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Original poster

What is the most tedious book you have ever read?

368 replies

Figmentofmyimagination · 26/02/2015 20:12

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.

OP posts:
anothercantthinkofanothername · 26/02/2015 22:37

Goldfinch.

And Under the Greenwood Tree, but that was when I was 13 and we read it in class so maybe I should give it another try...

Sgtmajormummy · 26/02/2015 22:38

Would you keep a promise to your dying husband if you knew he was wrong? Could you forgive your wife if she wilfully went riding and lost your first child? Would you let your blackmailer die if he was left in your care and nobody would find out? Could you respect yourself if you never lived up to your youthful promise?
Just a few themes from Middlemarch which are just as thrilling as any modern novel. You just have to wade through the first 300 pages to get to them. Who cares about career clergymen any more?

LandUnderWave · 26/02/2015 22:39

Oh I loved the book thief though - to the point of hysterical sobbing for approx last 40 pages Blush

Pancakeflipper · 26/02/2015 22:40

Something by Nadine Gordimer. Cannot even recall the title. If it hadn't have been for bloody up its own arse book club I would have given up by chapter 3.

It took our book club 10 weeks to get through it when usually we could churn out reading a book a week.

duchesse · 26/02/2015 22:41

Labyrinth by Kate Moss. Utter crap. Was recommended to me. Found it appalling.

Anything by Dan Fecking Brown.

In fact virtually anything written in the last 10 years.

LandUnderWave · 26/02/2015 22:42

Sgtmajrmummy you have made me want to read middlemarch again Grin

Annbag · 26/02/2015 22:43

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at the poster's request.

BOFster · 26/02/2015 22:43

I really liked most of these Grin. I have never got along with Catch 22.

Sgtmajormummy · 26/02/2015 22:44

Too many "just"s, sorry! My vote goes to "Fatty O'Leary...", also because it was the first book I got on Kindle and I couldn't be doing with it!

CQ · 26/02/2015 22:44

Stoner

Pennies · 26/02/2015 22:45

Another vote for Wolf Hall. Utter tedium.

Sgtmajormummy · 26/02/2015 22:48
Grin
funnyossity · 26/02/2015 22:51

I did think about trying Stoner...

FlatCapAndNoKnickers · 26/02/2015 22:52

And Midnight's Children. Five million pages of talking about snot.

readyforno2 · 26/02/2015 22:54

Room
Can't even remember who the author. Kept hoping something would happen. It didn't.

marceline · 26/02/2015 23:02

Catch-22. And On Beauty by Zadie Smith.

Also strangely The Luminaries. I really tried with that one, but gave up half way. Life is too short.

TwinkleThis · 26/02/2015 23:04

One Hundred Years of Let's Call Everyone José, Arcadio, or Aureliano Bloody Solitude.

Feck me, Gabriel.

Quangle · 26/02/2015 23:11

Disappointed by Middlemarch. How can that be the best book in the English language? It was an annoying slog and whatshername was a pain in the backside.

Agree with wordfactory about Cold Comfort Farm - I really wanted to be the sort of person who adored it. But I wasn't.

But most of all The Hare with the Amber Eyes. Please read my extensive journals documenting my family's collection of dull artefacts and my reflections on what this all means and how I express this through the medium of pottery...Honestly the most tedious book ever - fact.

I did enjoy the Well of Loneliness though. Was a teenager when I read it so perhaps more credulous and tolerant of unnecessary nonsense And loved Wolf Hall.

Bugsylugs · 26/02/2015 23:14

On the road

FishWithABicycle · 26/02/2015 23:15

Another vote for Wolf Hall. Mindbogglingly tedious.

But people who have nominated Cloud Atlas or the Time Traveller's Wife are wrong. That is all.

funnyossity · 26/02/2015 23:32

Some of the books mentioned here I absolutely loved as a teen but I do wonder what I'd make of them now. Midnight's Children and One Hundred Years of Solitude come to mind and also The Company of Wolves.

mmack · 26/02/2015 23:46

I wouldn't usually finish a book I thought was boring so that makes Twilight by far the most tedious book I ever finished. I read it to see if it was suitable for my daughter. I also had to read Hard Times for school and hated it. The last book I started and gave up on was the Joanna Trollope version of Sense and Sensibility. I should really have known better that to even start it.

funnyossity · 26/02/2015 23:48

Books read for children brings up the terrible memories of Thomas the Tank Engine; the worst ever...

XLIX · 26/02/2015 23:52

Infinite Jest

I tried, in infinite ways..I even joined the support grop. I was so so sad, as I loved David Foster Wallace. I just could not get through it.

XLIX · 26/02/2015 23:52

group