Secret History.
Gave up half way through Lord of the Rings. Endless descriptions of who was son of who not helping.

On the other hand I like both Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House and have read them more than once.

Classics: Villette by Charlotte Brontë; To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Wanted to throw them at the wall! Gave up on Wolf Hall. Hated Dragon Tattoo - wasn't about her at all. Original title is Men Who Hate Women - explains the misogyny! Like some well-written romantic fiction as an escape; much of it is tosh eg Cecilia Ahern & Jill Mansell. Ahern's PS I love you - crap- terrible grammar & sentence structure. Mansell's writing is trite & boring! Haven't even tried 50 Shades on principle. Picked it up in the library & laughed out loud at one of the rude bits! Love this thread. Seen so many "It's not just me "moments!

Lionel Shriver's "Double Fault." Potentially an interesting book but so fucking boring. She's a dreadful writer. Mind you, when you hear interviews with her, all is explained.

Ladydepp - also loved Tenderness of Wolves

Don't think I'll bother with The Goldfinch then ??

Lionel Shriver wasn't a good writer in We Need To Talk About Kevin; it was the subject matter that carried her through. The idea behind Double Fault was good, I thought, but the way she wrote was just so boring. She is boring, too, when she's interviewed. Boring and narcissistic, I think.

I must be really strange, I love Middlemarch (although I prefer The Mill on the Floss) but Moby Dick is amazing, love it and read it yearly! However I loathe Dickens!

I usually finish books even if they are shite, but I completely gave up on The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt and Gone Girl. All were dull and boring. In the first two, absolutely nothing happened, even after about 300 pages.

We Need to Talk about Kevin is my 2nd most hated book. I couldn't get through it. Its entirely expositional - no live action - and its artless. It maybe page turning pulp for some readers, but I think its a load of poop.

Disliked Never Let Me Go but loved Remains of the Day. Tried Cloud Atlas twice but never got further than the part where some kind of strange language took over. Time Travellers Wife bored me stupid. Loved War and Peace with a passion. Read it as a teenager when I was in love with Peter Basoukov! Read it again recently and still loved it. You don't have to be in a hurry with Tolstoy because he wasn't. He will stop in mid story to give you a lecture on war or take you on a hunting trip which he loved. His books are really about himself and all his self examinations and recriminations.

I loved The Well of Loneliness, I read it at university.

The Name of The Rose was a real struggle for me. Apparently, reading it is supposed to be a penance of sorts. It was certainly one that I couldn't endure!

50 shades of grew here too. I had to see what all the fuss was about. Awful writing. I gave up at the end of the second book
and didn't even bother attempting to read the third.

Postchildrenpregranny I'm 30 this year and I'm not even going to attempt that one.

No Muddha, it was on here but it huffed off because someone ate some chicken.

Kafka's The Trial
The Hobbit
If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
100 Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
Madame Bovary
A Place of Greater Safety, mostly the second half

I found We Need to Talk about Kevin really gripping, I couldn't wait to see what happened. And I loved The Historian too. And I'm part way through The Goldfinch and whilst I think it could definitely be condensed into fewer words, I'm keen to find out what will happen.

Am I going to be thrown off this thread?

I'm really struggling with 'The Ice Twins' just now - anyone else?

White Teeth by Zadie Smith..... I just hated it, and it's one of the few books I've been unable to finish.

Usually, even if I don't enjoy a book, I still read it to the end - just so I know what happens I suppose, but with that one, I didn't even care!