Books you want to throw across the room

[tobee]

Over 20 years ago, on holiday I took The Chamber by John Grisham. I'd heard it had (at the time) the biggest amount for film rights ever paid. When I finished I literally threw it across the room in disgust. (Actually poolside area). It was such a load of hogwash! Now I look back and wonder I bothered to get that far.

Any books that have provoked a similar reaction in you?

agree with teh diremess of bothe The Danish Girl, and the Girl on the train- utter ,twaddle both..

But n eveworse was A man called Ove .. (was so upset when the hook came out of the ceiling , I just closed the book there and then) .

Then theres 'The Essex Serpent'.. ( i MAY give this one another go , but so far , the main character is not ringing at all true, and it seems to me that the author is writing this too much from a 21c persepective, )

I once attempted 'Remebrance of Things Past .. .. Christ... I know its supposed to be an utter classic , but I found it so hard to not fall asleep , and then when I found out that the famous 'madeleine' moment its so well known for know happened at the end of the interminal first chapter , I decided that NOBODY had ever read any further ,.
Reader: I binned it.

Oh dear, I typed that last post in such a passion of hate , the spelling went completely out of the window!!

Laska, I read the earlier book by the author of The Essex Serpent and it didn't really do it for me.

Lionel Shriver- The Post Birthday World. Pile of old shite. If you can't write a cockney accent, don't put one in the bloody book. Duckie.

How can three people on here have hated We Are all Completely Beside Ourselves so much? It's one of the best books I've ever read, and so brilliantly written! :)

Cinnamon do you mean Oliver James? Oliver Sacks is brilliant. Oliver James is a hateful, misogynist, backward arse.

Her by Harriet Lane. She is such a brilliant writer but the plot was so preposterous, it read as though an editor had put a gun to her head and forced her to write a high stakes thriller when she wanted to write a quiet, subtle novel about repressed jealousy.

Atonement by Ian McKewan.

Hate. Never hated a book so much.

Yes Margaritas. I hated Atonement. And Saturday. So much that I vowed never to read any McEwan again and never have. Waste of time, money and trees. God, he's an overrated pompous arse.

Actually I hated 'On Chesil Beach' more than Atonement and Saturday , but I still remember the brilliance of discovering McEwan all those years ago when First Love Last Rites and The Cement Garden came out yep, I am old

Many, many years ago I remember picking up Erich von Daniken's Twilight of the Gods. Somewhere around page 8 he purported to cite something in the bible, but said he wasn't quite sure if he was right and hadn't got around to checking it. So I thought "If you can't be bothered to check that what you write is accurate I can't be bothered to read it" and never opened it again.

Yes I loved the Cement Garden too.

Atonement I hated but read, then threw at the wall when I realised he had written the whole book so he could write one paragraph about authorial responsibility about 400 pages in. Self-indulgent prick.

Such a relief other people didn't like it.

A Song Of Stone. Such a shame because I love every other Iain Banks book I have read. This one was like it had been written by a different author. I can't even really remember the plot, just that it dragged interminably. I did force myself to read to the end thinking that it must get better. I just didn't get it and didn't get to know any of the characters enough to care about them. (Banks' characters are normally brilliantly written and you feel something for them even if you hate them.)

Don't even try 'The Unconsoled' by Kashuo Ishiguru.

.. so you won't be going for his new one written from the point of a foetus then Margaritas? .. I read the reviews last weekend ,(Hamlet--esque they say ) but not sure if i'll rush to get it ..(unless its 99p on Kindle one day )

Though of his recent books I did enjoy Sweet Tooth ...

I just knew there would be some McEwan hate on this thread

50 shades of gray, got turned into fire bricks,

Oh! Is it common? I didn't realise.

I am delighted.

Hurrah margaritas someone else hates the self-indulgent 'aren't I clever' shite from McEwan in Atonement! Why the fuck didn't his editors cross it out with big black marker pen? 'Ian, this is bollocks, we're not publishing it unless you drop this twaddle at the end here'.

Also Atonement is basically nicked from The Go-Between. Agree McEwan is overrated.

Oh bugger. I'm half way through A Little Life. I'm hating it but feel I have committed to it now.
Did anyone like it?

Oh yes I HATED Atonement too! My father gave it to me to read as he said it was really good - turns out he was playing a prank as he'd wasted his time reading it The only reason I finished the damn thing was because I trusted his judgement, I've never forgiven him! Been staying clear of McEwan ever since.

The Girl on the Train was awful too, I have given up reading these so-called thrillers now. Am avoiding anything described as 'the next Gone Girl' and can't wait until 'domestic noir' has disappeared as a fad genre.

A friend and I have a pact that one day we will sit at a table with a bottle of vodka and she'll read Atonement and I'll read The Corrections, which she hated as much as I hated Atonement.

That is a cruel trick your father played Merricats

I really liked We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, thought The Miniaturist was nicely written but the plot was full of holes.

My worst book ever was Anything for Her by Jack Jordan. I would have thrown it across the room but it's an ebook so would have done irreparable damage to my Kindle. It is utterly appalling: unbelievable plot, unbelievable and deeply unpleasant characters, dreadful writing and pacing, incredibly repetitive...I cannot understand why it has so many five star reviews on Amazon. I don't know what else these reviewers have ever read in their lives to think this book is good.

I also hated What Dreams May Come but at least the writing was OK, it was the plot that was awful and the banality of how heaven was portrayed.

Speaking of Kazuo Ishiguro, his latest the Buried Giant is NOT good, double annoying as I had three books on holiday and that was one of them. I ploughed on hoping i would have a light bulb moment but it never happened. I left it in the room when we left so someone else could be disappointed.

happy - I had wiped the memory of having read The Buried Giant. I absolutely hated it. Just awful.

Not sure I have ever liked anything by Kazuo Ishiguro. Don't even try now.

Also hated Attonment - didn't throw it anywhere just didn't bother finishing it.