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Original poster

What books could you not finish?

281 replies

almondfinger · 15/08/2018 21:17

I am having the most miserable of summer reads.

Do not say we have nothing - FFS, I persevered and it got a bit better and then reverted to tedious. Have way in I had to put it down.

Then I picked up A brief history of 7 killings - Every time I pick it up I fall asleep. The patois is difficult but when it gets to the CIA agents told in English I cant read that either. So far their have been so many killings I have lost count and it's far from brief.

I had to go out yesterday and buy some new books to look forward to. Tell me some of the books you couldn't be arsed with so I can avoid.

OP posts:
mum2jakie · 26/01/2019 19:03

Just about to ditch Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers. I'd heard she was a similar writer to Agatha Christie but the full plot and constant phonetic Scottish dialect is too much for me. Not sure if there are better introductions to her work?

Coffeepot01 · 30/01/2019 16:34

I could not finish Elizabeth is Missing, twice I renewed from the library as we have for a book club selection but I can't read any longer. Life is too short and there are too many books out there.

Ohms11 · 31/01/2019 07:22

Crime and Punishment. I get confused about who's who, get bored and give up. I have the same problem with other Russian classics, like Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 31/01/2019 19:46

I bought the Woman at the Window last week. Only managed 22 pages.

LadyPeterWimsey · 31/01/2019 19:55

@mum2jakie

You picked the very hardest Dorothy L Sayers to start with - even big fans like me find it the least accessible. It's only really fun if you like those very complicated detailed detective novels.

If you want to try again - and please, please do - I usually suggest that people start with The Nine Tailors, which is set in the Fens and has a exciting plot, fun characters, and a great sense of place. It's a good introduction to Lord Peter Wimsey and is a stand-alone novel. If you like that, then you either start the Wimsey novels from the beginning with Whose Body or you can start on the Wimsey/Vane four book sequence: Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon. Gaudy Night is probably my Desert Island read.

mum2jakie · 01/02/2019 21:49

@LadyPeterWimsey

Thanks for the pointers. I'll see what I can pick up in my local library when I return this one! Even my beloved Agatha Christie has written some stinkers! (Postern of Fate? Awful!)

brizzledrizzle · 01/02/2019 21:51

I could not finish Elizabeth is Missing

Same, dreadful book. Also Eleanor Oliphant, Gone Girl and the Girl on the train.

WaterBird · 04/02/2019 03:10

I'm very sad to say this, because I like most of her other books, but Susan Lewis's A Class Apart. I couldn't relate to the four main characters, who were all so wrapped up in their own mess that it was a wonder any one of them could be there for one another.

SpiritedLondon · 13/02/2019 20:05

There are loads of books I haven’t finished Dracula Elizabeth is Missing which I feel I read at the wrong time ( rather than being bad) and I just lost interest in them. However the stand out title for me was Wolf Hall which I actively hated with a passion.

SpiritedLondon · 13/02/2019 20:05

Oops missed a comma there!

Charley50 · 13/02/2019 20:38

😂 I quite like the sound of Dracula Elizabeth goes Missing.

SpiritedLondon · 14/02/2019 14:27

I quite like the sound of Dracula Elizabeth goes Missing

Vampire with dementia? 🤔 Could be something in it! Grin

Robin2323 · 15/02/2019 20:39

50 shades- yawn
Tale of two cities- fantastic writing just couldn't get past page 1 :)
The last book of mocking Bird trilogy- too sad (I h

Robin2323 · 15/02/2019 20:39

Post too soon- I had watched the third film by then though.

YouBumder · 24/02/2019 14:53

11/22/63. So longwinded, it made me lose the will to live.

YouBumder · 24/02/2019 14:54

Oh and The Girl with all the Gifts. Grim.

FissionChip5 · 24/02/2019 14:57

Crime and punishment. It was so incredibly boring.

Charley50 · 24/02/2019 16:01

@YouBumder - I hated the Girl with all the Gifts too. The setting was just so oppressive and depressing. Same author write another book I couldn't finish - about a woman in a prison hospital who couldn't remember what she'd done.

Grumpbum123 · 24/02/2019 16:05

The colour of Bea Larkharms murder

MealyPotatoes · 01/03/2019 07:11

Very many. I seem to give up on books easily these days.

CinammonPorridge · 02/03/2019 22:40

Life after life on Audible.

Ivy44 · 02/03/2019 22:48

The Grapes of Wrath. Hoping it gets made into a film soon.

BiscuitMachine · 02/03/2019 22:54

Les Miserables. I tried really, really hard to get through it, but there are just too many long, involved digressions. I hate giving up though!

Novae · 05/03/2019 01:36

Wolf Hall. Hated it.

drigon · 05/03/2019 02:14

Struggling through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I read about two thirds of it some time ago and like the author's style but I just don't find superheroes interesting! May plough on a bit more! I loved the early sections especially the Golem bit, though!